Need tips on Conference Photo

<p>I was shooting a 300 hundred people business conference over the weekend. <br>

The conference was held in a hotel's conference center with theater setting, bright screen and good lighting in podium area but dark in audience sitting area when hall light was dimmed down. I was told to shoot wide angle (Sigma 10-20 mm on Nikon D300 without flash) to cover whole audience, screen, stage and speakers in one picture. The result was not satisfied, when the screen and speakers were in good exposure, audience was dark. I was thinking to take few picture in different exposure and stacked them in post editing but the images were blurry because people were moving. Due to the limitation of D300 sensor, slow speed shutter caused images blurry, pushing high ISO was even worse. <br>

Any advice to produce a sharp, well balance lighting conference photo for media/press release use ?<br>

Thanks. <br>

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<p>I've shot a ton of these pictures at conferences, and can be difficult. People who are not photographers will ask for everything in one picture, not realizing what's involved. About the only way you can reliably get a shot that shows both the stage and the audience at the same time is to shoot before they turn down the room lights. Also, sometimes there is more light on the front rows that farther back, so if you compose so that you've got the stage and first few rows, you might be able to do it, and let the rows farther back go dark.<br /><br />What I've done sometimes is have a shot from the back of the room that is exposed properly for the stage but showing the huge audience (which is what clients want to brag about) even if the audience is mostly dark. Then the client combines that with closeup shots of speakers, medium shots of the stage, etc., on their website or in their printed materials.<br /><br />As for media/press release, media generally aren't usually too excited about a shot like this. They want nice, tight headshots of people speaking at the conference, mabye two or three people talking to each other, but it needs to be close enough to see who is who. I've spent 30-plus years as a reporter/editor/photographer/PR person working with this kind of thing, both as the photographer/PR person providing the photos and as an editor choosing the photos.</p>

<p>What Craig said. In addition to shooting before the lights go down, you can talk to the person in charge of setting the room lights, and ask them to bring them up, briefly, for your audience+speaker shot. The audience won't notice.</p>

<p>Also, if you're not already doing it, use 14-bit raw for these photos.</p>

<p>In years past, it was usual for conferences to take a group photo, and distribute one to each participant. Usually outdoors to avoid lighting problems. Seems to be a lost art, as I haven't heard about one being done for some years now.</p>

<p>Thanks for all advice.<br>

Turning room lights on is one of the solutions. However, the organizer asked for wide angle picture for every speakers (normally 5-6 speakers) including their scientific research/report presentation slide on screen. If their PowerPoint slides were in light background, it's more challenging. </p>