My Red Carpet Photography Experience

I shot the red carpet. Well, actually it was yellow. It wasn’t the Academy Awards or anything that glamorous but it was my first taste of that kind of mob scene – although on a much smaller scale. Olympus invited me to attend the Vail Film Festival with them and one of the things they said I could do was shoot the red carpet. I’d never played paparazzi before and figured the worst thing that could happen is I’d take a bunch of terrible pictures and write a self-deprecating story about how I suck. I couldn’t really lose. So I bought a sport coat and headed up to Vail…

It didn’t turn out that bad. Olympus set me up with their top-of-the-line E-5 digital SLR, a 12-60mm f/2.8-4 pro zoom lens and a flash. I got to the location on time with my camera set up right and I got a spot to shoot from. I was positioned at the end of the rope – not optimal by any means. But it was still a spot to shoot from and I had time take a few pictures and tune up my exposure before anyone showed up. Then, just as the first people started to show up and do their posing thing, this little old lady with an iPhone and no media credential busts in between me and the rope. I thought I was just letting her in for one photo but that didn’t turn out to be the case. I didn’t have the heart to tell her to beat it since she was so excited and looked to be about 75 years old. Plus, she had to stand on her tippy-toes to reach five feet. If I had paying clients I would have elbowed her in the face. Lucky for her, I was just shooting for a story about how much I suck as a photographer. There was also a local news crew that kept getting in the way. The news lady was allowed to be in front of the rope so she could interview the stars. That’s understandable. However, she made no effort to let the photographers behind the rope get clean shots. Plus, she was tall and had a huge head with tons of big blond hair making a very effective barrier to the photographers who were standing behind her.

The Vail Film Festival is tiny compared to Sundance, the Academy Awards and big budget Hollywood movie premiers. But even with only about 25 members of the press there, it was still a battle for position. One thing that surprised me was how critical speed is. I shoot a lot of action sports and the need for speed is obvious there. I never thought about how it would be important for shooting celebrity events, though. But people blink, make funny faces, put their finger in their ear, etc. – all of which mean throwaway photos. Being able to blast away quickly means more keepers and better odds you’ll get the money shot. The Olympus E-5 will do bursts at 5 frames per second, which is plenty fast for the subject. However, using a hot shoe flash for fill meant I couldn’t really shoot bursts. If I were doing this for a living I’d definitely use a power pack to speed up the flash recycle time. The E-5′s high ISO image quality helped. I was able to pump the camera up to ISO 1600 to avoid motion blur but I still needed the flash to open up and soften shadows on my subjects’ faces.

The Olympus E-5 has one really cool feature that made a big difference for me. After I got blocked out by iPhone Lady and Big Hair News Lady I started holding my camera up and shooting over peoples’ heads. Thank God for the tilt-swivel LCD on the E-5. I turned on live view, flipped that sucker out and rotated it down so I could see from below (see photo, below) and got what I think are some of my best photos. They’re my best “behind the scenes” photos, anyway. And since I was really there to do an article about shooting the red carpet, those photos tell my story better. I did get a few nice clean shots of the stars that were there – particularly actress Kate Bosworth and actor / filmmaker Michael Imperioli. Obviously, to do this job really well, I’d need to get there early to get a better spot and it would be good to have some rapport with the celebrities. I didn’t bother to try to get their attention while I was taking pictures. But if there was real money on the line, you can bet I’d be yelling at them and trying to get them to look my camera and pose for me.

Shooting the red carpet was an interesting experience. I definitely learned a few things about strategy and preparedness. The good thing was it didn’t go as badly as I thought it might. The photography and event experience I’ve accumulated over the years helped me get through it reasonably comfortably and with a few nice photos, to boot. Am I anxious to do it again? Is it my calling in life? Definitely not. But if someone wanted to hire me to shoot a red carpet again, I am now pretty confident I could get the job done. And next time I’m not letting the little old lady with the iPhone get in my way.

Vail Film Festival - Michael Imperioli, Valerie Weiss, Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucas, etc.

Josh Lucas and journalists - Vail Film Festival

Click on thumbnails to view photos.

More Vail Film Festival Photos >>

megan says:

April 8, 2011 at 3:19 pm

Great article! I have to say that in press scrums, the tilt-swivel on my E-3 has helped me get shots… and really good shots at that. That was one of the big features that inspired me to get the E-3, and now I am definitely eager to try out th E-5.