How to Take Party Photographs

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: Develop a plan for your photo album as you are planning the event.

   Plan the album cover:
   If the party is to honor a friend or colleague for their birthday you might want to have a close up picture of the honoree (perhaps holding a sign or wearing a ribbon or hat announcing their birthday) as well as a group picture of everyone attending the party surrounding the honoree.
   
   Organize your photo album as a book with many chapters.
   
   You might, for example, have chapters for food preparation, the food buffet, the guest of honor arriving, opening gifts, the cake, telling stories, a chapter for each game, and a chapter for the cleanup crew.
   
   For the first page of each chapter you might want to get a photograph of the people involved in that activity holding a sign announcing the activity.
   
   For the food preparation chapter you might want to have a full page for each person who made a special dish holding their specialty dish with, possibly the recipe for that dish in a text box on the page.
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   Step 2: Have your cameras out long before guests arrive at the party.

   Take photos of your setup.
   
   Check photos to be sure that the lighting is good.
   
   Take photographs of groups of people as they arrive. , If your party is an 'event'
   
   then there will be a core group of people that you want to get.
   
   If it is 'just a party'
   
   then try getting shots of the various groups that are there. , Try to avoid lots of photos in which the participants are posing like tin soldiers.
   
   Is it a 'staid' event? Maybe a Christmas Party? Halloween??? , Another good reason to break out the camera early is because people will be a lot more amenable to surprise shots if they know there is a camera floating around. , Either zooming in or out can make for an interesting shot.
   
   Try to capture facial expressions in your photographs. , Quite often, this is a result of using your on camera flash. , Go for natural lighting whenever possible. , Know when the keynote speaker is supposed to speak, when the break out sessions are, etc. , This can be something like shooting from your chair or at an unusual angle. , Those can result in a variety of shots that you would never have gotten otherwise. , Everyone gets stuck in a rut and their pictures can show that.
   
   Have someone else taking photographs for you. , Organize your photos into a nice album, adding captions as appropriate.
   
   Distribute the album to the honoree and guests.
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   Step 3: Be sure to get some group shots.

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   Step 4: Capture the feeling.

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   Step 5: Take pictures when people are unaware.

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   Step 6: Don't be afraid to use your zoom.

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   Step 7: Watch out for the much feared 'red eye'!!

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   Step 8: Try to avoid using your on camera flash.

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   Step 9: If this is an 'event'

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    Step 10: know the schedule.

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    Step 11: Try different perspectives.

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    Step 12: Consider having multiple digital cameras sitting around.

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    Step 13: Hand off your camera to someone else.

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    Step 14: After the party: Edit your photos: add fill lighting

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    Step 15: crop to remove extraneous background Label all photos: name of people

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    Step 16: what they were doing.

Detailed Guide

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