Shooting the "Meet & Greet"

[groovehouse]

So I was recently hired through a promotions company to shoot a meet & greet for a popular band.

There were 50 people, mostly in groups, with a 5 member band.

This was my first meet & greet ever to shoot. I used one strobe on my camera (430EX II) and one set up in a softbox (430EX) both controlled via wireless triggers.

The problem came when the person running the meet & greet started to rush the fans through the line, not giving my speedlights enough time to recycle. After I took a couple of shots where the flashes did not go off, the road manager came up to me and asked (not very nicely), "IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN EVERY TIME?" My answer was, "God, I hope not!" at this point I should've mentioned slowing the line down and explained the situation, but being nervous, I just hoped for the best.


Fortunately for me, each time a new group came up to get shot, they wanted to briefly chat with the band, I did not rush anyone or control the flow. So I just let them chat, which gave my speedlights time to recycle. I am not religious but I prayed to the photo gods before every shot, "please let these speedlights cycle and flash for this shot."

The flow seemed to go just slow enough for my speedlights to recycle. I ended up taking only ONE shot for every group shot. There was no way I could take two per encounter. The speedlights just weren't going to recycle in time.

The solution for next time, in my opinion, is to invest in some constant lighting, totally taking the speedlights out of the equation. I could light the subjects without having to worry about recycle rates.

What do you think? Any ideas or suggestions. I don't foresee myself doing this very often but if it happens again, I'd like to be better prepared.

[monkey44]

I don't shoot indoor everts much, but have three "floodlights" on stands in my shop. You can buy them at Home Depot for under $30. Always carry them to indoor stuff just in case ... much easier to just light up the area one time. You're not aiming for "studio quality" portraits, and these clients don't expect it. So floods should do you fine in this venue, and these events are looking for 'memorialize this event" not show quality images.

Been my experience, speedlights are great for fast-action sports, but for indoor convention type, shooting, flood the area and forget it.