I have always enjoyed doing event photography, but have never been particularly satisfied with the results have not been as strong as I would have wanted. I’ve spent some time considering what can be done to improve the overall look of the image.
The problem is difficult and in many cases impossible to handle during shooting. Events can be very busy and crowded and the photographer usually cannot move to a better shooting position because there really isn’t any room to move. A better shooting position may exist but there is likely someone else there already or it is in an area that is off limits to members of the general public,
The other main issue is that the background at events is often distracting. Shooting with a wide open aperture can help soften and blur these areas of the image, but areas that are bright or high contrast will still stand out and can be visually distracting. Signs or anything with writing on it will quickly grab the viewer’s attention.
To a great extent, cropping the image and burning down the background works wonders. It the photograph is to be used in photojournalism, that is just about the only thing one can do. Fortunately, I generally work in a genre that is often referred to as “interpretive documentary” a can go a touch further and use more aggressive approaches.
