Speaker 1: Hey there, I'm Jessica Sterling with Shutterbug Magazine, I'm a portrait and event photographer based in Los Angeles, and today I'm going to give you tips to help improve your event photography. I'm going to be using the new, super portable, super lightweight, Tamron 17-35mm lens, it's sharp, fast, and great for portrait and event photography. This lens is super lightweight. When I'm shooting events, my lens of choice is a 17-35mm. It's great for group shots, quick portraits, kind of general ambiance, you know, I walk into an event, I don't know what's going on, I always got my 17-35mm on just to make sure that I'm ready to rock. Also, I'm using my LumaQuest QuickBounce on my Nikon. So, tips, we got tips for you here. When you're approaching a group of people to photograph in an event, it's super important to smile. Just think about it, if somebody walks up to you and they're like this, like serious and all mad doggy, you're like, what? You know? And it's also kind of awkward getting your picture taken to have somebody just stare at you, so it's better to smile at the people you're photographing. You're participating with them in the picture taking process, so smiling is sort of like a way of saying, hey, I'm connected up, you know. So when I'm photographing somebody, you know, I'm smiling and I'm talking to them, and I'm looking at them, I try to keep both eyes open, I try to keep that connection, you know, really strong with them. So, when you walk up to some group of people and you say, hey, would you like to get your picture taken? While they're arranging themselves, putting down their drinks, stopping chewing, putting down their plates, taking off their name bags, you can, in the meantime, be getting your focus ready, getting your composition straight, so that way when they're like all ready to go and they're laughing and they're looking and they look at you and smile and you just go, hey, boom, boom, keep things moving fast, so that way they don't have a chance to get bored and kind of lose that smile in their eyes. So if you have a connection with them and you're smiling at them and looking at them and you're fast, then you're more likely to get a shot where they're engaged. Yeah, people have like their phones out and you can be so much faster than them because they're, while they're kind of like, hold on a second, hold on a second, you can be like this. You just go, all right, hey man, you're done, awesome, thanks, okay, great, boom, boom, because you're already set up. I take multiple shots, so if I'm photographing, let's say, two people, I take two pictures. If I'm photographing three people, I take maybe three pictures, maybe five people, maybe about three pictures is probably fine. Something I really can't stand in event photography is pictures of people, right, in the middle, framed exactly dead center with all kinds of stuff around them that has nothing to do with them and what's going on and the fun thing that's happening at the event. The picture is some random thing, like, like as if there's like a fire extinguisher just sitting there and you're like, oh, I have to get the fire extinguisher in this shot. It's like, dude, why? Just frame it out, you know, zoom in, step in. This lens is a zoom lens, obviously, and zooming is very fast and smooth, so just crop it out, you know. The most important part of the picture is their face. Make it all about the face. It is often more flattering to frame it from here up anyway, right? Let's say you walk up to a group of people and you're having trouble focusing because it's a little dark. It's a great tip to focus on an area of contrast that's on the same plane as eyeball, which is often like a collar. So you look at this, you know, nice contrast, you focus right here, get a nice focus point. Bing. Hey, thanks Shutterbug for letting me try out this awesome new lens, the Tamron 17-35 F2.8-4 Digital OSD. You're fantastic. Be sure to like and subscribe. Check out my other videos on my YouTube channel. Thanks for watching. The end.