Event Logistics
If you want to work with us on a project other than event portrait photography, click here.
Having us take photos at your event is fully unique.
People are blown away by how fun and interesting the experience is and how fantastic the results are. People often feel as though they've discovered something new and magical. The ideas for the photographs are come up with on the fly and are collaborations between the people being photographed and Julian. After the event is over, it’s fun watching how many people change their Facebook profile pictures to a light painted portraits of themselves and the great comments those pictures get. People LOVE this! Even the judges on America's got Talent raved about us.
How are Light Painting Portraits created?
The basic process of light painting is simple. This is part of the appeal.
- Make a room dark
- Open shutter on camera that's on a tripod
- Pass lights on and around the person being photographed
- Close shutter
Tech Requirements
Tech requirements (in short):
- A Room or Space which is dark
- Enough space to do the photography
- Space for computers if needed
- Electricity is sometimes needed
A Room or Space which is dark
In order to do light painting portraits, a dark environment is needed. There are many ways to achieve this.
- A room which is dark: Ideally, we use a room which is not hard to make dark. If there are windows, it's usually fairly easy to cover the windows with black fabric. Good light painting portraits can be taken in a room that’s 13’ by 15’. It’s possible to do with the smaller room if needed. And it’s fantastic if there's an even larger room.
- A large room: If the room is especially large, people can come inside and enjoy watching the process of light painting before they are light painted themselves. This is always a crowd pleaser! More space is also a benefit for creating great images. At The SF Music Tech Summit, the room we used was great and was 28' by 18'. The room we shot in at OSCON Tech Convention was even larger.
- Pipe and drape: At the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, we did a shoot where we used “pipe and drape” from the floor to the ceiling to make a dark environment in order to do light painting portraits at a wedding.
- 10’ by 10’ EZ-UP: Some advanced notice is needed, but we can use a 10’ by 10’ EZ-UP structure. It’s about 10’ tall at its highest point. It is covered on all 4 walls and on the roof by blackout fabric. Inside, it's dark enough for light painting portraits. This structure can be used either outside or inside (given tall ceilings).
- A rental truck: We have done light painting portraits at events such as The Treasure Island Music Festival with a rental truck. The sides of the truck can be fully draped with decorative fabric.
- How small can the space be? Bigger is better, but for one wedding the only option was to make a pipe and drape dark environment in a club which was 6’ wide and 10’ long. In that space, Julian did both light painting portraits and white background studio pictures. But this is not a recommended or ideal setup.
Various options
Here are some of the options we offer:
- A slides how of images at the Event: A few minutes after a person is photographed, the images of them are in a slideshow which is projected or shown on a screen. At a Microsoft event, shortly after the photos were taken, they were projected on the walls of the event space which had seamless projection across several walls. If we're doing a sideshow, we should think of the best place for the monitor or projector to go which is displaying the images.
- Images posted live: If desired, we can post the images on Facebook, twitter, or any other desired social media site shortly after the images are created.
- A video: Watching a video is usually the most convenient ways of enjoying all the great images that were created at an event. Here are some of the videos from past events:
- Images on Facebook: The best images are put on Facebook. Images are typically watermarked with the branding for the event. For example, in the lower right corner of this image is a watermark. Everybody is encouraged to tag their photos. It’s fantastic to see lots of folks change their profile picture to be one from the event.
- A web gallery of images: For every event we photograph (unless otherwise requested), we make a web gallery of images from the event and a web page which points to the various media. For example, see the page from the SF Music Summit
- Every image, full res for every participant: At the SF Music Summit, they wanted the musicians who were photographed to be able to use their images for self-promotion of any type. Everyone photographed was given a link to the full resolution images (with no watermark) and told that they could use the images however they wished.
- A DVD of the images: If you want, you can have a DVD of all of the full res images from the event.
- We collect emails and email everybody: At the event, we take the time to collect e-mail addresses from all participants. After the event is over, we e-mail everybody with the link to their images.
Pricing
Let us know the type of event/client, the length, the approximate date, and the city it's in. If you have thoughts on which option we should use for making a dark room, that would help. If you want a live slideshow of the images at the event say so.