[StarDust]

I just recently got the go ahead that I'm going to be the photographer for a night club in Stockholm this evening. Famous artists like Carl Falk, Elton D and Hertz are going to be playing so I want it to be really good.

Any quick tips for this occasion apart from codiacs instructional video?
I have a really old flash with a self-made diffuser but it works.

Here are some pictures I took of a recent party: The Basement i samarbete med Eleventh Dragon Studio ©
I admit, half of them are bad but it was my first night club shooting ever.

[MrApollinax]

I had some questions answered by BBear on this thread:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/29167-using-mf-low-light.html

His two tips are 1. Get a fast lens and 2. Get a wide lens

[StarDust]

Thanks for the tip! Even added a comment there.

[BBear]

Here are some pictures I took of a recent party: The Basement i samarbete med Eleventh Dragon Studio ©
I admit, half of them are bad but it was my first night club shooting ever.

I dont think they are bad as you call them. I do feel like you had it at higher ISO (which is mandatory sometimes) and you had too much flash or lack of ambient light.


Which lens did you use and what aperture setting?

[StarDust]

Thanks, I'm modest I guess.
I used the kitlens, mostly at about 20 mm with the aperture at 4 the first half of the evening and then played around a little at about 8-11 later on. The ISO was pretty much constantly on 400 apart from one or two pictures.
I'm bringing my Pentax-A 50 mm f:2 with me as well tonight. Hopefully I can get some bright pictures with it.

[BBear]

Thanks, I'm modest I guess.
I used the kitlens, mostly at about 20 mm with the aperture at 4 the first half of the evening and then played around a little at about 8-11 later on. The ISO was pretty much constantly on 400 apart from one or two pictures.
I'm bringing my Pentax-A 50 mm f:2 with me as well tonight. Hopefully I can get some bright pictures with it.

Like said before, honestly I dont think they were bad at all. A few do lack the "club feeling" but thats the compromise: either you get people sharp and detailed or you get the club vibe and people a little blurry... Codiac's tips is great in trying to get both details at the same time, and to do so you need a flash.


ISO at 400? somehow I had the impression you were pushing at least 800...


f/8 and 11? did you use a flash as well? The smallest I use is f/4... most of the time I am at 2.8 or 3.5...



Here are some of my first pictures... I am into Psy Trance parties.. so lighting, decor, lightbeams, neons, etc are all over the place and that is the feeling I want to grab.


https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/post-your-photos/25128-nightclub-photogra...lp-needed.html


The pictures were taken with the kit lens () and no external flash. After that first experience, I bought the 360 flash (very useful because it is more flexible and it recharges MUCH faster than the built-in) and few manual lenses, 50mm and a 28mm. Unfortunately I wont bring the 50mm because it is too short... the 28mm surprisingly worked really well last party... I'll post some pictures later on...


BB

[BBear]

With the nightclub photography also in mind, here is the list of lenses that I am considering to replace the kit lens and the manual 28mm:



SMC DA* Series 16-50mm f/2.8 ED AL IF SDM $700 30cm 565g 0.21x
Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC SLD ELD Macro $419 20cm 450g 1:3
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR $420 27cm 434g 1:4.5


Sigma 30mm f/1.4 $429 40cm 430g 1:10
Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX $400 20cm 520g 1:4
Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX $329 18cm 485g 1:2.7
Sigma 28mm f/1.8 EX $260 20cm 480g 1:2.9



I absolutely wanted the DA*16-50mm but with the QC and the higher cost I think I'll try the Tamron and the Sigma Primer (in red). It is about the same cost as the DA*. The Tamron already has a nice rep around, the Sigma I'd have to read more about it...

[alohadave]

A mild fisheye would be useful for getting the whole dancefloor in the shot and showing how popular the club is.

[StarDust]

I actually mentioned the fisheye in a different thread today.
Ok, thanks for the tips! I'm using an AF-160 flash with a paper diffuser.
I'm also into psy-trance clubs but this one is strictly techno! Wish my luck guys, I'm catching the train in half an hour!

Nice picture with the lights spinning around his fingers btw. 1 second shutter speed?

[simons-photography]

I dont think they are bad as you call them. I do feel like you had it at higher ISO (which is mandatory sometimes) and you had too much flash or lack of ambient light.


Which lens did you use and what aperture setting?

I agree I would love to get pictures that good in poor light conditions you have a plus with the shake reduction and ISO 1600 produces decent images so you'll probably do allright

[ricosuave]

i found this site to be pretty informative. it's written by a fellow pentaxforums.com member.

look for the post on dec 9, 2007.

[paulsoucy]

Hi,

I regularly take my K10 and my Tamron 28-75 into a country western nightclub/bar and do photography there extesnively....

The conditions are really difficult... its dark, my camera has trouble focusing half the time, there are moving lights, and people are dancing and moving around constantly..

that said I think I do pretty good with all that...

Codiac26000's tips were ireally helpful to me, althought I never ended up purchasing a WailTail, for flash diffusion I went with my uncle's product instead ( abetterbouncecard.com ) so I hope this post will pay it forward too...

Initially when I started I was shooting wide open f2.8 with ISO 1600

but not shooting RAW ( I was shooting straight to Jpeg )

for example:



Here is a larger shot of the dance floor.. shot wide open at about 1/25th.. ISO 1600



You can keep a relatively low shutter speed and stay at about f2.8 or 4.0, whatever your flash is at will freeze the action regardless of whats in the foreground... what the ISO will do is add more noise but more ambient light will come in as a result...

Here is an image stopped by the on camera flash at a lower ISO but a lower shutter speed 1/10th f2.8 ISO 500



Then I stayed at that setting never going back to ISO1600 and I would just bring the background up a stop or two in raw using the fill light setting then reapplying black..... and I have not gone back on this yet since I started doing it... so my next tip is shoot raw because the RAW image captures so much ambient light information you can work with without destroying the image....

This was shot at f2.8 ISO 500 1/10th of a second but I brought the ambient light back in using RAW



Eventually I got a more powerful flash, one that carried far past the foreground so I found it unnecessary to use a higher ISO

so lately anytime I go in I normally stay at f4.0 for depth of field... about 1/15th to 1/20th for shutter speed and I work my ISO from 100-400 and always shoot in RAW which allow me to bring out the ambient light more later on in post processing.... you can go hgher in your ISO to bring out the ambient light and that is no problem but if you are using a semi auto or auto flash remember to dial down the power or every single one of your images will be blown out completely I have a sunpak super so I normally set it at auto green mode at ISO 400, and then depending on how close or far away I am from a foreground subject I will go up or down in my ISO and keep the same shutter speed cuz I know the flash will freeze whatever... and then just bring the background light up or down later in RAW

Also if you are going to be shooting into concert light.. and are far back and are going to be using flash for illumination I find that for that strong, very warm concert light off to the side is better.. .the K10 handles mixing the flash light and the hot concert light a little better if you are not direct.... at least this has been my experience...

for example here is the flash mixing with some strong concert lighting on the performer and I am front and center... not so good...



but here is another one where I was more at an angle with the flash as a fill and at least to me I think using the flash as an angled fill into that kind of lighting is much more pleasing to the eye...



To illustrate the technique where I shoot at a lower ISO and then bring out the background in RAW I've provided 2 examples so you can see the viability if you wanted to do the same...

the original ( f4, ISO 250, 1/25th )

I could have gone much slower with my shutter to let more ambient light in because my flash was going to freeze him either way...




AFter



Here is one more......

Before ( f4, 1/15'th, ISO400 - letting in just a little more ambient light this time )




The after



If you want to see the whole set of photos they are

Here!/


Hope this helps...

[StarDust]

Wow! Great pictures! The problem is that at my student salary at about 0 will not be able to afford stuff like Pocket Wizards and the like, so I'm going to have to go MacGyver such as my old flash with a paper diffuser for now. This will change after summer since I'm saving up for a better flash and perhaps a cable but I can't decide if I should go for a 360 or a Sunpack. What would you guys choose now that you know what I'm shooting?

I'm back now from two clubs and I've taken 350 pictures or so, they need a bit of post processing before they're ready to be public, but I'll post the best ones on this thread!

Thanks for the help!

Oh yeah and Paulsoucy, I can't go down to 2.8 since my kitlens will only go to 3.5 so 4.0 is the main aperture I use and a new lens is lower on my priority list than a better flash. On the fourth pic, I loved how you really got the entire background lit up, I guess the lighting was great there!

[paulsoucy]

Stardust...

I don't use pocket wizards and my flash was only 30 dollars... All the pics were from on-camera flash or mounted on-camera flash ( I managed to get a Sunpak 360 super from my boss for 30 dollars, quite the steal! )

The point of writing all that up was to say....

You can shoot in RAW

and if you have a decent flash output keep the f-stop at about 4.0 with a low shutter speed, it does not matter the lens...

depending on how much noise you are willing to tolerate if the above stays the same go up or down in your ISO for as much available light as you'd like to bring in..

and then bring the ambient light out later in post processing...

thats why I was showing you all the images...

I started shooting wide open but I felt the images were too soft and lacked depth of field so then I closed down to f4.0 and just slowed the shutter speed down..

[BBear]

You can shoot in RAW... and then bring the ambient light out later in post processing...

Which method are you using to boost the ambient light? Are you creating two files with diff EV and kinda of HDR them together or how?


I am curious about this technique, it could increase my quality a lot!