Novice Night-club shots

pgriz · Apr 6, 2014

Yes! Yes I am. My usual subjects do not live in nightclubs. But seeing that we were celebrating my brother-in-law's birthday in a pub, and they had live entertainment, I decided to try out night-club shooting along with my usual family record-keeping photos. Asked the two musicians if they minded, and they said shoot away. So... Dark ceilings, dim lights, lots of moving/dancing bodies... Used my T1i at ISO 800, f/5.6 (to get some DOF), on-camera flash (580EX-II) in bounce mode, and some post-processing exposure/sharpness/WB/noise-reduction adjustment from RAW. What I didn't account for was that the background bricks were varnished, and therefore shiny, which created glare in some images. So, flub, pass, or decent?

#1

#2

#3

bribrius · Apr 6, 2014

that doesn't look like any nightclub ive ever been too. looks small too. I cant believe they let you use flash in that setting. Very nice of them. came out really good for a first time. Looks pretty good.

(place actually looks more like a karoke hotel lounge kind of thing but im not seeing much of it just the background)

bc_steve · Apr 6, 2014

#3 is my favourite but I would like it more if I could see the rest of the neck of his guitar and the rest of his hand.

#1. The angled bricks make a nice background for this one. The glare is unfortunate but I don't think it ruins the shot. It would look better without the green frame on the left and the half a clock.

pgriz · Apr 6, 2014

bribrius said:
that doesn't look like any nightclub ive ever been too. looks small too. I cant believe they let you use flash in that setting. Very nice of them. came out really good for a first time. Looks pretty good.

(place actually looks more like a karoke hotel lounge kind of thing but im not seeing much of it just the background)

What helped the "flash/no flash" is that we effectively took over that section of the pub - there wasn't anyone to object. The particular room we were in was accommodating maybe 50-60 people. Stage was a raised platform about 10x10 ft. and the dance floor was about 20x20 feet in front of it. So "intimate" would be appropriate.

bc_steve said:
#3 is my favourite but I would like it more if I could see the rest of the neck of his guitar and the rest of his hand.

#1. The angled bricks make a nice background for this one. The glare is unfortunate but I don't think it ruins the shot. It would look better without the green frame on the left and the half a clock.

Yes, I wish I had shot a bit lower, but unfortunately, the lower edge is what the frame had. Other pictures were lower, but the musician wasn't as "dynamic" in the other frames.
Regarding your comment on #1 - agreed. Will re-crop.

What this experience had me wishing was that I could use some kind of off-camera flash while still moving around the room. The on-camera flash, even in bounce mode, didn't do a good job of creating shadows that would have defined the volume of space better. In retrospect, I should have used a flash bracket with the flash held some distance to side of the lens axis, plus a flash diffuser that would have given me some light spread without having to bounce it off a dark-colored ceiling. I have the flash bracket, but not the diffuser. Things to consider for the "next" time.

jenko · Apr 7, 2014

Not bad! These places can be hard to shoot. Dark, crowded, etc. My suggestion would be to get a bit more creative with the exposures next time. These are are exactly the same--everything in focus, flash. Maybe try a few with shallow DOF or without flash. Just crank up the ISO and embrace the noise. lol.

pgriz · Apr 7, 2014

jenko said:
Not bad! These places can be hard to shoot. Dark, crowded, etc. My suggestion would be to get a bit more creative with the exposures next time. These are are exactly the same--everything in focus, flash. Maybe try a few with shallow DOF or without flash. Just crank up the ISO and embrace the noise. lol.

Creative with exposure, eh? Well, a few articles of clothes did seem to disappear among several of the party-goers, soon after the third round of Irish whiskey shooters (but were replaced before the local community standards were seriously violated

). As for the camera, I did experiment with more ISO, slower shutter (to catch the ambient), and wider aperture (but since my "wide-open" is f/4 - not much room for thinner DOF), with some so-so results. I was hoping for some more "mood", but with the ambient so low (and very red in colour), I'd have had to use shutter speeds of 1-2 sec. to get any meaningful exposure, and the subject movement will probably have blurred that into visual mush. Not saying it's not a good idea, just that I am not sure how to create that kind of feeling with the skill set I have at present.