DENTALLY LIVE / Corporate Events Photography at BMA House, London.
As a corporate event photographer working in London, there is nothing quite like the buzz of a high-profile industry day. Recently, I had the pleasure of capturing the inaugural Dentally Live conference – a major dental innovation and technology summit hosted by Dentally & Henry Schein One.
The chosen venue for this event was BMA House in London, located in the heart of Tavistock Square. Known for its stunning architectural heritage, beautiful summer courtyard, and state-of-the-art conference facilities, it provided a spectacular backdrop.
However, photographing a fast-paced technology conference inside a historic venue presents a unique cocktail of logistical and technical challenges. From mastering low-light environments to delivering real-time edits to the event’s PR and marketing teams, here is a look behind the lens at how I pulled off a seamless, high-speed delivery for Dentally Live.
The Venue: Aesthetic Charm Meets Lighting Challenges
BMA House is an award-winning venue, but like many historic buildings in London, its diverse spaces demand a highly adaptable approach to event photography.
The event transitioned between the bright, ambient light of the outdoor summer courtyard – where delegates enjoyed networking and food trucks – and the indoor lecture theatres and innovation labs where keynotes on AI and automation took place.
The Challenge: Conquering Low-Light Event Photography
Inside the main presentation rooms, the lighting environment changes instantly. To keep the focus on the presentation slides and live product demos, ambient house lights are lowered. This creates a classic corporate photography challenge: high-contrast, low-light conditions.
To capture crisp, professional images of headline speakers without disrupting the flow of the presentations, a mix of technical precision and premium gear is required:
Fast Lenses: Utilising f/2.8 zoom lenses and f/1.4 prime lenses allows enough light into the sensor without resorting to harsh, distracting flashes that ruin the presentation atmosphere.
Silent Shutter Innovation: Using mirrorless cameras with completely silent electronic shutters ensures that capturing close-up candid reactions or key speaker moments doesn’t make a sound in a quiet room.
Noise Management: Knowing exactly how far to push the camera’s ISO while retaining sharp details is the secret to delivering premium corporate imagery that looks flawless online and in print.
Real-Time Edits: Fuelling the PR and Social Media Machine
In today's digital landscape, event coverage cannot wait until Monday morning. For an innovation summit like Dentally Live, real-time social media presence is vital. The onsite marketing and PR teams needed high-quality, professional images while the event was still happening to push live updates to LinkedIn
How I Stay Ahead of a Packed Schedule
Managing a packed timeline of panel discussions, compliance clinics, and hands-on workshops while simultaneously delivering edited images requires a specialised workflow:
Tethers & Mobile Workflows: Utilising camera tech, selected "hero shots" were instantly transmitted via an encrypted wireless link from the camera straight to a tablet.
On-the-Fly Retouching: While moving between rooms, I performed rapid exposure corrections, colour grading, and cropping.
Instant PR Delivery: Within minutes of a keynote speaker leaving the stage, the PR team had access to a live, curated cloud folder containing web-ready images, allowing them to break the news instantly with high-quality photography.
This level of efficiency ensures that the client never has to rely on subpar smartphone photos for their live social media channels.
The Ultimate Turnaround: Event closed on Friday, Images on the clients ‘Desk’ by Monday morning
While real-time delivery covers immediate press releases and social media hype, the true value of corporate event photography lies in the comprehensive post-event gallery. These assets are crucial for future marketing, email newsletters, benchmarking reports, and promoting next year's summit.
Despite the volume of images captured across the six hours of CPD talks and the evening drinks reception, the entire, fully edited gallery was delivered to the client within 48 hours.
