 BetterPhoto Member |
how to shoot in clubs and discos I purchased an A95 Canon digital.Any help please with which are the best settings to use since I got my first freelance job taking pictures in nightclubs for a dance magazine.Its my first digital,I always had Canon film and never took pictures in these conditions.
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Noor H. |
Hello there, i hav'nt got that many tips, but I hope this will help. i know that having a tripod is not a good idea in a club. The best thing is to keep your camera on manual mood with syncronized flash. this will allow you to still show the background and forground. and also blur background an dfreeze forground. Or you can avoide using flash by using a tripod, but make sure you stay away from the dance floor :) Goo Luck
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Kerry L. Walker |
My first suggestion is to go for a trial run, just to familiarize yourself with the conditions and your camera. I would suggest using the camera you are familiar with, but most magazines probably want digital files. Forget the tripod. Three is the chance you could trip someone and get sued in the process. Set your aperature at f/8 or f/11 and zone focus at about 12'. This will give you enough DOF that most shots will be in focus. Autofocus is tough in these conditions. With little light, it will be difficult for your camera to focus quickly. With crowded conditions, your camera may not focus on what you want it to. I don't see any problem with shooting in either manual mode or AP mode. (The best idea would be buy a Leica M-7 rangefinder, which focuses much easier in dark conditions, but we are talking about a $4,000.00 plus investment.)
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Mark Feldstein |
Hi Alan: Before you go out and drop $4000 for an M-7 plus glass, hang on a minute or two. I shoot my nite-club work with a couple of very old and seasoned Nikon F-2's and 2 M-6's. :>) (The M-6 is only about $1500 plus glass.) Seriously though, there are a few things you can do to help yourself out. Kerry and Noor are right in that a tripod can tend to get in your way and depending on where you're working, people might trip on the thing. If you don't have a monopod, however, you can use your tripod on one leg to gain some camera support. You can also use a table top, chair back, bar top, someone's shoulder (although I ask permission usually), to provide camera support. For focusing, drop a couple of bucks on a Mini-maglite flashlight (and some spare AA batteries). I use gaffers tape to attach the flashlight to my flash bracket or the strobe housing, pointed in the direction of the lens of course. It works like a mini-modeling or focusing light to provide sufficient light for me to focus with either cameras. It also has an adjustible beam spread and brightness. You can even put a filter on the light's lens to make it less obtrusive (although considerably dimmer). Use a faster ISO like 1600 to gain an f-stop or two. Although Kerry suggests working at f8 or 11, while that'd be nice, in vewy vewy daark environments that's usually just not possible. I use very fast lenses, like an 85mm 1.4, or 35mm 1.8. A 20 mm is handy too. Using wide angles will help give you the depth of field without the smaller f-stops you'd need with longer lenses. Most of the time, even at ISO 200 (as in Kodachrome 200) I can work at 1/30th and f4.0 more or less. Also, practice hand holding your camera at even slower speeds, say 1/15th or 1/2 sec, even slower. The flash will help freeze movement and anything that's left in recordable ambient light, while it'll go soft, will probably still be recognizable and produces some interesting results. You should experiment with different techniques using ambient light and fill flash. o Use a diffuser on your flash so you won't blow out the foreground and send the background into oblivion. Although I have a Lumiquest diffuser, I actually prefer using a rig I made out of an 8x8" Tupperware container with a hole cut in the back for the flash head and the lid over the front end, gaffers taped to the flash and a Stroboframe flip-flash bracket. That gaffers tape is great stuff. BTW, some more discerning photographers may prefer Rubbermaid over Tupperware. For shots of musicians, you should be fine without flash or using just some fill light as performers, compared to the dance floor anyway, are pretty well illuminated. And Kerry's right too in scoping out the venue with the actual lighting conditions before you shoot it. Take a meter with you to any pre-survey you do and play around with ISOs. And remember: if someone trips over your monopod (or tripod), just leave or move the the opposite side of the room. If it's so dark that you need that kind of camera support in the first place, then no one ought to be able to recognize you anyway. :>))) Hope this helps. Take it light.
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Mark Feldstein |
Sorry Alan, I forgot to mention one thing. Most club or venue managers, even band managers, will be glad to turn up the ambient light somewhat for photographers doing magazine pieces. They're usually pretty pleased to help you out, especially if you agree to tell them when you're through and they can dim them back down. Discuss it with them when you presurvey the place, and they'll probably even show you how where the dance floor and other zone dimmers are so you can do it yourself as you cover those areas. Get the picture? M.
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Lynn Boyer |
best with a flash
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