View this email in your browser

Editor’s Note

We are continuing our deep dive into the fast-paced world of event photography. If the focus so far has taught us anything, it’s that the most memorable moments rarely happen under studio-perfect conditions.

As we head into the thick of the season, with events like the high-energy atmosphere of the upcoming Dark Mofo or the intimate, low-light settings of winter exhibitions, the ability to adapt to your surroundings is your greatest asset. Whether you are battling the erratic, moody lighting of a festival or the dim, challenging interior of a conference space, technical confidence is the bridge between a missed shot and a portfolio piece.

In these tips, we’re breaking down the essential lighting techniques to help you master that environment, so you can stop stressing over your settings and start focusing on the action.

Once you’ve put these techniques into practice, we want to see your results! Send through your best event shots to go in the running for some great prizes.

Monthly photo competition

Week 1: Conquering Tricky Event Lighting

Events are notorious for throwing challenging lighting conditions at photographers—from dim conference halls to unpredictable coloured party lights.

⚠️ Weekly prompts are just a guide — interpret them your way, as long as your shot captures the spirit of the month's theme.⁠

How to enter:

To participate, simply complete the submission form on our portal on our website. Make sure your entries align with this month's theme. For additional guidance, check the photographic tips below.

Prizes:

1st Prize: Manfrotto MB MA3-BP-GM Advanced Gear Medium III 17L Backpack Valued at $249.95 RRP

2nd Prize: Manfrotto Element MII Aluminum Tripod with Ball Head
Valued at $199.95 RRP

Deadline:

All entries must be submitted by 5th July, 2026.

Make sure to read the FAQ on the competition page at the link below to understand all the details and rules of the competition.

We look forward to receiving your photos and celebrating your creativity

An interesting fact about the
Manfrotto Advanced Gear Medium III
17L Backpack

Engineered for creators on the move, the Manfrotto Advanced Gear Medium III 17L Backpack is the ultimate storage solution for your event gear. Despite its sleek and compact design, it packs a massive punch, comfortably housing two DSLRs with attached lenses, up to three additional lenses, accessories, and even a 15-inch laptop and tablet. The interior is fully customizable to fit a drone setup, while the exterior features a rugged, wear-resistant polyester finish, a dedicated tripod attachment, and a convenient trolley sleeve for travel. Complete with a waterproof rain cover to protect your gear from the elements, it’s the perfect, reliable companion for long days shooting on location.

The Search Is Over: The World’s "Worst" Photographer Has Been Found!

Back in April, we shared the news of Icelandair’s unconventional quest to find the world’s "worst" photographer. After sifting through a staggering 127,624 applications, the search is finally over. The airline has crowned 28-year-old Paris resident Blanche Mortemard as the champion, selecting her for the authentic, blurry, and perfectly imperfect charm of her images.

Blanche has landed an incredible prize: a 10-day trip around Iceland and a cool US$50,000 to document the country's famous landscapes. We wish her the best of luck as she embarks on her journey to prove that even the most "questionable" compositions can hold their own against the beauty of Iceland.

It is a great reminder that if Blanche can turn a shaky lens into a lucrative career opportunity, there is still plenty of hope for the rest of us. Keep clicking, no matter how blurry the results!

Capturing the energy of an event often means battling lighting that works against you rather than for you. Whether you’re navigating the dim, sterile glow of a conference hall or the erratic, vibrant strobes of a dance floor, the key to professional results lies in how you manage the relationship between your flash and the existing environment. Mastering these techniques will allow you to stop chasing the perfect light and start creating it, ensuring every shot feels natural, sharp, and true to the atmosphere of the room.

Pro Tips for Event Lighting 1:

Master the Art of the Bounce: Avoid the "deer in headlights" look of direct, harsh flash by aiming your speedlight at white ceilings or neutral-coloured walls. Bouncing the light creates a larger, softer light source that mimics natural, overhead illumination. If you are in a room with high or dark ceilings, consider using a small bounce card or a diffuser to direct a portion of the light forward while the rest fills the space.

Pro Tips for Event Lighting 2:

Balance Ambient and Flash: To maintain the "vibe" of an event, you need to let the natural ambient light exist alongside your flash. Use a slower shutter speed (e.g. 1/60s or 1/100s) to allow the room’s background lights to register in your exposure, while using your flash at a lower power setting just to illuminate your subject. This prevents the "black background" effect and ensures the final image feels like it belongs in the space it was taken.

Pro Tips for Event Lighting 2:
Embrace the ISO Ceiling: Don't be afraid to push your ISO into the higher ranges; a clean, sharp image with a bit of digital grain is infinitely more usable than a soft, blurry image caused by a shutter speed that is too slow. Modern post-processing software is incredibly effective at cleaning up luminance noise, so prioritise a fast shutter speed to freeze motion, even if it means sacrificing some dynamic range.

To put these techniques into practice, having the right kit makes all the difference when the sun goes down or the venue lights get moody. We recommend starting with a fast prime lens, such as a 35mm or 50mm f/1.8, which acts as your best defence against darkness by allowing significantly more light to hit the sensor than a standard zoom. For flash photography, an external speedlight with a tilting and swivelling head is essential for bouncing light off neutral surfaces, and when combined with a compact diffuser or bounce card, it will help you create a much softer, more flattering light that wraps around your subject. If you are working in environments that transition from daylight to dusk, a variable neutral density filter is a lifesaver for maintaining your preferred settings, while a sturdy monopod provides the perfect middle ground for stability without sacrificing the mobility needed in crowded venues. Finally, because event photography is notoriously power-hungry, always keep a supply of extra high-capacity camera batteries on hand for both your camera and your flash to ensure you are never left in the dark mid-shoot.

NEED HELP? TALK TO AN EXPERT 1300 365 220

“It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter.”

- lfred Eisenstaed

Your photo question of the week:

You are photographing a performance at Dark Mofo, where the lighting is incredibly moody and shifts rapidly between deep, saturated reds and intense, dark shadows. To ensure you maintain the atmospheric "glow" of the scene without blowing out the highlights or losing detail in the shadows, which of the following is your most effective tool?

A) Using an on-camera flash on full power.

B) Shooting in RAW format to allow for greater flexibility in post-processing exposure.

C) Setting your camera to Landscape mode.

D) Using the lowest possible ISO setting to prevent any grain.

Last weeks question:

When shooting large-scale night events like Vivid Sydney, you will often want to capture a crisp, sharp photo of a speaker or performer on a brightly lit stage while keeping the massive, low-light crowd in the background contextually visible. Which camera setting is most critical to balance so the background doesn't just turn into a pitch-black void?

A) ISO sensitivity

B) White Balance

C) Autofocus mode

D) Burst mode speed

Let's face it. Not all of us are professionals, and even still, pros still need to learn a thing or two about photography or cinematography. That's why we've put together this section. We want to highlight some of the common and not-so-common questions people face when attempting a particular genre.

“I love shooting outdoor night festivals where the lighting is incredibly dramatic, but I struggle with "coloured light bleed." My subjects often end up with weird, unnatural skin tones because intense neon or stage gels are hitting them, which makes my photos look like they have a strange colour cast. How can I keep the skin tones looking natural while still capturing the vibrant festival atmosphere?”

Dealing with dominant colour casts is a classic challenge in festival photography, as your camera’s automatic white balance often gets "confused" by the overwhelming presence of saturated reds, blues, or purples.

The most effective fix is to step away from Auto White Balance (AWB) and manually set your colour temperature to a consistent value, such as "Daylight" (5600K). This prevents the camera from trying to "correct" the moody festival colours, which often leads to inconsistent skin tones. Next, if you are using a flash, try attaching a CTO (Colour Temperature Orange) gel to your speedlight. By warming up your artificial light with a gel, you bring the colour temperature of your flash closer to the warm tones of stage lighting. This creates a more harmonious blend between your subject and the background, making the final image feel intentional rather than like an accidental clash of mismatched light sources. If you still see a cast, shooting in RAW is your ultimate safety net, allowing you to fine-tune your White Balance slider during post-processing until the skin tones look perfect again.

Today we are finding out a bit about last month's photo comp winners, starting with Khalid, who took out first prize.

My journey in photography began with a passion for discovering beauty in the details that often go unnoticed. With every image I captured, I learned that photography is not just about pressing a shutter button—it is the art of storytelling and preserving unique moments.

In Dhofar, Oman, I found my greatest source of inspiration among the lush mountains, natural springs, and rich wildlife. I have spent countless hours waiting for the perfect light or the ideal moment to capture rare animal behavior and the beauty of nature in its purest form.

Photography has taught me patience, perseverance, and respect for the natural world. It has allowed me to see life from a different perspective, where every moment holds a story worth telling.

Today, I continue this journey with even greater passion, striving to share the beauty of Oman’s landscapes and wildlife with the world through my lens, while creating images that combine art, documentation, and emotion.

Now, Let’s hear a little more about the runner-up, Jason.

I’m a self-taught, all-rounder photographer whose journey started in the UK, Devon and brought me to Melbourne, Australia, where I have made a life with my lovely Aussie wife Tara.  I have been a Disability support worker for many years. When I find time, I'm either looking at other people's work or going through a vast amount of photos.

I've shot everything from character-filled portraits in Vietnam to broad landscapes, to my muse, Furfy the Westie. My absolute passion is the "small world." You'll usually find me scouring bushes or local parks, getting down and dirty to show people the incredible, intricate universe operating right beneath their feet.

​The beauty of macro photography is that you can never truly script it. My Bull Ant shot was a total chance find—I was actually on my hands and knees tracking down fungi when it crossed my path. That’s the ultimate kicker for me: the thrill of the unexpected, and the sheer excitement of coming home with something unique.

Reader’s gallery

Navigate to our reader’s gallery to see a selection of entries to help inspire your vision. You can also see the past winners there. Thank you to everyone who sent in their images. We love seeing them!

Sometimes, all we need is some visual motivation, like these images, to spark our creative thoughts. What will you create with your camera this week? Enter your images via our online portal, and we look forward to showcasing them.

I’m a self-taught, all-rounder photographer whose journey started in the UK, Devon and brought me to Melbourne, Australia, where I have made a life with my lovely Aussie wife Tara.  I have been a Disability support worker for many years. When I find time, I'm either looking at other people's work or going through a vast amount of photos.

I've shot everything from character-filled portraits in Vietnam to broad landscapes, to my muse, Furfy the Westie. My absolute passion is the "small world." You'll usually find me scouring bushes or local parks, getting down and dirty to show people the incredible, intricate universe operating right beneath their feet.

​The beauty of macro photography is that you can never truly script it. My Bull Ant shot was a total chance find—I was actually on my hands and knees tracking down fungi when it crossed my path. That’s the ultimate kicker for me: the thrill of the unexpected, and the sheer excitement of coming home with something unique.