Photographing Events Without Flash

Photographing Events Without Flash

by William Lulow

As a trained lighting expert, whenever I make images, I’m always aware of the lighting. Whenever I shoot events, I’m interested in capturing people’s expressions while they are doing what they do. It could be dancing, talking, looking at the camera or simply standing in groups. I’m interested in making the lighting as creative as possible while at the same time, showcasing the venue and the attendees. 

I am also aware that the lighting should look “natural.” By this I mean in documenting the activities of an event, there should be no harsh shadows and the lighting needs to be designed to record all the activities and what attendees are doing. There is always a feeling of capturing “snapshots” if there is no artificial lighting and therefore no highlights. But, I have decided to do an event with no artificial light as a kind of test case. 

Here are a few examples of an event I shot with no additional lighting:

All these images were shot with my Canon R7, 16mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 4000, f/4.5 @1/125th of a second. These settings were acceptable to capture pictures like this during the event. To my trained eye, they are fine snapshots using available lighting,

 The details are acceptable and these made fine 4×6″ enlargements. Some of the events I have photographed in the past included images like these:

I think there are times when you really must use a flash. If the images will need to be reproduced larger than 8×10″ for example, those made with extremely high ISO settings might not be usable even though sensors are much better than they used to be.

. If the client wishes to make enlargements from event shoots for use on posters or billboards, say, the images from available light might be too grainy (have too much digital noise). These images were shot with flash. My event setup with lights looks something like this:

I place two lights in the room, usually on opposites sides, then I have one light on the camera. The trick is to be able to stand with the camera in a spot that hides the off-camera lights. They can be used to create some interesting highlights and to light up the whole room, including background, when necessary. Here is another image made with this setup:

The idea is to create more interesting lightings than just the snapshots above. The light on-camera will always light the subjects, but the other lights, if strategically placed will provide some interesting highlights. Also, when using strobes, the ISO settings can be more normal (around 100-400). I have even been able to shoot with an ISO of 800 which would allow lens apertures of around f/8 or so and shutter speeds of around 1/160th of a second which will stop most movement. Again, the higher ISO settings will yield greater depth-of-field in the pictures making them much clearer. Also, as mentioned, images made with lower ISO settings will reproduce better. 

I have photographed events both ways; with ambient light and artificial light. As I am basically a studio portrait photographer, trained in how to use artificial light effectively, I prefer it to natural light, because I can control it better. But I am cognizant of the advances camera manufacturers have made with the quality of the electronic sensors available today. The clarity achievable with extremely high ISO settings are truly amazing. It’s something we could never do with film. That’s why most wedding photographers who shot with film had to know how to use flash and often shot events with two or three assistants, each assigned to a light they would carry. I did several weddings like this and always had one assistant aim her light at the background so that it wouldn’t always be black. I once even did a garden party outdoors, at night with a three-light setup. Two lights lit the background and the one on camera lit the subjects:

This kind of setup lets the photographer turn the light on camera on or off for more interesting lightings like this:

Here, the light on the camera was turned off creating shadows in the foreground that highlighted the main action. 

Sometimes, the budget would not allow the hiring of assistants. An event like this probably couldn’t be photographed successfully without artificial light. 

Here are a few more shots at this recent event made with ambient, natural light with an ISO setting of 4000:

One more caveat: when you shoot with ambient light, it’s important to either leave the camera on AWB (Automatic White Balance) or dial in the proper Kelvin Scale setting for the lighting that’s in the place you will be shooting. But again, give thought to shooting without flash using extreme ISO settings, especially if no really big enlargements are needed.