Squiggly lines from disco lights (weddings)

ajax_andy

ajax_andy

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A lot of people might not understand what I mean by that and I havent taken any shots like this to show examples.

However I've noticed a lot of wedding togs seem to be doing this during the party part of the reception.... basically it's squiggly wavey lines in the shot from the disco lights and I have no way of describing it other than that :D

I know the tog is doing this by using a slow shutter speed, moving the camera about a bit and using flash to freeze the subject... however I just wondered if anyone here does it and can give me a little more info on the process?

I'm kind of guessing a slow shutter of about 1 sec, bounced flash to illuminate just the subject... how do they minimise the ambient though? A long shutter means lots of ambient, so is it a low ISO, or very narrow aperture... or both?
 
Basically your talking about shutter dragging a lot of night club photography will feature it looking for an exposure from roughly 1/10th to a couple of seconds but normally for me I find about 0.3 of a second to be about optimum, aperture about f/8 and ISO320, with flash a little off direct at the subject, I go for front sync flash to freeze the subject first as I know where the subject is then move the camera or do a zoom burst to get a nice effect

Hope that helps
 
MWHCVT said:
Basically your talking about shutter dragging a lot of night club photography will feature it looking for an exposure from roughly 1/10th to a couple of seconds but normally for me I find about 0.3 of a second to be about optimum, aperture about f/8 and ISO320, with flash a little off direct at the subject, I go for front sync flash to freeze the subject first as I know where the subject is then move the camera or do a zoom burst to get a nice effect

Hope that helps
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Ahh great thanks for that... yeah that's exactly what I was looking for.

So you don't bounce the flash just hit them almost directly with it? Do you use a modifier at all or just bare?

:)
 
ajax_andy said:
Ahh great thanks for that... yeah that's exactly what I was looking for.

So you don't bounce the flash just hit them almost directly with it? Do you use a modifier at all or just bare?

:)
Click to expand...

I use the small diffuser that is fitted as part of the 430EX2 the reason I don't bounce the flash is that it would put out more ambient light, I use a low(ish) power when doing it, I've not actually done it in months, I tend from memory use between 1/16-1/8th power flash
 
MWHCVT said:
I use the small diffuser that is fitted as part of the 430EX2 the reason I don't bounce the flash is that it would put out more ambient light, I use a low(ish) power when doing it, I've not actually done it in months, I tend from memory use between 1/16-1/8th power flash
Click to expand...

Thanks... I have a small on flash softbox so will probably use this just to soften things a bit then :)
 
Would you not be better with rear sync, freeze your target at the end of the exposure so you don't have crazy lights ghosting across their faces and a clearer freeze? etc? or am i just having a brain fart.
 
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Tizer said:
Would you not be better with rear sync, freeze your target at the end of the exposure so you don't have crazy lights ghosting across their faces and a clearer freeze? etc? or am i just having a brain fart.
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There are two schools of thought, it's really down to the way that you prefer to work as to if you for front or rear synced :thumbs: I prefer front synced it works for me :thumbs:
 
Tizer said:
Would you not be better with rear sync, freeze your target at the end of the exposure so you don't have crazy lights ghosting across their faces and a clearer freeze? etc? or am i just having a brain fart.
Click to expand...

Brain fart I'm afraid.

Whether the flash is rear or front curtain synced the ambient exposure will overlay in exactly the same place. Like above though, using front curtain is easier because:

You know where your subject is when the flash is firing
The gap between the pre flash and flash does confuse people who think they've had their photo taken and may well turn away from the camera just before the flash fires to take their picture.

The only way it makes a difference is with predictable linear movement, think car headlights. There is loads more info on rear curtain sync (it's not really rear curtain mostly) but this ones a very common misconception.
 
That makes sense! Especially the part where people get confused, probably more of an issue when you have a slower shutter speed too. I see me having a practice at this myself ! Time to get the disco lights out :D
 
Personally when I was doing a lot of fire/light performance photography I used rear sync and bulb - but for this the performer was generally performing a known pattern and facial expression wasn't really of importance. Bulb was essential to capture a full pattern from the props.

This has carried over when I do "nightclub" stuff (I never do this at clubs, but taking shots in the same situations...), although I switch to front-sync for the reasons mentioned above.
 
If you want the frozen flash image to stand out, make sure the subject is against a dark area of background. As said above, whether the flash fires first or last makes no difference to the relative exposure levels.

There are advantages to second (rear) curtain sync, but also downsides in many situations. Some good info here on when it works well http://neilvn.com/tangents/first-curtain-sync-vs-rear-curtain-sync/
 
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