Improving my club photography!

[jhart52]

I am currently doing bits & pieces of nightclub photography work, as the pay is good and the work is fairly flexible its going great!


I felt now as I am earning a bit of money doing what I enjoy it would only make sense to upgrade my camera, so I have just got myself a 5D iii along with 35mm 1.8, 15mm 2.8 and just ordered the old 24-70 2.8!


The photos I have taken in the past are fine, the promotors always seem happy but the annoying thing is I am not as happy with the photos as I would like to be! I really want to be at the top of my game and my new camera is hopefully going to help a lot! Got a gig on Tuesday which I am very excited about, however I would like to step up my game a huge amount which will hopefully lead to more work & more importantly a very happy me!


I really want to get this 'washed out' sorta look from my photos as pictured below, I know a lot of it is in the editing but having tried many techniques I still cant get my head around making my images look like this! I also like my light painting and stuff as you can see from my photographs (in certain scenarios) but I want to get a slightly better effect from doing them! I imagine a massive upgrade in both camera and lens's will help me achieve this but I just wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions as to how to get there! Here are a few examples of what i hope to achieve:

Please do not post images to which you do not hold rights. You may post a link to the image(s).

I guess just a high iso so get lots of ambient light, fairly fast shutter (for the none light painted ones) and low flash?

Oh and heres a few links to what I have achieved recently:
https://www.facebook.com/letitbleed...85353800067.1073741831.100000458243060&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.589210147790257.1073741831.214396861938256&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.578600285517910.1073741829.214396861938256&type=3


Many thanks!


p.s. - I originally had a 600d with a 18-135, 8mm fisheye & 50mm 1.8(which i still have)

 

[KmH]

As far as editing, the 'washed out' look is a combination of slightly de-saturating the colors and a Photoshop Curves panel adjustment.

Move the lower left end of the Curve panel line straight up until you get the desired amount of 'washed out'.

No edit - showing unchanged Curves panel.

With Curves adjustment (see Curves panel)

 

[Derrel]

First off, the shots in THIS link are horrible examples of club photography, with simply horrible "raccoon eyes".

https://www.facebook.com/letitbleeda...8243060&type=3

In this set, the flash unit is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too high above the lens, and every single person has big, black CIRCLES of no light where their eyes are...surely you do not wish to emulate that lighting pattern.

You want a washed-out look for club photos? Mmmm, okay....how about using the desaturation feature in an image editing application?

 

[gsgary]

From looking at you Facebook shots you have a long way to go and at the moment your new 5D is not going to make any difference because it is all down knowledge and not equipment

 

[nikkwong]

Let's be a little more constructive. You can see an example of some of my club photos here https://www.facebook.com/NikkWongPhoto/photos_stream, i've been doing it, for like, forever. First off, you need to diffuse your flash. You can go buy one of those gary fong diffusers but what I do is pick up an 8.5x11 paper and wrap it around the top of my flash, creating a 'dome' which creates very nice even light for the subjects.

For the effect you want, it's all about learning the post processing. As long as your images are exposed well and you get enough detail exposed from the background (which you can surely do with the mk2), you can really do massive overhauls to your images in lightroom. Learn to play with the tones curves as that will really 'change the look' of your images, and just FYI 100% of the time my tone curve rests high above the default diagonal line. If you're shooting raw, changing the camera profile and the corresponding sliders will also greatly affect your image.

 

[nikkwong]

Oh, and I notice you're from aberdeen, what club night are you shooting?

 

[DiskoJoe]

Does no one know how to post a freaking picture? And why would you host them on facebook only? The photo quality of FB is horrible.

 

[Tailgunner]

Does no one know how to post a freaking picture? And why would you host them on facebook only? The photo quality of FB is horrible.

No joke! I don't even bother looking at FB links.

People should think twice about posting pictures on FB, especially photographers now that FB has changed their policy allowing them the ability to sell photos posted on their site without compensating the owner.