La Saint Valentin at The Waterfall Building

I was at another event for The Sociables this Valentines.  I was shooting at The Waterfall Building, a skylit structure that's pretty popular around here for a variety of reasons.  It was a sexy art gallery venue and presented in part by LuvnGrace and Hennessy Cognac.

Read the review at The Sociables and see the full set of photos at Flickr!

Continue reading for technical nerd stuff below.


The shots were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Canon 24-105mm f/4.  I brought along a Canon 580 EX II flash but I ended up not using it.

I walked in on the middle of one of the fashion shows, so I took my place at a corner of the media area and started taking my photos.  I started the first set with flash, at ISO 1250, F/4, 1/15s.  I had to beeline for the media area and literally started shooting as soon as I got in position.  It was on the fly and not very well thought out as I hadn't measured the light yet.  The photos came out over exposed and had to be pulled down in exposure in post.

 ISO 1250, F/4, 1/15s with flash.  Flash makes it kinda crup.

Right after the first show ended, I walked along to the runway to measure the lighting, the exposure and white balance.  There were mixed lighting which resulted in EV between 4 and 6 and color temperature of 2800K - 3200K along the runway.  The background EV was approximately 3-4.

Because the place was relatively well lit, I decided to go without a flash, and shot the remaining shows at ISO 5000, F/4, 1/50s, or around EV 5, with NO FLASH.  I went with one stop over exposure at the bright ends and decided that would be the look.  The location lights were a couple diffused lights pointing along the runway and bounced by the white walls.  I figured the directional and area lights will look better than the flash, especially considering the mixed colors.  You just gotta have the guts to turn off the flash.

I take some photos in landscape to show the surroundings and break up the set. 

 Including photos of some of the live performers, skills in concert photography helps.

 This is a traditional runway shot, mid strut, full body, long.

 Here is a still life from location.  It's like ticking off from a shot list.

Grab VIP shots when you can.  Singer Sarah K 

 I... umm... I don't know.

 These kind of shots are the most popular.

Anyways, getting the above right will result in better balanced photos, and will save time in post.  At an event like this I will end up taking about 200-300 photos, and dump two thirds of them.  And I need to turn these around quickly so I want to spend as little time in lightroom as possible (and forget about hitting photoshop, especially not for event reportage).