Event work terrifies most studio photographers, and I’ll admit it used to rattle me too. In the studio, I control everything. Every light is labeled with masking tape, diagrammed in my phone app, and tested before the client walks in. At a live event, none of that applies. The room is what it is, the crowd moves when it wants to, and the window to get the shot is usually about three seconds wide.
That’s why I kept coming back to this particular tutorial from The Slanted Lens, shot at a celebrity ping pong charity event in New York. Watch the full tutorial on YouTube – it’s worth your full attention before reading further. The instructor shot video coverage, celebrity interviews, and stills simultaneously, in a dim underground club with almost no usable stage lighting. What he did to solve that problem is exactly the kind of methodical, location-specific thinking I try to bring into every shoot, controlled environment or not.
What makes this tutorial valuable isn’t any single technique. It’s the sequence – the way every decision flows from the one before it. Scout first, rent later. Know the room before you build a rig. Understand the players before you pick up your camera. That order of operations is something you can apply whether you’re shooting a product launch, a fashion showcase, or a charity gala.
Step 1: Make a Press Pass Before You Walk In the Door
Laminated press pass with photo and company name
There is no official body handing out press credentials for most events. Clubs, brands, and organizations manage their own access, which means a clean, laminated badge with your photo, your company name, and the words “press pass” will carry real weight. Print it on white stock so it reads like a passport, hang it on a lanyard, and have it visible when you arrive with your gear. The Slanted Lens makes the point that this simple preparation opens doors that would otherwise stay closed. It also signals to event staff that you’re a professional with a legitimate purpose, not someone who wandered in with a nice camera.
Step 2: Scout the Location Before the Shoot Day
Interior of dim club showing low stage lighting conditions
Flying in a day early specifically to walk the venue is a commitment, but it pays for itself immediately. When the instructor arrived at the club, he found a dark underground space with almost no light on the performance stage. That single piece of information drove every subsequent gear decision he made. On location scouts, I’m asking the same questions every time: What is the ambient light temperature? Where are the practical lights and are they fixed or adjustable? Who do I need to talk to about bringing in equipment? What are the photography restrictions? You cannot answer any of those questions from a website or a press kit. You have to be in the room.
Step 3: Rent or Source the Right Lights Based on What You Found
Two 650W Arri lights positioned on stage for performer lighting
Once the scout confirmed that the stage needed supplemental lighting, the instructor rented two 650-watt Arri fresnel lights from a local equipment house. One went up front, attached to an existing overhead track, to light the performer from the front. The second was positioned on a stand behind a structural beam to create a rim light separating the performer and band from the background. Neither placement was perfect – the front light position was a compromise based on where the venue would allow attachment – but both were purposeful. That is the key word. Every light had a job. This is the same logic I use in the studio: establish your key, then establish your separation. The tools change, but the thinking doesn’t.
Step 4: Build a Mobile Video and Stills Rig You Can Actually Move In
Monopod with video head and splayed feet set up on club floor
For fast-moving event coverage, the instructor runs a monopod with a video head and foldout feet, which lets it stand independently when he needs to set it down. He added an EVF loupe to the back of the camera for accurate framing in low light, and swapped between a shotgun microphone on the hot shoe for interviews and a small LED light for available-light fill. His primary camera was a 7D with a 17-50mm Tamron zoom – wide enough to work in tight spaces, long enough to frame a performer from the floor. The 70-200mm came out for compressed, isolated shots when the situation allowed. His backup body, a 5D with a speedlight, covered stills. The whole system is designed around one principle: minimum footprint, maximum flexibility.
Step 5: Set Your Exposure for the Room, Then Leave It Alone
Camera settings displayed with ISO 1250 and aperture priority mode
In a dark venue with mixed and unpredictable lighting, the instructor shoots aperture priority rather than manual. His aperture sits between f/2.8 and f/5.6 depending on the moment, and his ISO runs around 1250 to pull enough exposure out of the low ambient light. He checks the histogram periodically rather than chimping every frame, which keeps him moving and present. For studio shooters, aperture priority can feel like giving up control, but in a live environment it’s actually a discipline. You’re making deliberate choices about depth of field and letting the camera handle the moment-to-moment exposure math while you focus on composition and timing.
Step 6: Understand the Room’s Social Hierarchy Before You Shoot
Photographer moving through crowded event space in dark clothing
The instructor wears black to every event, deliberately. He wants to be invisible. His advice on conduct is some of the most practical in the whole tutorial: know who the key subjects are, know who has the authority to remove you, be assertive enough to get your shots, and be pleasant enough that nobody wants to. When Q-Tip, who was DJing the event, signaled that the camera had been in his space too long, the instructor simply smiled and moved on. No argument, no lingering. This is a skill, and it takes practice. Your job is to document the event, not to become part of it. The moment you make yourself the story, you’ve lost the room.
What I’d Add From My Own Experience
The location scout step is where most photographers cut corners, and it’s the one cut that costs the most. I once showed up to a corporate event having assumed the venue had warm tungsten practicals throughout – it was mixed, with cool fluorescents over the interview area and warm spots on the stage. My white balance was wrong for half the evening. I’ve been calibrating on arrival ever since, and I now sketch a rough lighting diagram in my journal for any location I’ll be working in more than once. It takes ten minutes and has saved hours in post.
The tutorial doesn’t address color temperature directly, but if you take one thing from the scout step, it’s this: know your light sources before you commit to a white balance. Venues are almost never consistent, and in mixed light, shooting raw with a measured custom white balance will give you more usable frames than any correction you apply later.
The single most transferable idea in this tutorial is that preparation is what makes spontaneity possible. Every smooth moment on the event floor – the clean exposure, the right lens, the confident navigation of a crowded room – traces back to a decision made before the shoot began. Scout the location. Build the right kit. Know the room. Then pick up the camera.
Watch the full tutorial on YouTube to see the complete setup in action, including the final footage from the performance and interviews.
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