A good event photographer will ask most of these questions themselves. A great client answers them before being asked. Here is what to communicate before your event — and why each point makes a real difference to the final photographs.

The difference between good event photography and great event photography is rarely about the equipment or even the photographer's skill in isolation. It is about preparation. The more a photographer knows about your event before they arrive, the better positioned they are to capture it properly.

These are the ten things that matter most.

1. The full schedule for the day

Not just the start time — the entire sequence of events. If there are speeches at 8pm, a cake cutting at 9pm and a surprise performance at 10pm, your photographer needs to know this in advance. Without a schedule, they are guessing, and guessing means they might be at the wrong end of the room when something important happens.

Send the running order as soon as it is confirmed, even if it changes later. A revised schedule the day before is far more useful than no schedule at all.

2. The most important people in the room

Every event has a hierarchy of important people. For a birthday party, it is the guest of honour and their immediate family. For a corporate event, it might be the CEO, a keynote speaker or a major client. For a graduation, it is the graduate and their parents.

Tell your photographer who these people are, what they look like, and where they are likely to be. A photographer who cannot identify the most important people in the room until they spot them by chance will miss moments that cannot be recreated.

3. Any specific shots that are non-negotiable

Almost every event has two or three photographs that are essential — not just nice to have, but genuinely important to the client. The grandmother who travelled from overseas. The group of college friends who have not all been in the same room for five years. The moment the birthday cake arrives.

Write these down and share them with your photographer explicitly. These are not creative constraints — they are essential information. A professional photographer will plan their coverage around them.

4. The venue layout and any access restrictions

If the venue has a raised stage, a balcony, or a specific area that photographs particularly well, your photographer should know about it. If there are areas that are off limits, restricted to guests only, or where flash photography is not permitted, this also needs to be communicated in advance.

If possible, share the venue layout or a floor plan. Even a rough description of the room arrangement is helpful. Walking into a venue blind with five minutes before guests arrive is an unnecessary disadvantage.

5. The lighting conditions

Venue lighting varies enormously. Candle-lit dinner venues, nightclub-style party spaces, brightly lit hotel function rooms and outdoor garden events all require a different approach. If your venue is on the darker side — and many Cork event venues are — tell your photographer in advance so they can bring appropriate supplementary lighting.

If the venue has restrictions on flash photography, this is also essential to communicate early. A photographer who arrives expecting to use flash and is then told it is not permitted needs time to adapt their approach, not to discover this problem in the middle of your event.

6. The guest count and general atmosphere

A birthday party of 20 close friends in a private house is a completely different event from a corporate dinner for 200. Knowing the approximate size and the expected atmosphere helps a photographer plan their approach — how much to move around, how proactively to engage guests, whether the tone calls for formal posed shots or pure candid work.

If your event has a theme, a dress code or a particular atmosphere you are trying to create, share this too. It shapes how the photographs should feel, not just what they capture.

7. Whether there are other vendors to coordinate with

If a videographer is also covering the event, your photographer needs to know this. Photo and video teams can work very effectively together, but only if they are aware of each other's presence and have had at least a brief conversation about how they will share the space without getting in each other's shots.

The same applies to any other vendors who will be active during key moments — a DJ who controls the lighting, a band whose positioning affects the room layout, a caterer whose service timing affects when key moments will happen.

8. Your preferences on posed versus candid photography

Some clients want a mix of formal posed group shots and candid documentary-style coverage. Others want primarily candid work with minimal disruption to the flow of the event. Others specifically want formal portraits of particular groups.

There is no wrong answer, but your photographer needs to know your preference in advance. A photographer who spends the first hour trying to organise formal group shots when you wanted pure candid coverage — or vice versa — has wasted time that cannot be recovered.

9. Any sensitivities or people who should not be photographed

This matters more than people often think to mention. There may be guests at your event who have asked not to be photographed, or people whose presence at the event is sensitive for personal reasons. There may be a family situation that means certain people should not appear in the same image. There may be a guest who is camera-shy and will become visibly uncomfortable if a camera is pointed at them.

A professional photographer will handle this information with complete discretion. But they can only act on it if they have it.

10. Your contact details and a point of contact on the day

Make sure your photographer has a working phone number for you — and for a trusted person at the event if you will be difficult to reach. On busy event days, quick communication matters. If the schedule shifts, if there is a problem at the venue, or if the photographer needs to confirm a detail quickly, a direct line to someone who can answer is invaluable.

Also confirm the arrival time clearly. "The event starts at 7" is ambiguous — does that mean you want the photographer there at 6:30 to capture arrivals, or at 7:00 when the doors open? Be specific.

The bottom line

None of these points require significant effort — most can be covered in a single email or a brief call before the event. The photographers who produce the best results are almost always the ones whose clients have given them the information they need to do their job properly.

If you are planning an event in Cork and want a photographer who asks the right questions before the day and delivers on them, get in touch.

Book an event photographer in Cork

FlashFocus covers weddings, birthday parties, balls, graduations, corporate events and live performances across Cork and Ireland, from €150.

Phone / WhatsApp: +353 85 759 0516 Email: [email protected] View Event Portfolio See Pricing

FlashFocus is a Cork-based event photography service run by Diarmuid Gillingham, with over 14 years of experience photographing events across Cork and Ireland.