How To Take And Edit Group Photos At An Event Such As A Club Meeting Or Wedding

Problem
Your three main problems, er, nine main problems, make that eleven, are:
1 Timing
2 Getting near enough to take photos
3 Getting good poses - interesting pictures
4 Lighting and Angles
5 Permission to photograph places, events and people
6 People who don't want to be on Facebook or the internet
7 Remembering names for captions
8 Getting credit for your photos

9 People online who don't switch on their camera
10 Privacy of identity

11 Revealing that few of you attended

1 Arrive Early
You want a nearby parking place so you are not taking heavy bags a long distance.

You want the venue looking pristine before people arrive and obscure features or stand with their back to you or making funny faces, running about creating blur.

You need time to establish goodwill.  Get a seat near the front or side, or a place in the aisle (without obstructing fire exits and doors).

Take photos of VIPs because they will be surrounded by well-wishers later

Getting Near
If you have a zoom lens and tripod, arrive early, ask where the chairperson or president will be standing or sitting on stage so you can choose where to position yourself. You can move freestanding chairs to get in a better position.

2 Early Photos
Take an early photo, ideally of somebody standing on stage and sitting in the audience, preferably a VIP, failing that any willing bystander. This will show you if the area is visible.

You will notice any annoying obstructions such as trailing wires, or stacked chairs.  Advertisements for other events (which can be removed during your event and replaced), religious messages in a hall attached to a religious building, distracting children's drawings, or fire hydrants. You might wish to move so as to focus on the centre of the stage.

Also notice chairs vacated by the president and left empty with papers, bags in the aisle or on chairs.

If the front row is empty, I ask members of the audience to move forward.

Lights
If you have not enough light, you could turn on some lights.

If you have too much light, and you get glare from a window behind the stage, or people turned into black silhouettes against a white background, move to one side, or get separate photos of people standing with certificates at the other side of the hall.

Smiling Before And After
Take contestants before the event in case they leave at the half-way interval. They may also be smiling, confident, standing upright at the start. This will be the flattering photo to show, rather than one of them looking glum or slumped after they learn they did not win first place.

Conversely, you might find that your winner looked anxious before the contest, but jubilant afterwards.

You might think to ask the losers to congratulate the winners. Also tell the winners to tell the losers that they gave great speeches (or painted great paintings or made tasty and amusing cakes - whatever the event). You might also add your own praises to the 'losers'. You can then photograph all the participants together looking happy.

Photo Editing
To save time, spin through all your photos and delete blanks and accidents on both the original mobile phone or camera and any editing device with a larger screen.

You might immediately select one, two, three of the best photos to send immediately to your website or the local newspaper. This will help you catch deadlines.

If the event is a family and friends affair, such as a wedding, anniversary or reunion, you can share with family members before they go home.

Save any programme or agenda of the event and tick or star the people you have photographed.

Some photographers, on an event shoot, list every photo taken in a notebook. They have columns with the photo number, the event number, the names of the people in the photo, the place, time of day, correct title.

Numbering storing and indexing prints
I visited the home of the head of a New Zealand photographic society. He had all his photos stacked on shelves in shoe boxes going back several decades. Every photo was stored numerically by date order. He had books of indexes by subject, so he could find a waterfall, or local shop owner, or boat race, in different years.

Disasters
Many people get cross about photos of disasters. However, you may be doing the victims a favour if your photo can identify who is at fault and help a victim claim compensation, or if they were accused of wrongdoing, prove they were not guilty.

Happy Events
Even if there's an official photographer, your extra photos may be welcome. The official photographer might take mainly the VIP family. You might take the aunt in the corner, the boss who arrived late, the dog, or the dessert. If there's a dispute with a photographer, or a disaster with the photographer's equipment, your photos could be a handy backup. Even if the bride is happy to pay for the large photos, you might have some small ones for yourself and guests with a lower budget.

In the event that the official photos are lost during house moves, it can be handy to have duplicates of the official and unofficial photos.

Historic Family Photos
Duplicate wedding photos kept by others are useful at the time - and years later.

I went to the 80th birthday party of an elderly great-aunt. Her nephew, who I hardly knew showed me a lot of photos of people I didn't know. Then he produced a wartime (WWII) wedding photo and said, "I don't know who these people are. Do you know them?"

I gasped, "That's my parents - their wedding photo! In World War Two. Before I was born. I don't have that photo."

My distant relative didn't know the people, or even that it was a wedding photo.

I knew. "It's their wedding. I can tell by my father's clothes and the flower."

"But she's not wearing white."

Wartime Wedding Story From A Photo
"They are both wearing hats, and my father is wearing a top hat, and they both have a flower. It's not her first wedding, but her second wedding, so white would not have been considered suitable. Her first husband died in a plane shot down at El Alamein. She married my father towards the end of the war, when there was clothes rationing. Some brides had white dresses made out of parachute silk from used parachutes. She wouldn't have wanted that, even if she could have afforded it, because any reminder of planes would have been too upsetting. So she's wearing a sensible suit in dark material which she could use again."

"Would you like the photo?" He handed it to me. I was so happy. Thank you to the photographer who printed so many duplicates, to the family who kept them, to the descendant who was able to give it to me.

Making Friends With Official Photographers
Make friends with the photographer. The photographer is often ignored and avoided. They might be glad of a chance to talk, or have a request. You can give each other names of the VIPs, work out timing, position yourselves to not get in each other's way,

At a presentation of awards find out if the event organisers have asked you not to use flash, and how to get around restrictions.

Make Friends With Event Organisers
There may be a sign saying no photography. That might mean you cannot photograph the statues and ornaments in a religious or historic building because the venue sells their own photos. They might be or afraid of photographers acting on behalf of burglars. However, the organisers might be happy for you to take photos of people at the event.

Maybe the historic statue is OK to photograph but not the company logo which is a trademark. On the other hand, you might be forbidden to photograph the valuable painting on the wall behind you, but the organisers might be delighted to have publicity for their logo, their event, or flyers for their future events.

Conversely, the organisers may have an exclusive arrangement with a photographic society to take and sell photos of VIPs at the event, but you may be free to photograph the outside and inside of the building and your own family in the building, or on their own with certificates in a corner.

You might also be allowed to take photos before the event, of the building and the audience, or during the interval, or upstairs at the reception, or of a bride and ring after the wedding ceremony.

Organising Posing and Photos
You can brief the chairperson to ask recipients of certificates to turn to face the audience, not stand talking with their back to the audience.

The chairperson can also announce in advance: "I'm going to ask everybody to come up, one by one, and stay on stage for a group photo."

I ask people to keep their hands still. I also ask, everybody face the front. I also say: One, two, three.

Another useful message is:
Please don't take photos during the singing. The choir will pose for photos in a big group at the end, and individually during the interval.

Editing
You can either go through each photo and correct every aspect of that photo. Then mark which photo is best.

Or select the best photos and edit only the best ones.

Or edit all photos for brightness, or automatic enhancement, or vertical alignment, or cut out empty foreground, crop to enlarge the people.

Selfies
Remember to take yourself at an event. You can take a selfie, or ask another person to photograph you. This is useful for your cv, your business, your blog, your family and friends, or as a record of everybody at the event.

Captions
I like to caption all photos the evening of the day I took them with the aid of my event agenda, on the back of which I write the spelling of names and nicknames. Sometimes a long name is on the agenda but Stephen Michael Horphin prefers to be captioned with the name everybody knows, Steve or a jokey nickname or caption, 'Speedy' Steve.

It's lovely afterwards to be told:
'You take great photographs.' (Thanks for telling me that, Gill.)
'You make me look good.' (Thanks for saying that, Shan.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Photographing and videoing yourself, friends and family

When you plan a wedding or funeral and know the photo of the central  characters will be recorded on photographs which will be on record, you take great care that the clothes are elegant or attractive, the hair is adjusted and the women's make-up is neat and any blemishes are covered. The same applies to the model in a promotional video for a business.

At a formal occasion you have many photos of the chief personalities and the professional photographer edits out, or the paying customer rejects, any photos in which the bride, groom, or main speaker has their eyes shut or stands awkwardly.

Now that so many of us are being photographed in public places and events, and taking photos at public places and events, we are increasingly finding it important to look our best at all times in photos.

The Problem and Solution
Here are some problems I have noticed:
1 Lopsided Clothes - tie or scarf of boy or man
a)  A barmitzvah boy's tallis* (scarf) hangs lopsided. Children in photos have skew-whiff ties.
b)  Ask person being photographed or parent or pairs of children to check each other

2 Lopsided Clothes - scarf of man or woman
b)  Speaker at Toastmasters' meeting has scarf hanging longer on one side.
 Photographer asks people posing to check

3 People in back row are hidden
Ask small people to come to the front. (You might ask taller people to stand at back but its friendlier to ask small people to come forward rather than pushing people to the back.) If time, arrange taller people or VIP or visually appealing costume such as mayor in regalia in centre. Arrange heights in an arch from the centre. Alternatively a line.

4 Brighten dull line-up of known or known people
 In a wedding photo create movement or action or links. For example, everybody facing the right, everybody looking at the bride int he centre,  everybody raising a glass, linking arms on New Year's Eve, ballet dancers with right toe forward and hands together overhead, heads turned left.

5 Two people standing apart, but camera will focus on distant wall behind in centre
Ask people to stand together, or overlap. Alternatively, have one sitting, the other standing behind. Stand them back against the wall of the room so camera is not focussed on the wall in the distance. Get the club banner or vase of flowers in the centre so something in focus in the centre is of interest.

3 One shoulder higher
Very common, as any tailor can tell you. Can be made worse by carrying a bag on the right hand side which makes the right shoulder either droop or such up, or by sitting at a desk with right arm raised writing or by a car accident injuring collar bone or arm.

4 Standing Lop-sided
Standing with one leg forward or back. a) Get people to stand up straight.
b) Alternatively make a joking feature of it.  A comedian or kid or masked character or person pulling a face can make it look like the lopsided stance is deliberate and increases the funny effect.

5 Toes pointing in
Makes a shoe model, or any model, or any adult woman look like a gormless five year old. Ask the model person to keep feet parallel. I've seen this in Hotter shoe catalogue. I love the shoes but hate the pictures which do not draw attention to the shoes but distract me. I feel like throwing a catalogue in the bin when the photographer has an adult model or even a child with toes painting in. Anybody into chiropody or the Alexander technique would tell you that you are inviting foot and spine trouble to stand with toes pointing in - or you are giving the world the news that you already have a problem.

6 Knees apart when sitting
Makes a fat person look larger and aggressive. On a woman with a short skirt gives an ungainly view up legs of underwear or worse and distracts from face.

7 Folded arms in audience
Makes the member of the audience look bored and disrespectful and half awake.
Suggests the speaker is boring and the event is a waste of time.

8 Bags on floor
Trip hazard. Flusters members of audience leaving chairs to go on stage. Looks untidy in photos. Obscures full view of person being photographed.

9 Lopsided banners
Straighten the banner. It's an advertisement for the club - and the photographer. Don't look sloppy. Look smart. Nobody will know that you took the trouble to get the banner straight. But you will know. Yes, I got that right. Without my going to extra trouble. they would not have been looking as good as they do.

10 Lopsided badges, lanyards or necklaces
People were badges upside down, or the badges droop. Get them horizontal.

11 Untidy hair
At a recent meeting I watched a video of somebody else who had an uneven hair cut. I felt like going up and offering to cut the person's hair for free. It's hard to cut your own hair.  Imagine my horror when I then saw a video of myself at the same event, with my hair not combed, untidy at the back. I often arrive at meeting in a hat or hood which I remove. I go to the Ladies and comb my hair. On this occasion I was waylaid by organisers wanting help. I suggest that at meetings people get into pairs in advance and do a mutual check, whether for photos or just general appearance.

12 Create Interest For Singles and Pairs
Singles in photos and paintings can have an item in their hand such as a tennis racket or a pen or a book. Add a nearby decoration such as a vase of flowers, trophy, or something on the wall behind, such as the name of the venue, the restaurant menu showing the location name, or stand them beside the signpost of the city, the name of the museum, (providing this is not a security risk), or a uniformed person nearby such as the concierge of the hotel, the pilot of the plane, a person of a different height or race, a Masai warrior, a scuba diver, a shopkeeper with a bucket and spade, a waiter with a bottle or cake, a sign saying Best ...., a poster or advertisement, a calendar showing the date, the hotel flower display in the lobby, the flowers in the garden, the shops' s or neighbour's cat or dog or bird, a show room bicycle or car, a pretty or funny coffee cup or mug.  Take serious and smiling photos. Then they can be used for both happy occasions such as weddings and serious ones such as funerals.

Footnote
*(For anybody who doesn't know but wants to know, the tallis/tallit or fringed scarf, worn by Liberal Jews on special occasions as well as the Orthodox Jews at all times - follows the instructions in Leviticus or laws in the Jewish Hebrew Bible / English Christian Old Testament which is a translation.)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.