Capturing the moment: a guide to impactful event photography

Events are a brilliant opportunity to capture your brand in action. The right photography team, equipped with the right brief, can turn a single evening into a bank of content that works hard long after the last canapé has been eaten, finding a home across social media, your website, press features and beyond. Whether you’re capturing stills, video, or both: there’s a story to be told that no studio shoot can replicate.

Like any shoot, great event photography starts with a solid brief. Before we pick up a camera, we sit down with you and work through a few key questions, because the decisions you make upfront shape everything, from how we plan the day to how the finished assets look. And that last point, the look and feel you’re hoping for, is exactly where we’d start.

First, the style question

When it comes to event photography, there are broadly two styles. The first is polished and editorial: carefully lit and considered in every detail, with nothing left to chance. The second has more of a reportage feel about it, capturing the moment on the fly, led by the people and the atmosphere in the room. As Si Thompson, our Global Director of Photography, puts it: “It’s a little looser, a little grittier. And it’s full of character!”

Getting into the detail

Once we’ve got an idea of the event and the stylistic approach you want to take, we’ll delve deeper into your specific preferences, such as colour grading. We find that clients often have a strong instinct here, whether it’s vibrant and high-contrast, black and white, or a subtly desaturated aesthetic that works particularly well within a reportage style and gives us licence to push our photography harder. As Si explains: “You get more grain on how you’re shooting, and movement on people, which gives it character and creates an atmosphere.”

From there, there are a few more practical, but equally important, questions to work through. How visible do you want the photographer to be? Are we going completely under the radar, so that guests barely notice we’re there? Or are you happy for us to set up lighting and take a more controlled approach? It’s also worth thinking about location logistics: ideally, we’ll do a recce beforehand so we can understand the space, the lighting conditions, and how much flexibility we have to work with. A restaurant, for example, is set up for its customers not for a camera crew, so knowing in advance whether we can move furniture, or whether we’ll need to work around a live service, makes a big difference to how we plan the day.

There’s also the question of faces to consider. Not everyone wants to be recognisable in the final images, whether that’s a model, a chef or a member of bar staff doing a drinks pour. ‘Non-rec’ (non-recognisable) photography is a valid approach, and it’s something we always agree on before we set foot on location. As Si explains: “It has a big impact on how we approach our shots. We might only be able to work at certain angles, so that we’re, essentially, always below the chin. Knowing this upfront shapes how we plan and shoot the whole day.”

A tale of two shoots

Our recent work with Louis XIII is a good example of how all of these considerations come together. The first shoot took place across two Manchester venues, Cut & Craft and Louis, in a single day. The brief called for that polished, editorial aesthetic. Because Si was shooting in live restaurant spaces, the preparation work was crucial. “I made sure I went down the week before so that I understood the space and who I’d be working with,” he explains. “So that on the day, when we turned up with a crew of people, a load of bags, and all our equipment, they didn’t get caught on the hop. Because it is quite invasive, especially when a restaurant is still working and has customers. We’ll always be as mindful of that as possible.”

The second shoot was a different challenge altogether. At Grantley Hall in North Yorkshire, photographer Chris was on hand to document two live events: an immersive winter pop-up and the exclusive launch of a rare Louis XIII decanter, unveiled over a Michelin-starred tasting menu. Here, a reportage approach was the natural fit, and with it came a very different set of conditions. As Si puts it: “Chris didn’t have the option to adapt the space. It was set up as it was. He was basically just there to take what he could within the event.” Working within those constraints, he captured a set of images full of atmosphere and spontaneity – exactly what the moment called for.

Event photography, done well, is so much more than a photographer turning up on the day. It’s about understanding your brand, planning the approach, and asking the right questions before anyone picks up a camera. Get all of that right, and you won’t just have captured the magic of the event itself. You’ll also have a set of assets with a life well beyond it. After all, a pour from a decanter, captured just so, is just as at home in an editorial feature or as the hero image on your website as it is in an event recap.

If you’ve got an event coming up and want to make the most of it, we’d love to chat. Get in touch with us today and let’s start planning.