Club Photography

pjay · Feb 5, 2014

Hello guys,
I've been reading articles about night club photography for some time now. But I still want to know what this nice community has to say about it! My equipment is a 7D, 24-70 II, 580 II flash (the flash and the lens is going to be borrowed). So right to the questions - What picture style, shutter speed, ISO, aperture, white balance and flash settings should I try using? Also, the ceiling there is quite high. Where should I point my flash? Should I always try to bounce the light of walls or ceiling? Or should I keep my flash in ±45 degree angle and bounce the light of the white thingy in the flash (how is it called again?) right to the object?
Thank you guys so much for the spent time!:hail:

NedM · Feb 5, 2014

I'm figuring a high ISO, wide aperture but enough to keep sharpness, and if you can HS with your flash that can decide your shutter. Just look for lighting and if anything try rear curtain flash, that always produces some amazing night photos; especially for a nightclub! Good luck!

fokker · Feb 5, 2014

Hi pjay, thanks for the message. There are different approaches you can take to nightclub/party photography. One would be fast glass, high ISO and minimal diffused or even no flash. This way creates issues with focusing and image quality, and IMO leads to rather boring images. Personally, I'm all about using a good dose of on-camera flash and a long shutter speed. Sure the pictures aren't always clean or coherent, but they look pretty crazy, which is what you really want when photographing a bunch of wasted people don't you think?

I use a 430EX and a very wide angle zoom lens as I find it's not only easier to get people in the frame, but it picks up a lot of lights in the background. If possible, borrow a 10-22mm or something similar rather than the 24-70 (though this will still do the job fine).

Here are a few examples of mine:

1. ISO 400, f/5.6, 0.4s. Zoomed from 17mm to 40mm during exposure.

2. ISO400 f/4 0.6s

3. ISO400 f/4 0.8s Zoomed from 17 to 40mm during exposure

4. ISO800 f/4 1.3 sec 17mm?

During the exposure (usually somewhere from 1/2second to 2 seconds) you can make all kinds of effects from the background lights. Try zooming in, rotating the camera, moving the camera up and down, side to side, throw the camera in the air..... I used ot have a lot more examples like that but don't have the photos online at the moment.

Hope this helps, good luck!

bratkinson · Feb 5, 2014

I just did a search for 'club' on this forum and came up with a list of threads that deal with club photography. So, rather than going into detail here, check out some of the previous responses for club photography.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/search.php?searchid=3200134

pjay · Feb 5, 2014

Thanks for the reply! Also, is it worth buying a wire and holding your flash in one hand rather than on the DSLR itself? Also, what about any flash diffusers? Is, for example, a lightsphere worth buying? Now about the flash itself, what should the settings be there?

Mach0 · Feb 5, 2014

pjay said:
Thanks for the reply! Also, is it worth buying a wire and holding your flash in one hand rather than on the DSLR itself? Also, what about any flash diffusers? Is, for example, a lightsphere worth buying? Now about the flash itself, what should the settings be there?

I personally use a omnibounce for its bare bulb effect and it's size or I use a bounce card like a light scoop. The settings are going to take some fiddling and practice. It depends on the place. I have not used canon but I use my flash in any mode really. Ttl, A, or manual. Just keep in mind ttl might give you inconsistent exposures.

fokker · Feb 5, 2014

I've never bothered with bouncing flash or diffusers as they throw too much onto the scene others than the subjects. This is one time where a speedlite works well on camera, undiffused. A bracket and a ttl cord would also be useful but not entirely necessary, as for holding the flash in one hand, well you're better off putting that other hand to use holding the camera working the zoom. Use the flash in E-TTL mode and the camera in manual or Av mode. The flash will light the subjects properly and if you're at something like 400 ISO and f4-5.6 the longer shutter speed will pick up enough background lights (if there are some of course) to create interesting effects.