SHOOTING GLAMOUR EVENTS In the previous issue, EOS users and other photo enthusiasts alike were shown a little bit on what to look for when shooting glamour events. As a hobbyist shooter, one must not get carried away when surrounded by such glitz, beauty and glamour and totally forgets about the creative shooting techniques and ends up shooting unnecessarily, wasting a lot of film, time and money in the process. And sometimes, the mistakes are not intentional, as the atmosphere during the actual shooting conditions are beyond one's control, like the crowd looming in the background, for example. When I was covering one leg of the FIM European Road Racing Championship that was held at the Most circuit in Czech Republic, trying to make sure that the crowd, comprising fans and race officials, stay out of the way of the circuit's glamour girls can be a problem. Even then, if you can't avoid such a situation, just blend the glamour girls with the distracting elements, using selective focus to throw the background out of focus, as shown in the first two photos below. Circuit glamour girls Another three of them     Beauty finalists under the hot sunlight Taking a break under the shade The photo of the row of beauty finalists was shot in the scorching lunchtime sunlight - as the allocated time for this photo-call was limited, the photographers present on that day have no choice but to shoot the finalists in that less-than-desirable lighting condition. This is one of those occasions when things don't go off perfectly in a shoot. When the situation doesn't work towards your way, the option available is to improvise. Candid shots when the finalists were waiting for their turns to be interviewed by journalists made for some great moments (above). The Omega watch promoter's (below) wide smile makes for a great shot, even if the two F1 drivers from Team Williams are out-of-focus. Following up on what she was paid to do on that day - promoting the event to the fans that gathered - makes for another interesting photo. Omega promoter with F1 drivers Promoting the F1 event to the fans     A distracting background This is a more pleasant background If you are one of those who like to participate in model-shooting photo contests where they (models) are required to pose at the requests of the dozens of photographers present, try your best to make sure that the background involved won't be too distracting even if the subject matters do not have eye-contact in the finished results. But I can tell you that the final two photos above won't win any prizes because the model concerned did not look in the direction of my lens. Anyway, I was not one of the participating shooters because the event happened to be sponsored by Canon Malaysia in conjunction with the launch of the IS USM Super telephoto lenses. Text and photos by Philip Chong. Copyright 2000 by Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 .