Taking photos in dark nightclubs. Help!!??!!

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stellarbeam

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Jessica
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I've recently started taking photos twice a month for a metal club. So far the club has been happy with my photos. I however am far from happy with them.

I've avoided using flash as there is so much atmospheric smoke the flash just bounces of it and the image just doesn't look good.

I've been using shutter speeds of 1/10 - 1/30 for crowd shots and an ISO of 1600. I am using AWB. MY problem is the images are still coming out very dark, and only seem to look ok when the orange lighting comes on (flashing lights in club) with the green/blue lighting things look a mess. I'm using anything and everything as 'tripods', steps, ledges etc. A tripod is not really practical, and I'm tring to be as discreet as possible, which is tricky in a really small club.

Also when I do ask to take photos of people at the club (i use flash for this bit) the images look unexciting. I've seen great 'reveller' photos in local papers but don't know how to achieve such wonders.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. As soon as I've had word that the club has received my pics and have posted their choice on their website I'll post a few here so you can see them.

Many thanks

Jessica
 
What camera and lens are you using and what apertures are you finding is metering right? I presume you are shooting Shutter Priority?

Without the pics it's a bit difficult to diagnose properly, but I would say that AWB is probably not helping, perhaps experiment with Daylight, Cloudy and Tungston presets to see if those are any better.
 
I'm using a Canon EOS400D with the 18-55mm lens. I'm using shutter priority and am getting apertures of 3.5 - 5.6

I'm using the camera flash, I didn't know I could turn it down (I'm still figuring out how to use the camera) I will find out how to do it.

I'll try using the different white balances as sugessted.

Hopefully I'll be able to post actual photos come tomorrow evening.

Jessica
 
whack the ISO up as high as it will go, shoot in raw, use noise ninja to kill the noise.

failing that, you're going to have to invest in some equipment, i'm afraid. buy a flash that you can use bounce with; a 580 series flash will let you play with strobe effects which could look pretty interesting when the crowd gets rowdy.

buy a lens with the widest aperture you can find; the sigma 30mm 1.4 is VERY good value. the canon 50mm 1,8 is nice, but in a club you might find it too long.
 
I have Nikon Jessica so dont know about the 400D but found this that suggests you can compensate for the flash, presumably somewhere in the menus - sure others will be able to point out exactly where.

"The built-in flash offers 4 different modes (Auto, Manual Flash On/Off, Red-Eye Reduction). The flash coverage is up to a 17mm lens and it has guide number of 13 at ISO 100. An AF assist beam, flash compensation of +/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments, Second Curtain Synchronisation, flash exposure lock and bracketing are all available".
 
I do have a flash that came with the camera (I got a package deal) I'm not sure what type it is. I've never used it, as I didn't really know how to. I think I'm going to have a good read of the instruction manual (both camera and flash), and experiment a lot with all the above suggestions and see how I go.

Sadly at the moment I can't afford to buy any additional equitment at the moment, but I will keep the above lenses in mind for when I am feeling more flush.

Many thanks,

Jessica
 
is it a flash that can go on top of the camera ( seperate unit) if so it is the ideal thing to start with and see how it goes.
 
I do alot of nightclub photography, for fotoparty.co.uk, here's some tips:

Use a flash. It's essential. If you don't have a descent one then I strongly recommend you get one, for nightclub photography it's gonna be the most important piece of your kit. You don't need to splash out on a 580ex, a 430 will do just fine.

If you have to use the built-in then turn the flash exposure down a bit, 400Ds with the pop-up flash tend to overexpose images.

ISO - Turn the ISO down, there's no need to have it at 1600, it will just coat your photos with horrible noise in low light situations. When using the flash set it to around 400 so that you can get some of the backgrounds in.

Shutter - When using the flash, put the shutter to 1/10. That will get all the backgrounds and lighting in around the subject(s) instead of it just being black.

Metering - VERY important for this type of photography. The best metering mode is center-weighted average.

Apature - As wide as it will go, so 3.5.

Also AI focus can be good as people are always moving.
 
8utters said:
I do alot of nightclub photography, for fotoparty.co.uk, here's some tips:

Use a flash. It's essential. If you don't have a descent one then I strongly recommend you get one, for nightclub photography it's gonna be the most important piece of your kit. You don't need to splash out on a 580ex, a 430 will do just fine.

If you have to use the built-in then turn the flash exposure down a bit, 400Ds with the pop-up flash tend to overexpose images.

ISO - Turn the ISO down, there's no need to have it at 1600, it will just coat your photos with horrible noise in low light situations. When using the flash set it to around 400 so that you can get some of the backgrounds in.

Shutter - When using the flash, put the shutter to 1/10. That will get all the backgrounds and lighting in around the subject(s) instead of it just being black.

Metering - VERY important for this type of photography. The best metering mode is center-weighted average.

Apature - As wide as it will go, so 3.5.

Also AI focus can be good as people are always moving.
Click to expand...


Those tips are really helpfull to me. I think my flash (the seperate unit I have) is a 300, so I'm guessing not really good enough. I'm going to have a look on ebay and see how much a decent 2nd hand one will cost me.
 
Probably no help in a really small club (which club night is it, anyway?), but when I take pictures at our rock night I find a nifty fifty does alright, and you don't always need flash, depends how dark it is in there. You can get some nice shots using the club's lighting if you're lucky.
 
A 50 is good for some shots, but nowhere near wide enough for shots of people. And for shots of people a flash is ESSENTIAL. Unless they are standing directly under a light which is a meter or so above their head, the shots will either be a) underexposed/too dark or b) blurry. Even with a really wide apature. Low light shots of people need a flash.

My 17-40 is good, but I used to have a 28-135 and struggled to get loads of people in a shot.
 
Hi Jessica,
I'd strongly suggest a faster lens than the f3-6 that you have. As already suggested, the 50mm f1.8 is a cheap, excellent fast lens and will help no end. I rarely if ever, use flash. (Bands hate having flashes going off all the time).

Use partial or centre metering, as evaluative will just get confused. I use my 400D a lot at gigs and rarely have to take the ISO higher than 800. I tend to use my 24-70mm f2.8 fast lens, as this is usually both wide enough and long enough if I am close to the action. The 50mm f1.8 can be a bit too narrow sometimes.
 
I'm still not convinced you have to have a flash I'm afraid (he says, browsing ebay for a new speedlite). It depends what you want from the photograph. I took a look at fotoparty.co.uk, and for that sort of picture, you definitely need a flash, no question about that. Some of the stuff Andy (Diabolos137) has taken at the Nightmare and Assault club nights here in Notts works better without one.

Honourable men can differ :)
 
Well yeah it depends on the venue really. In most nightclubs a flash is essential due to low light.

I don't use the flash for atmospheric shots of the dancefloor and lighting and stuff, only use it for people.
 
yourapocalypse said:
I'm still not convinced you have to have a flash I'm afraid (he says, browsing ebay for a new speedlite). It depends what you want from the photograph. I took a look at fotoparty.co.uk, and for that sort of picture, you definitely need a flash, no question about that. Some of the stuff Andy (Diabolos137) has taken at the Nightmare and Assault club nights here in Notts works better without one.

Honourable men can differ :)
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to Diablos137's photos? I've done a search on the forum, but couldn't find anything.
 
I would put the ISO up to 1600 or 3200 and shoot wide open. Personally I think you can get away with using a hotshoe flash in a club without detracting from the atmosphere, forget the built in flash. Also a wider aperture lens would help as well. Try bouncing the flash vertically or 45 degress backward over your shoulder. As mentioned, shoot RAW and remove some of the noise with a program like NeatImage+. Ultimately, don't be too concerned with noise, noise viewed on even a £1000 LCD computer panel and printed noise look very different.
 
Also a off-cord cable is great. You will get the best photos if you get the flash away from the camera and take like 3 photos at once, with the flash at different crazy angles.
 
I echo what 8utters said really.. and I too am a nightclub photographer every weekend.
I usually have my aperture around 5.6 if I'm taking a shot of a single person. But if there's a group/wide area of scene) I up it to around 8 or even 11.
One of the clubs I work in is very very smokey due to the staff thinking smoke makes lights look better... but it gets to smokey you can't see the lights sometimes!
 
Smoke does make lights look better, if it obscure the lights, they need better lights!

Or lasers. Lasers rock.
 
They have lasers and good lighting... but they've got it into their head the smoke needs to be so thick you can't see in front of your face.

They actually have 4 lasers, one in each corner... Still get obscured by the sheer amount of smoke in there!
 
I want to go to this club! So many clubs would be better if you didn't have to look at the other patrons :D
 
Smoke is good but too much is just annoying, even if your just in there for a night out.

As far as smoke and photography are concerned, if it's not too thick, you can pretty much fix the light reflecting off the smoke on the computer. I'v recovered loads of smoke-filled photos with clever (and not advanced/difficult) editing.
 
I've done a bit of club portrait photography. My Sigma 17-70 goes to f2.8 which is pretty handy for low light with a narrow DoF, but I still had to use a flash gun. I shot in manual to get a bit of the background action.
If you're nice and close to the subjects, smoke shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
I'm gonna see if it's ok for me to use flash at the club. So far I just used it for shots of individuals, not crowd shots. At the moment I cant afford a new lens or flash gun, so I'm just going to have to try and make the best use of what I do have.

I was looking at photos of other clubs last night online.There were some cool ones that had been taken using a longish exposure (maybe 1 or 2 seconds) had started zoomed in, but zoomed out during the exposure with the flash at the end (second curtain?). It created an interesting effect, which I might try.
 
8utters said:
I do alot of nightclub photography, for fotoparty.co.uk, here's some tips:

Use a flash. It's essential. If you don't have a descent one then I strongly recommend you get one, for nightclub photography it's gonna be the most important piece of your kit. You don't need to splash out on a 580ex, a 430 will do just fine.

If you have to use the built-in then turn the flash exposure down a bit, 400Ds with the pop-up flash tend to overexpose images.

ISO - Turn the ISO down, there's no need to have it at 1600, it will just coat your photos with horrible noise in low light situations. When using the flash set it to around 400 so that you can get some of the backgrounds in.

Shutter - When using the flash, put the shutter to 1/10. That will get all the backgrounds and lighting in around the subject(s) instead of it just being black.

Metering - VERY important for this type of photography. The best metering mode is center-weighted average.

Apature - As wide as it will go, so 3.5.

Also AI focus can be good as people are always moving.
Click to expand...

(Bold characters mine)

Excellent advice from one who's clearly been there and done it! Take it to heart, stellar.

As for your "reveller" photos: 8utters' tip can only be repeated 'When using the flash, put the shutter to 1/10. That will get all the backgrounds and lighting in around the subject(s) instead of it just being black.'.

And a monopod will do near miracles! ;-)
Well, maybe not miracles, but it will at least double your 'keepers' rate!

Have fun!
 
I'd never use a monopod in a club... although at dance clubs things work differently, as there's people walking about all over the place all over the time... someone would trip over a monopod and then I'd get sued hahaha.

Oh and I upload my pictures to dontstayin... http://www.dontstayin.com/members/chicca-babe-nc/favouritephotos
 
The dontstayin website is great for inspiration so thank you to Markp for that.

ConfusedChicca I looooove your photos!! Any tips for those light trails? I think I maybe know how they are done, but I'm not sure.

So glad I found this site...everyone is so helpful :)
 
Erm Just play with your settings, but a good starting point is shutter speed 0"3. But it helps that in dance clubs there are lasers and people with crazy finger lights/glowsticks.
 
The thing about dontstayin.com is that it's not really professional photographers who upload photos there, it's just loads of random people who took photos with their compacts on a night out...

They do have photographers, but if your look at some of the other sites, mainly tillate.com - all their photographers are hired by them, and use DSLRs (admittadly tillate are terrible in my region, in Manchester they have 1 good photographer, the rest have the equipment, but don't know what a good photo looks like. Everyone comes out looking bright orange).

Tillate is the biggest nightclub photography company in the world, they operate all over Europe.

stellarbeam said:
I was looking at photos of other clubs last night online.There were some cool ones that had been taken using a longish exposure (maybe 1 or 2 seconds) had started zoomed in, but zoomed out during the exposure with the flash at the end (second curtain?). It created an interesting effect, which I might try.
Click to expand...

Yes I do that occasionally, not so much anymore becuase the range of my lens is 17-40 but I used to have a 28-135 so it works really well. Example of one I took a while ago:

image14.jpg


As for monopods - Could work well in a club scene photography wise but never tried it myself.
 
The thing about dontstayin.com is that it's not really professional photographers who upload photos there, it's just loads of random people who took photos with their compacts on a night out...


Do you actually use DSI at all??? There are a lot of Pro Spotters, and they upload their pictures to the site each and every weekend.
And as for Tilllate operating all over Europe, the DSI Pro Spotters, and site users are all over the world!

One of the major pulls to DSI is the fact that everyone can upload their pictures from their nights out.. which TBH I see as a good thing. As a photographer, I know how much enjoyment I get from recording what I see on the night, and from displaying this record. So why shouldn't other people be allowed the same pleasure?
Not everyone can afford DSLRs and not everyone wants to use one, but they still want to take pics to show to people.
 
Didn't you read my whole post? I said that they DO have professional photographers, but alot of the photos on the site are people who just went out for a night out and uploaded their photos.

Personally if I went on a night out i'd rather view and download photos taken by a pro who was hired by the company, than sifting through some random average-joe's photos. Not that there's anything wrong with people uploading and sharing their photos, i'm fine with that, I just prefer sites that exclusively show photos taken by people who are actually hired by said company.

This differs from other companies like Tillate who specifically hire photographers to take photos in clubs which they are assigned. DSI is more of a photo community site which also has pro photographers...

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it...just merely stated that alot of the photos on there are taken with compacts by people who were out in the club with their friends, rather than people who were actually hired to take nightlife photography.
 
Does anyone have any tips for taking photos in clubs with a Sony Super Steady Cyber - Shot, DSC - T20?
How do you get close ups so sharp and vibrant?

Thanks XX
 
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