Club Photography

will-jum · February 26, 2009

Hi,

I've been hired to photograph a girl's 21st party which is located in a club. I have a 400d and a canon speedlite 580ex II. The lens im using is a wide angle zoom.
I just wondered if anyone has any hints and tips? Im worried about shooting in the dark and being able to focus correctly etc, so any hints or tips would be great!?

Thanks,
Will

Qarik · February 26, 2009

geberal tips? use a flash diffuser, a fast lens with image stabilization, and crank up the iso?

Not really sure what else yo might be looking for.

Candid Arts · February 26, 2009

which wide angle zoom?

Trevlan · February 27, 2009

For indoor club photography, if capturing the ambient light is not required, (Most of the time, the ambient is dark anyway) set your shutter to your camera's flash sync. (Most cameras 1/250) Aperture at f /5.6 and your flash power manual at 1/4 power. Shoot raw, so you'll be able to bump the exposure up in the event you get an underexposed frame.

If you have a 2.8 lense, you can work with that and 1/8 power on your flash. You'll be amazed how powerful your strobe is.

These shots were shot in the darkest of conditions.

F 3.5, ISO 200, 1/200th Flash power 1/4 about 10 feet away from subject.

F 4.2, ISO 200, 1/200th flash power 1/4 about 6 feet away from subject.

Keep in mind the inverse square law. Same subject at twice the distance gets 1/4 the power. You control that with aperture and ISO. Shutter speed controls the ambient contribution.

I doubt they'll let you bring an umbrella and stand into the place. So, get a quick flip and diffuse your flash. You'll loose one stop of light with the diffuser. So compensate either with aperture or ISO.

One more thing, if your flash doesn't have an AF assist light, you can resolve your low light focus with a flash light. If you shoot raw, WB doesn't matter, you can work it out in post. But your light source will be the flash, so you can set it to that if you'd like. Don't forget extra batteries for your Speedlight!

HTH.

aktse · February 27, 2009

Scott Diussa has a really good blog post about concert photography and some of it should apply to club photography since many musicians play in club venues.

will-jum · February 28, 2009

Candid Arts wrote:

which wide angle zoom?

It's the standard 18-55mm that comes with the canon 400d. I'm hopefully borrowing a sigma 10-20mm for the night too!

will-jum · February 28, 2009

Trevlan wrote:

For indoor club photography, if capturing the ambient light is not required, (Most of the time, the ambient is dark anyway) set your shutter to your camera's flash sync. (Most cameras 1/250) Aperture at f /5.6 and your flash power manual at 1/4 power. Shoot raw, so you'll be able to bump the exposure up in the event you get an underexposed frame.

If you have a 2.8 lense, you can work with that and 1/8 power on your flash. You'll be amazed how powerful your strobe is.

These shots were shot in the darkest of conditions.

F 3.5, ISO 200, 1/200th Flash power 1/4 about 10 feet away from subject.

F 4.2, ISO 200, 1/200th flash power 1/4 about 6 feet away from subject.

Keep in mind the inverse square law. Same subject at twice the distance gets 1/4 the power. You control that with aperture and ISO. Shutter speed controls the ambient contribution.

I doubt they'll let you bring an umbrella and stand into the place. So, get a quick flip and diffuse your flash. You'll loose one stop of light with the diffuser. So compensate either with aperture or ISO.

One more thing, if your flash doesn't have an AF assist light, you can resolve your low light focus with a flash light. If you shoot raw, WB doesn't matter, you can work it out in post. But your light source will be the flash, so you can set it to that if you'd like. Don't forget extra batteries for your Speedlight!

HTH.

Thanks for your help! So your saying fire my flash and it should focus?

I'm also a bit reluctant to shoot in RAW as i never have! I also know that it takes longer time to process the image, so i won't be able to get two of the same thing ensuring i get the correct image. Do you still think it's worth shooting in RAW?

Thanks to everyone else for your help so far!!

JustPlainMe · February 28, 2009

will-jum wrote:

Thanks for your help! So your saying fire my flash and it should focus?

I'm also a bit reluctant to shoot in RAW as i never have! I also know that it takes longer time to process the image, so i won't be able to get two of the same thing ensuring i get the correct image. Do you still think it's worth shooting in RAW?

Thanks to everyone else for your help so far!!

I am an absolute newbie, but I saw this post and couldn't let it pass---shoot in RAW, shoot in RAW, all the time! If your camera has a RAW + JPEG, you can do that if you have to, but especially in these lighting conditions, you will have options processing RAW that you couldn't with a JPEG. I think (IMHO) it could mean the difference between great shots and no shots at all. Don't worry about processing time; the quality is what matters in the long run.

Take it with a grain of salt!

Sarah

Trevlan · February 28, 2009

will-jum wrote:

Thanks for your help! So your saying fire my flash and it should focus?

I'm also a bit reluctant to shoot in RAW as i never have! I also know that it takes longer time to process the image, so i won't be able to get two of the same thing ensuring i get the correct image. Do you still think it's worth shooting in RAW?

Thanks to everyone else for your help so far!!

Don't understand why it would take longer as opposed to Jpeg? I shoot raw, sequential shots and it works just as fast. It's a larger file, as long as you have a good memory card you should be fine. The ambiant light should be enough for AF. The flash will be your source. If the AF becomes an issue, use a flash light to illuminate the subject. Then focus. You should practice shooting with no light in your house. You'll raise and eyebrow I promis. ;-) I did. (At camera sync of course.)

will-jum · March 1, 2009

Trevlan wrote:

You'll raise and eyebrow I promis. ;-) I did. (At camera sync of course.)

What do you mean by this?

I will have a little test with raw tonight.

About a flash diffuser, i don't currently have one and don't really want to spend alot of money getting one, would something like this http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Accessories/Flash/Small%20Reflectors%20and%20Diffusers/products/Jessops/Universal%20Flash%20Diffuser-50441/Show.html be suffiecient?

Many thanks for all the help everyone!

Scott_Quier · March 2, 2009

will-jum wrote:

What do you mean by this?

I will have a little test with raw tonight.

About a flash diffuser, i don't currently have one and don't really want to spend alot of money getting one, would something like this http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Accessories/Flash/Small%20Reflectors%20and%20Diffusers/products/Jessops/Universal%20Flash%20Diffuser-50441/Show.html be suffiecient?

Many thanks for all the help everyone!

Raised eyebrows - anyone else in the house will think you're nuts shooting in the dark

As for diffusers: Check out Ziggy's comment

The BBC is practically free (costs about $2.00 for the materials to make three). I use them all the time.

Club Photography

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