Nightclub photography - My first job!

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JamesClarke

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So I had my first nightclub photography gig on Saturday at a pretty busy club in Middlesbrough, UK. I really enjoyed the photography but didn't like the idea of having to sell keyrings.

The only thing I found difficult was focusing on subjects in the dark, anyone have any tips for this? Most of the time I tried to keep my focus/distance the same between subjects but if I thought it was wrong I'd fire of 3 shots with a change of focus in each shot to see if I could land on it.

Here's a few pictures I took, any advice for improvement would be awesome. :)

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I'm using a Canon 550D, 18-55mm kit lens and an external flashgun. Most shot at a speed of around 1/8 with an iso of 800 except the shutter dragging shots which were like a 0.6sec shutter speed.
 
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AF assist beam?
 
Used to do the keyring type shoots myself, a lot of fun if you're very outgoing and can sell a novelty product in a busy environment. I hated the "professionalism" of the managers of the keyring company I worked for and on dead days it was a struggle to get motivated. Some of the guests it was hard trying to explain I'm not going to keep taking pictures of them if they're not going to buy anything, but when you get a group that orders 20 keyrings it really makes up for it.

Production of the keyring is all on site, either storing a printer there or taking it to the venue each night. Print off all the sales as they're done and you typically get 50% per £3 keyring. If I could find a bar I really liked the music of that was busy enough for good sales I would consider doing it again, but it would have to be on my terms rather than theirs.
 
Can I ask why you were using 1/8 sec you should've been shooting at 1/250th of a sec maximum sync speed for canon with external flash would've helped you get sharper shots especially with those swaying drunks lol
 
Canon60d said:
Can I ask why you were using 1/8 sec you should've been shooting at 1/250th of a sec maximum sync speed for canon with external flash would've helped you get sharper shots especially with those swaying drunks lol
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Because the vast majority of "club" photography now uses a slow shutter to let in more of the ambient light and second curtain flash to freeze the subject like many of the images on here http://talk-nightclub.com/
 
Russ77 said:
Because the vast majority of "club" photography now uses a slow shutter to let in more of the ambient light and second curtain flash to freeze the subject like many of the images on here http://talk-nightclub.com/
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Each to there own me personally I don't like this shots but I do like the one with the two girls :)
 
You can't really control the quality of the subjects! But I think these are great.

Regarding shutter speeds, max sync will give you no ambient light, resulting in 'party' pictures which revellers are used to seeing on their camera phones and P&S cameras. And who wants to pay for that?

People like these shots because they look full of energy and funky lights. And also drunk people with loads of makeup etc probably looks mote attractive if they're not razor sharp! :D

via TP Forums for iPhone
 
Canon60d said:
Each to there own me personally I don't like this shots but I do like the one with the two girls :)
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:lol:

I'm not calling you old or anything (I haven't a clue how old you are :lol: ) but I remember my Granddad asking me about the audio set up in my car, he wasn't "an old duffer" or anything and was very clued up when it came to electronics/engineering, the conversation went like this:

GD: "So how many watts are you running now?"
Me: "Well the subs are getting about 600WRMS"
GR: "What size are the subs?"
Me: "12 inches"
GD: "So you must be running them at around 32ohms? Otherwise they're going to be flapping around like no-one's business"
Me: "Errrrmmmm, they're running at 2Ohms and they're meant to flap around like no-one's business :lol: "

I know this seems off-topic but I think it illustrates how there's more than one way to skin a cat ;) :lol:
 
Thanks guys, you can see a few more shots from the night here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/designprohibited/sets/72157625869594167/

I don't think my flash supports AF Assist, I only have a Yongnuo Speedlight YN560, can't afford a cannon speedlight yet. :(

The company rented a room at the back of the club with a printer and all the stuff to make the keyrings, after you sell a bunch you head up there, make them come down and find the customers. They charged £3.50 a keyring and paid me £7/hour and said my aim was around 20 keyrings a night.

I didn't like the business etiquette or the people who ran it. Firstly, they didn't care about the photography which was highly dissapointing. All they wanted was sales. I have a Canon 550D and was told it's the best camera they have seen; the guy kept telling me I might want to take my flashgun off - to which I completely refused. He didn't recognise it was a kit lens and thought it was something awesome just because it had a crown hood on it. The sample picture he took of me was a blury out of focus mess even though he'd apparently been a photographer for years. They teach their staff to use Auto Focus, built in flash and fast shutter speeds.

It just seemed like a really amature setup just a quick money making scheme for grabbing money from drunk people. It's not something I will continue long term and would not recommend the keyring business to anyone.

However, I most likely will do a few more nights just to boost my portfolio. In the mean time I've applied to a large event organiser in my area to work as a promotional photograper (no keyrings, just photos go online and I get a wage). They said they liked my work and have a few openings and will get back to me by the end of the week. :)

Simply put: loved the photography, did not like the job.
 
If you are selling photos as key rings the quality matters hardly one jot. It would be hard to tell a good image from a bad one - unless you had a line in oversized A4 keyrings :D
 
Ah you work for the other one to the one I did, to be honest those are low sales to be aiming for in a good venue. When I shot I had a 40d, 580exII and a tamron 17-50 f2.8 which was complete overkill compared to the 400d's and d40's that were also being used but the quality of the shots was worth it. If you pick your sales up I'd try and wiggle a % of the sales too if you're hitting the targets easily, sales to them is more important than the photography.
 
This isn't even a big company like IamVIP, this is just a small local business operating in say 15 local venues. I think I do get comission on anything past 20 sales. I'm not that concerned about the money to be honest, I'd rather do it for free and not bother with the keyrings.

Ah well, hopefully I'll land the promotional job. :3
 
If you can't focus in the dark, use manual pre-focus.

Eg, lens at 25mm and f/8, set focus at 2m and everything will be sharp from 1.3 to 3.8m Calculate your depth of field here http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
 
These are great given the circumstances - I like the technique of slow shutter and flash, works particularly well in #2.
 
Hi nice photos, one thing, they are all on the **** slightly try and shoot a bit more straight, if anyone wanted to use the pictures you are limating what can be done with them shooting them at funny angles.
 
Russ77 said:
:lol:

I'm not calling you old or anything (I haven't a clue how old you are :lol: ) but I remember my Granddad asking me about the audio set up in my car, he wasn't "an old duffer" or anything and was very clued up when it came to electronics/engineering, the conversation went like this:

GD: "So how many watts are you running now?"
Me: "Well the subs are getting about 600WRMS"
GR: "What size are the subs?"
Me: "12 inches"
GD: "So you must be running them at around 32ohms? Otherwise they're going to be flapping around like no-one's business"
Me: "Errrrmmmm, they're running at 2Ohms and they're meant to flap around like no-one's business :lol: "

I know this seems off-topic but I think it illustrates how there's more than one way to skin a cat ;) :lol:
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I'm 30 younger than you I bet I just don't like that style
 
bfotosuk said:
Hi nice photos, one thing, they are all on the **** slightly try and shoot a bit more straight, if anyone wanted to use the pictures you are limating what can be done with them shooting them at funny angles.
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This is a subject I'm not too sure about. On one hand you're right and it's a perfectly valid point, however when trying to capture the dynamic atmosphere and energy in a club I think shooting perfectly aligned portraits would just look boring?

Personally I think the angles work quite well, just my opinion though.

Thanks Hoppy, I was trying to do that but a couple of times I got bumped into and had the focus changed which was a little annoying.
 
You're welcome James :)

Stick with the movement and colour and wacky angles :thumbs:
 
Yup, angles = rad, whacky, fits with the vibe
 
Just secured another gig for night. :) promo photography coverage for a nightclub event at my university linked to Animex festival!

Edit: Also wondering something :3 - Is it frowned upon to have a few drinks if working in a club or bar? Obviously nothing excessive since looking after my kit is my primary concern, just something to take the edge of and settle into the mood a little better? Or am I being young and foolish? :p
 
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JamesClarke said:
Just secured another gig for night. :) promo photography coverage for a nightclub event at my university linked to Animex festival!

Edit: Also wondering something :3 - Is it frowned upon to have a few drinks if working in a club or bar? Obviously nothing excessive since looking after my kit is my primary concern, just something to take the edge of and settle into the mood a little better? Or am I being young and foolish? :p
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As long as you're not driving home :thumbs:

Good stuff! Is it another keyring job? I wouldn't mind doing this in my local club to make a few extra pennies, but don't like the idea of selling keyrings, though, I suppose not many people would actually buy an image alone.

Can I ask about your flash - Do you have it pointing directly at the subject or are you bouncing? Guessing directly at them with a diffuser on?
 
Not keyrings this time luckly, just stuff for facebook :). Had a few to drink, had a really good night, will post a few pics tomorrow.

I actually bought a stofen omni bounce diffuser but it didn't fit my flash >.< I would use that if I could. I can't though, so I just use the built in cover and bounce card that's on my flash. I point the flash about 45 degrees above the subject so the bounce off the card hits them rather than the full on flash.

Really want to buy a canon speedlight and fit my stofen on it. Really want the diffuser, second curtain and focus assist that I can't get with my current flash >.<
 
JamesClarke said:
Really want to buy a canon speedlight and fit my stofen on it. Really want the diffuser, second curtain and focus assist that I can't get with my current flash >.<
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What about a YN467 in the interim? It can so all that bar the rear sync, the 468 can do that but has issues with reliability. Yes it's £60 you can't use for the canon but will get you going now and has TTL. Could then be your back up once you get a canon?
 
JamesClarke said:
Not keyrings this time luckly, just stuff for facebook :). Had a few to drink, had a really good night, will post a few pics tomorrow.

I actually bought a stofen omni bounce diffuser but it didn't fit my flash >.< I would use that if I could. I can't though, so I just use the built in cover and bounce card that's on my flash. I point the flash about 45 degrees above the subject so the bounce off the card hits them rather than the full on flash.

Really want to buy a canon speedlight and fit my stofen on it. Really want the diffuser, second curtain and focus assist that I can't get with my current flash >.<
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Have you seen this thread on club photography? http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=268784&highlight=club+photography

Lots of good advice in there about speeds and sync and stofens etc.
 
Thanks for the info, I'll give that a good read later. I'm currently using a YN560 which is supposed to support rear curtain sync however apparently canon cameras are a bit of a bitch with said flash. I think I'll wait it out and invest in a canon flash when I can afford it.

Secured another gig for tomorrow night and one next week! Tomorrow in probably the biggest club in my area Middlesbrough Empire and next week I'm following the University Pirate Society around their club crawl :D. I'm doing these for free but I really enjoy it so can't complain! Should have a promotional tryout for a local clubnight/event organiser sorted out by the end of the week which will be paid work if I nail that. :)

Here's a few pics from last night:

(View more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/designprohibited/sets/72157626020273168/)

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It was more of a dancy event with only a few hundred people so I went slow shutter most of the night to make it look more busy and capture the energy.
 
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