How to Photograph (Successfully) the New Year’s Eve Party

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have just passed, but New Year’s Eve, or New Year’s Eve, as we say around here, is yet to come. Yet another party, albeit with a different touch. If Christmas is something more familiar, with dinners and lunches, gifts, children, Christmas carols or social gatherings, among others, New Year’s Eve is characterized by being a happier party, with friends, in some cases wild, celebrating what we left behind and what is to come, to let your hair down and let the music play and the champagne run with the chimes as a starting gun.

And like any party, it is a moment worthy of being photographed, because that is what we like, holding our camera tight and dancing with it. Is that your plan? Well then, stay, I’m going to give you some steps so that the dance is as harmonious as possible ;).

Recommended lenses

If you only have one goal, go ahead with it. He is the best you will work with, make the most of him. But if you have a choice, I will tell you which one you can use and why or what for.

Bright

An end of the year party is at night, which translates into low light. If you have a very bright objective it will help you a lot.

Macro

It is not that it is necessary, much less essential, but if you have one and you like to work in macro, it will help you capture the details and achieve some very interesting abstract photographs, especially before the party, when everything is in its place. still ;p.

wide angle

If what you want is to portray the entire scene, you can take advantage of a wide angle, so you can capture the entire dance scene, a large group of people having fun, the entire table of diners…

Fish eye

These very specific objectives will help you have fun and get different photos. Since it’s a party, anything goes ;).

The king of lenses: 50mm 1.4

And if you have the king, it will serve you phenomenally as in any other social event. Ideal for getting portraits with the background out of focus, or a photo of a group of friends… a bright lens with a standard focal length. Or if not, the prince can also serve you.

Other recommended accessories

Flash

If you have an external flash, take advantage of the party to work at high speed. One very creative way is to sync rear curtain, very effective for capturing moving subjects with longer shutter speeds. This way you can get a frozen element with light trails and blurred shapes. A creative, dynamic and fun way to photograph people dancing.

You can have something like this, although, of course, with another decoration; P.

Tripod

You will need it to photograph the fireworks, if that is the case, but also to appear in some photos, at least in the chimes or in a toast, what less, right?

Remote Switch

If you are going to use the tripod, either to stabilize the camera in a long exposure like fireworks or to get yourself in the photo, a remote shutter release will be very good for you. Ok, if you don’t have one, you can activate the camera’s timer, but I’ll warn you, it’s not as comfortable or even remotely ;).

Settings

I can’t give you an exact recipe for the settings, since it will depend a lot on the type of photography you want to get and the moment, even so, in general terms I can tell you some tricks.

Opening

If you are going to photograph a group of people, remember that if they are not in the same plane, a wide aperture will not capture them all sharply. The focused plane will be fine, but the rest will not. Use medium apertures with groups of people, for example f/8. You may have to use the flash or raise ISO, especially if they are on the move.

For the details don’t be afraid to use very wide openings. In this way you can blur the background and highlight the main subject. The same if you want to make a portrait of a single person or experiment with bokeh.

Speed

Do you want to freeze the motion? Something like champagne flying or confetti falling? Or portray a group of people dancing and not be blurred? Use speeds starting at 1/125, for example. Now, if you want to capture motion and get creative photos, experiment with slower speeds.

ISO

Leave the ISO value to adjust based on the other two. The ideal is a low value to avoid noise, however, sometimes it is better to have a photo with noise than to have no noise. If you are going to photograph details, it is better to use a larger aperture and lower the ISO value, however, if you need to capture all the guests clearly at the toast of the chimes, well, hey, you still have to risk with the ISO by having to use apertures medium and not very low speeds. Evaluate each situation and the importance of the photo.

white balance

Either you shoot in RAW and you don’t care about the subject, or be careful with this point, adjust the white balance according to the lighting in the room. It is not the same if you use a flash, if not, if it is a warm light or a fluorescent light. If you don’t pay attention you can end up with all your orange or blue photos… and that’s not what you want, right? More info here.

Tips

And then a few tips and ideas so you don’t miss a thing.

make a list

Okay, it’s a crazy night and not one of planning, but for that very reason, if there is a series of photos you want to go home with, write them down, so that when the champagne starts to have its effect you can have a reference and you won’t regret it the next day ;).

Before the party

I recommend that you arrive a little earlier to photograph the preparations, if possible, and if not, at least the decoration. Once the guests begin to arrive, everything that has been prepared with so much care begins to spoil, a tribute to whoever has done the work is to immortalize it with the same affection. You can use a macro, as I have told you, or the king of objectives, for example. And take care of the funds!

Different angles and points of view

Don’t limit yourself to classic eye-level shots. It manages to convey the wildness of a party with extreme angles. Shoot from high up or from very low angles and capture scenes from more unusual vantage points. You can also zoom out and capture the scenes “from the outside” as in this example (although it’s starting to look a bit seen, it’s still more natural and dynamic than a normal pose):

Food

If something is taken care of at these parties, it is the food and the table. The hosts can spend many hours in the kitchen to offer their best dishes, they take care of the presentation as much as the flavors. Take the opportunity to get beautiful photos. A zenithal angle will look like a movie, but if you are attracted to this type of photos, you can expand the information here, you will find a lot of tricks.

capture the atmosphere

It is a party and it has to be noticed. Try to capture with your camera the happy and festive atmosphere, groups of people, smiles, laughter, jumps, dances, avoid photographing isolated people, with a face of #I don’t know what I’m doing here or #I’ve been having drinks. Surely it is not what marks the party, better focus on joy.

closed frames

Close the frame, this is not the time for negative spaces, except for the details. A fuller frame, without edges lacking in information, will be more dynamic and will be more in tune with the subject you are photographing.

The clothes

Most people put a lot of care into their New Year’s Eve attire. Try to take photos where the clothes look good, you can make a shot only of shoes, or dresses, details of bow ties… whatever you want, but surely the guests like it when you do it. Especially at the beginning of the night ;). And the same I tell you about makeup and hairstyles ;).

Show

Are you in a party room? Is there a show? A concert? Then these tips can help you ;).

Have fun

It’s a party, take advantage of the dynamism of a party to pan, zoom, bokeh or whatever else you can think of to experience, some have fun dancing, others with the camera. If you are one of the latter, relax and have fun.

Toast

Do not miss the toast moment, in any sense. Try to toast but also photograph it, it is time to place the tripod, use a wide angle lens and toast!