How I Shoot A Large Event
by William Lulow
Whenever there is a large event, corporate meeting or a location to use to capture many people in attendance, I use multiple, portable flash units. I usually mount one on the camera and two or more other flash units on light stands and placed strategically in the room, all connected by radio receivers. The units below I have found to be the most reliable and easiest to use.
Using three lights allows me to have a mainlight on the camera which is always illuminating what I am actually aiming at, and the two other lights just provide additional background lighting or accent lights.
Top photo is the transceiver mounted on the camera with a bounce card. I prefer the bounce card to using the ceiling for a couple of reasons:
- Ceilings are often too high and therefore require more exposure
- Ceilings are often not really pure white and therefore could alter the color
- Bounce cards will put the light just where it is needed
Bottom photo contains the transceiver with two of the radio slaves I use to trigger my external flash units with a handy carry case. Now you will also need a couple of cables to connect the radios to your actual portable flash units. (You can ask the manufacturer which ones you need).
The main transmitter unit will fire the on-camera flash AND trigger all the radio slaves that in turn, fire the other flash units.
The unit on the camera is used as a main light and most of the time I use it in bounce mode, usually with a diffusion card. The bounce set up also serves to keep the mainlight about one f/stop less than the accents, thereby rendering them white in the images. The accent lights (halo lights or edge lights depending on the camera position), provide much needed extra light for the room.
I prefer this setup rather than to bounce the main, camera light off of a ceiling because:
- Bouncing light off of a high ceiling requires more power from the flash. This will drain the batteries more rapidly.
- Bouncing light off of a high ceiling requires more light in general. Therefore, a higher ISO might need to be used.
- Bounce light is generally much softer than direct flash, but ceilings or walls might give off additional unwanted color.
Keeping one flash attached to the camera ensures that wherever I move in the room, my subject will be lit correctly. The other external flash units can provide extra light for the background so that the room itself is fairly well lit. Or, they can be used, as I have indicated, as accent lights. The radio slaves can be easily turned off or on depending on how much light is needed in the room. Pocket Wizard makes a unit that can control all of the radios connected to external flash units from the on-camera transmitter.
With all of this being said, there are times when I try to shoot without any flash at all. If the room is light enough, I will sometimes bump up my ISO setting and shoot with available light. Most of the time, though, I find that additional lights are necessary.
So, with a minimum of equipment, I can cover a large event fairly easily. It’s a three-light setup which provides some accents which make everything “pop” and give the shots an extra dimension of studio-quality light.
This was my three-light setup for a fashion show:
You can see the position of the two accent lights and the third, of course was on the camera.
An example:
If you use a method such as this, you will come away with much more interesting coverage images of whatever event you might be shooting. It is one way that I use to bring my studio lighting expertise to my coverage of any event.
