I look to see how much light is in the venue and what color the light is. Florescent, incandescent, natural, a mix?
The reason I bring this up is because my last job had the perfect amount of natural and man made light I have had to deal with in a while. A big open window and a high white ceiling to bounce my flash off of. Perfect!
Not so fast!
Then the teacher who was in charge of this event closed the blind and turned off a bank of lights to make her video easier to see. There goes my perfect lighting. So now I've got to up the power of my flash and this makes it bothersome to the video guys and the people watching this event. No way around it, sorry people.
Even if the photographer has a camera that is better at low light images there is no way around taking pictures in a room with very low light.
So what is the answer to the question when the client is asking for certain images?
Well I think the answer is to become a director and re-shoot and set up the shot quickly with better lighting. And yes I know that at a news event I can't do this but at a client shoot where the client has a list of shots that they would like it is worth it to re-do some of the shots.
So here is a screen shot of the redo. Light from the open window off to the right and my flash bounced off of the ceiling. Giving the client a nice clean image to work with and not taking up to much time for those involved.
