Disco, party shots?

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ash_xt

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Ashley
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how best is it to take the above? went to a party Saturday night, just had the camera on auto, as wasn't sure what sort of settings I need, but then the pictures just end up being average. Any advice would be very much grateful.

cheers

Ash
 
Well you've learned the first lesson. It doesn't matter what kind of photography you pursue, you'll not get anything worthwhile out of it if you don't put any effort into it.

When it comes to technique it largely depends what it is that you want to capture though?

Did you want to get:
  • natural light candids?
  • mix flash and ambient (dragging the shutter)?
  • Capture the moving disco lights?
  • Some interesting flash lit photo's?
  • Indoor group shots?
  • long lens headshots?

There's some great threads on nightclub photography and possibly on wedding receptions too. Is that the kind of thing you were after?
 
ash_xt said:
how best is it to take the above?

cheers

Ash
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The above?, there isnt anything above, maybe link us to a photo with the effect you are trying to achieve, then someone could help, as already said there are many different styles of "party" photography, without any idea what you intended on capturing cant be much help im afraid
 
the "the above" was aimed at the title of the thread :)

and yes Phil, some natural light candids, flash lit photo's and some good indoor group shots are the sort of things I was looking for, as I say most of the photo's that I took, could quite easily have been taken on a point and shoot (which I suppose is was doing with it set on auto)
 
i'll have a gander through some of the nightclub and wedding threads later, if you know of any great ones then I would be very grateful of a couple of links.
 
If you do a facebook search for club m in coventry, the photographer from down there is a friend of mine, and quite a talented nightclub tog i would linkbto the page but im using my phone ATM and feeling too lazy to fire up the pc lol
 
Thedodo said:
If you do a facebook search for club m in coventry, the photographer from down there is a friend of mine, and quite a talented nightclub tog i would linkbto the page but im using my phone ATM and feeling too lazy to fire up the pc lol
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ha ha i know the feeling, thanks again will have a look :D
 
No problem, when i shoot in clubs i genarally use settings something like this.
F11 ISO 400 and a shutter speed of between 1/20 - 1/4 and set my flashgun to rear sync mode which will allow youbto get a touch creative with zoombursts etc
 
No worries thats what this forum is all about, when i say ISO400 thats usually whatbi can get away with but some clubs etc are darker so you may need to up it to compensate, depending on how capable your body is at high iso, what are you shooting with?
 
You should be able to snap away at ISO800 without to much of an issue, do you shoot raw? I wpuld reccomend doing so providimg you have the software to process them, noise can be sorted much easier in a raw file compared o a jpeg
 
ash_xt said:
only a basic 1100D as just starting out.
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So long as the image is exposed properly there is no problem.

Without going through my external drive I cant find any images but here is one that I took before I had my second 60D and its at iso 1600 and its a straight out of camera JPEG... Not RAW conversion.... the 1100D is far more capable than people give it credit for.

 
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The 1100 is a good little camera, but i was getting at the advantage of using raw would be you can choose the amount of noise supression, white balance etc, rather than what the camera thinks it needs, thus giving you much better control over the final image
 
Oh you are 100% correct there, I always shoot RAW when its paid work, the only paid work I don't is motorsport as I need my images ready for sale the same day so no time is there.

RAW is definately the one I like to shoot unless you are sure 100% you have the shot as like you say, if its slightly wrong a JPEG can be useless and a RAW can quite easily be pulled back to a usable image
 
cheers chaps, will have a play with all the info given :)
 
Do you have an external flash?

It's difficult to do anything creative with the built in flash.
 
Phill speaks the truth there, a straight on built in flash vs a proper external flash is a totally different image.

And I am nowhere near the degree of understanding flashes compared to some of the guys like Phil etc I will fully admit that! :)
 
Phil is right using a dedicated flash will improve over your pop up umpteen times, popup flash is too direct and harsh
You can pickup a fairly decent used one from the bay quite cheap, nissin and metz do decent budget ones.
 
ahhh I thought that may have been one of the problems. its on my "to get" list ha ha.. its a list that's constantly growing. will have a look at the ones mentioned :D
 
If your budget can strech to it then the canon 430ex is fantastic, but they dont come cheap, although canon have bought newer models out sp the price will of dropped a bit.
I used to have a jessops own branded flash new they were bout 70 quid, build quality was not the best but done the job, if you see a 2nd hand one at a good price wouldnt be a bad buy.
 
again, thanks :) definitely need a thanks button ha ha. will probably get that canon one, not too bad of a price, can get it for £180 from a quick scout round on google.
 
£180 is not a bad price you can also once you have posted enough check out our classified section on here.
 
Thedodo said:
No problem, when i shoot in clubs i genarally use settings something like this.
F11 ISO 400 and a shutter speed of between 1/20 - 1/4 and set my flashgun to rear sync mode which will allow youbto get a touch creative with zoombursts etc
Click to expand...

dont mean to hijack the thread but can I see some of your work? I normally use f4 -5.6 ISO1600 at round about 1/13 to get all the ambient light in, and of course the flash on rear curtain sync, have i been doing it wrong all along? :cuckoo:
 
FlyingShrapnel said:
dont mean to hijack the thread but can I see some of your work? I normally use f4 -5.6 ISO1600 at round about 1/13 to get all the ambient light in, and of course the flash on rear curtain sync, have i been doing it wrong all along? :cuckoo:
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There's not that much difference between those 2 choices. Just about enough to make it personal choice. But there's no reason at all to support your choice of rear curtain sync. :nuts:
 
my bad, wrong choice of words - "of course" there. i stand corrected, and tbh sometimes i dont even notice if the flash had reset itself onto first curtain sync :p i find it easier to manage with rear curtain, just that people's faces are less likely to have streaks of light across them
 
I shoot a few bands and the light is challenging. I always try a mix of stage light metering and/or flash to get the result I need. I also use a fast prime and up the iso to around 4 - 800. Here's some taken at around 10 30 last Friday with just stage lights and a flash. The 50mm prime really helps here as you can keep the shutter speed up without mad ISO noise

http://photo.vettahead.com/albums/band-dan-the-theif/
 
FlyingShrapnel said:
my bad, wrong choice of words - "of course" there. i stand corrected, and tbh sometimes i dont even notice if the flash had reset itself onto first curtain sync :p i find it easier to manage with rear curtain, just that people's faces are less likely to have streaks of light across them
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They're not though:cuckoo: - try an experiment with exactly the same light, same subject movement and same camera movement You'll have almost exactly the same shot because the movement isn't a single predictable trajectory.

Remembering that the ambient image and flash image are overlaid images, the brightest parts of each image lay over each other. The only time 2nd curtain sync makes an artistic difference to the image is where the brighter subject is moving in a single direction across a darker background - best example, a pool ball. First curtain sync gives us a static ball with a streak in front of it, 2nd curtain gives us a ball with a 'streak tail' which looks natural.

Now to the problem with ETTL, moving people and 2nd curtain sync:

Just before your shutter opens you get a pre flash, your subjects might take this to mean they've had their photo taken, which is still happening and continues for a short time until the flash fires just before the curtain closes. That's not a predictable portrait, they may start to turn away before the (actual) flash fires.

With 1st curtain sync, you can take your shot (the 2 flashes firing so quickly they're often seen as a single flash) then continue with the exposure, moving the camera generally downwards or zooming outwards to ensure bright light trails don't streak down over your subjects faces. Simples:)
 
Phil is spot on with his explanation, the reason i use 2nd curtain when i am shooting in the club where i dj, is mainly down to the factmost of the people i am shooting are posed shots, and the rear sync works well with the way the clubs lighting is setup.
If i was shooting various venues then i wpuld change my style to match. The best advice i can give is to get involved with one of your local clubs get om there with your camera and find a style that suits you
 
let me clarify why i said people's faces are less likely to have streaks of light across, i find thats the case because i usually wave the camera about, with the centre of the waving where their faces was the middle of so effectively it sort of draws lines of light across their faces. and this is also why i prefer second curtain syne

hmm i will experiment with it next time i go shooting. i have noticed the thing about 2 flashes but didnt know that even with 1st curtain sync there are 2 flashes. cheers:thumbs:
 
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