Nightclub Photography - Advice Please

Zascar

I'm involved in setting up a new club night in Dublin. One of the things I would like to do is take good photos on the night and put them on the website for people to see.

Here are some example of the type of thing I'm after: http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/watch/photos/2009/jul/22/gallery-radioslave/
http://www.subjectevents.com/main/component/option,com_joomgallery/Itemid,35/catid,12/func,viewcategory/

I have a Canon 400D, a Canon 50mm 1.8, and a Sigma 17-70mm. I've taken great shots at parties and weddings etc, but I know this is different and not sure if my photos will be up to scratch. One thing that was suggested is that I get a flash as this improves these type of photos considerably. Is this true, is it essential? What is the cheapest I can get a flash for, I'm on a serious budget here!

What advice can anyone give me for taking the best possible shots?
Thanks

Borderfox

Will the Club have a website? if so I could barter some shots for a link?

CabanSail

I can only see one of those sites as the first one is blocked. If you are looking at that sort of shot then they seem to be mainly shot with available light. This will give you more of the feel of a nightclub as you get the colours of the light which is there. You will probably be best using the 50mm f1.8 but this could be a bit of a limitation as with a cropped body it will be mid telephoto, so there can be difficulties in a crowded room. You will also probably have to use high ISO so the shots can be noisy.

If you use a flash then it will have the tendency to wash out all the colour & loose the atmosphere a lot. If you do use one then avoid using it directly but rather bounce it off a wall of ceiling to give more diffuse light. You can try using a flash with slow shutter speeds to expose the subjects but also have some of the available light in the shot as well.

mehfesto2

There's a guy on the electric picnic forum who takes pictures in clubs. He seems to be using a flash, long exposures (1 second usually), and wide-angled lenses. Gets great results. You could ask him there for anymore tips.

Cant imagine there'd be any hassle with flash, considering all the facebook pics that will be taken on the night! But I would imagine you can expect some hgassle from drunks, so be prepared for that. Drunks get mouthy with me for having glasses - imagine carrying around a nice piece of kit!

.Longshanks.

I've never got a chance to try these kind of shot, but from my limited understanding be 'cool' results come when using a wide angle lens, a 0.5 - 1 second exposure and a flash on the second curtain to freeze the action but still keeping the light trails etc
Would this be correct?

PaulieC

Zascar wrote: »

One thing that was suggested is that I get a flash as this improves these type of photos considerably. Is this true, is it essential? What is the cheapest I can get a flash for, I'm on a serious budget here!

ahem !

Zascar

Cheers guys. Yes I do find the flash can be very bright and wash people out. I notice in a lot of the photos I see they seem to be nicely lit up, good skin tones, but the background is not lit up, its dark, excentuating the people etc. I can't manage to do this.

What settings etc should I be using?

Fajitas!

It's a combination of directing your flash straight up, and diffusing it somewhat (I quite like the Stofen Omnibounce, but you can get mad complicated ones... I prefer to keep it simple). Using quite a small aperture, such as f/16, and a shutter speed of 1/30 or 1/15 rather than 1 sec. I do try to keep the ISO quite high which means the flash dosn't need as much power, this gives an advantage when you want to use a burst of flash.

Zascar

Cheers, so if I do not have a seperate flash and am using the built in flash, is there anything i can do to get better light?

DotOrg

Zascar wrote: »

Cheers, so if I do not have a seperate flash and am using the built in flash, is there anything i can do to get better light?

short answer, no.

your built in flash is a tiny light source, really close to the lens. Nice light comes from big light sources, away from the camera

Ghost Train

you could try slow syncro flash mode which most cameras have
http://digital-photography-school.com/slow-sync-flash

mikeanywhere

Fajitas! wrote: »

It's a combination of directing your flash straight up, and diffusing it somewhat (I quite like the Stofen Omnibounce, but you can get mad complicated ones... I prefer to keep it simple). Using quite a small aperture, such as f/16, and a shutter speed of 1/30 or 1/15 rather than 1 sec. I do try to keep the ISO quite high which means the flash dosn't need as much power, this gives an advantage when you want to use a burst of flash.

As Al says, 1 second is way too long but I suppose it depends on the end result you are trying to achieve. I have done a ton of stuff like this but used F4 & F8 the most. I use the stofen as mentioned before and every shot is bounced off the ceiling/wall to not get that in your face headlight look that is always on sites (including the first link provided above). If you feel more confident then shoot with the flash on manual as you will get 100% more consistent result especially if the images are going on a web site for all to see.

If not using a flash like a lot of the images in the 2nd link and relying on the lighting from the club then the faster the lens the better as it will help BIG time!!!!!!!!

kgpixels

The Surgeon pics from the Subject site are mine, www.myspace.com/kgpixels.
There is a lot of talk above on flash, tbh I only use it for people and for that 2nd curtain effect. I have a 580EX flash always on my 40D but I disable the flash on it. That way I only use the infrared sensors on the flash to assist with auto focusing. I find the built in auto focus on the 40D doesn’t work too well in the really low light, understandable enough I guess. Also as mentioned above I find the flash ruins the atmosphere.

The camera is always on manual and the ISO usually 3200, will switch to 1600 if I see things brighten up a bit. I’m fortunate to have some good canon lenses that open up pretty big, 24-70L 2.8 and the 70-200L 2.8. Without these the results would be very different.
Your Canon 50mm 1.8 prime sounds like a good lens, I don’t have any primes myself. What does the sigma open up to?

Mostly the lenses are at F2.8/4 and I have my finger on the dial controlling the shutter speed, bracketing as much as possible, and watching the meter in the viewfinder. I can get shots that will look ok at web size with shutter speeds as low as 1/25, but its all trial and error. If you are working in the same place a lot you will get used to what settings work best with that light. When flicking through your pics after a night, note the settings on the ones that came out best.
Noise is an issue at the high iso of course. But tbh imo if they are going on the web and not blown up too much, I don’t think people are going to see the grain!

My starter camera in ’05 was a 350D and even with the iso 1600 I got some decent enough shots

Btw what’s the name and location of your club night?