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Nightclub Photography - Lighting a Room?

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 03:08:39 No.3407704 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>3407807 >>3407865 >>3408391

Looking for some help from club photographers - I've been advised that for one of the venues I'm shooting next month it's best to mount flashes to the walls of the club to trigger wireless for the best lighting. Has anyone done this and do you have any tips on the best way to do this while keeping all your gear intact?

I would have imagined this is best for just shots of the entire room, but would this make portrait lighting any better?

TIA

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 03:16:19 No.3407714 Report

Quoted By: >>3407743 >>3407973

Well from what I've heard generally for club photography you just keep your flash on the camera and go to town. Rear/slow sync flash is used in general. If it's a dance venue or something that involves drunk people I wouldn't just mount some flashes to walls unless they will pay for any damage.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO slow-sync-flash-3.jpg, 55KiB, 600x400

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 03:32:34 No.3407738 Report

Quoted By: >>3407743

You can also substitute 1 second, ISO 100 and f/10 for the same effect and it's easier to remember.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 03:38:40 No.3407743 Report

Quoted By: >>3407793

>>3407714
I know for a fact they wouldn't pay out - the risk would be the main worry.

>>3407738
How do you control ghosting/keep the subjects sharp at that speed? I usually move between 1/15 and 0''3 depending on the size of the group. Other EXIF details in the thread pic.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 04:11:24 No.3407793 Report

Quoted By: >>3407865 >>3407991

>>3407743
>How do you control ghosting/keep the subjects sharp at that speed?
You don't.
You let it expose and blur then the rear curtain flash fires and freezes the subjects right before the shutter closes.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 04:32:58 No.3407807 Report

Quoted By:

>>3407704
>Focal Length 18.00 mm
This helps.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 05:27:32 No.3407820 Report

Quoted By: >>3407973

i think this is the kind of photography job i'd want the least of all, i really hate the shit out of clubs and the only kind of shot you get to produce is "drunk people mugging for camera"

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 05:45:58 No.3407822 Report

Quoted By:

I've seen that done for weddings before, with flashes at the corners of the room in addition to on-camera flash, to make sure every shot gets some rim light. It'd look pretty weird on whole-room shots, since the lighting would be weakest in the center.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO IMG-20181209-WA0001.jpg, 78KiB, 1125x1008

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 10:40:34 No.3407865 Report

Quoted By: >>3407973 >>3407991 >>3408319

>>3407793
Complete and utter noob here, how might one set this on an a6000? Is an external flash mounted elsewhere in the room or does the on onboard one suffice? So much is abbreviated in the camera and I never get out to clubs much to experiment without subjects complaining.

>>3407704
My older brother used to take nightclub shots and his strategy was to use an external camera mounted flash pointed at the ceiling with a diffuser so as not to blind the subjects or create a hard light.
The trick was to use what diffused light bounced back from the ceiling so subjects seemed evenly lit and not just from the front.
But no idea what synchrospeed setting was used at all.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 16:08:03 No.3407973 Report

Quoted By:

>>3407714
Mate of mine does a ton of nightclub/production photography as a job, this is what he does, and pretty much anyone else in the field

You can't really get away with leaving gear around clubs, especially if it's not set up high with the club beforehand. Only really useful in things like theatres and weddings where you have an arranged setup with the building owners

>>3407820
I'm told it's fairly annoying dealing with girls telling you they look like shit because of your photos and lack of skill all night, rather than just because they're drunk as tits and look like shit

>>3407865
>Is an external flash mounted elsewhere in the room or does the on onboard one suffice?
You can do it but obviously it'll look like shit

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 16:38:23 No.3407991 Report

Quoted By:

>>3407865
>>3407793 here
On a an a6000 I would use a flash extension cable. and hold the flash off to the left. Some people also get a bracket that screws in the tripod socket and then the flash extension cable hot shoe also mounts to the bracket and it depends on the venue if you decide to bounce the flash off the ceiling or not. a diffuser is also a good idea.

If you don't want to buy a external flash, bracket and cable, you can also try holding the spring loaded a6000 flash to that it points upward and bounce it. It kinda works ok.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 18:02:57 No.3408035 Report

Quoted By: >>3408096 >>3408144

I do this job three nights a week and always keep the flash on my camera. Also people that tell you this job sucks are autistic.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 20:29:14 No.3408096 Report

Quoted By: >>3408144 >>3408319

>>3408035
I'm not a club photographer but I do go to clubs and it's often very dark there right? How do you get the focus right when it's that dark?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Dec 2018 20:49:49 No.3408119 Report

Quoted By:

Put your flash on your camera.
Set flash to rear sync.
Set shutter slow-ish depending on how smeary you want the lights in the background.
Pick an aperture that keeps a small group in focus.
Adjust iso so background is lit properly (however you like it)
Set flash to TTL and your camera's meter to center weighted.

You will not get it right on the first shot, take a few burner shots till you get it just right.

OP Sun 16 Dec 2018 21:19:20 No.3408144 Report

Quoted By:

>>3408096
You should be using an external flash, the majority of them have AF assist beams that'll allow the camera to focus in low light.

>>3408035
OCF > direct flash, always

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO image-2018-12-16.jpg, 73KiB, 1000x637

Anonymous Mon 17 Dec 2018 04:14:22 No.3408315 Report

Quoted By:

I do club photography and me and everyone I work with have on-camera flash. At one of the clubs we work at there's two strobes mounted on the ceiling (one pointed at our backdrop and another where out backdrop used to be). They're more trouble than they're worth IMO. It would be better if it was for someone staying at the backdrop only shooting at the backdrop for the whole night but all of us pretty freely switch between shooting the backdrop and making rounds at other parts of the club. It's too much of a hassle to keep switching between the speedlight and the wireless trigger on the hotshoe. The strobe works in slave mode but that just causes more trouble because now I have to change my settings whenever I shoot at the backdrop and there's uneven exposure and the contrast is thrown out of wack.

The one where our backdrop used to be is nothing but an inconvenience because I'm shooting pretty much in an area 360 degrees around it so if I'm in that spot, no matter where I am I have to compensate for it and it ends up blowing out a lot of shots.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO gary_fong_lsc_sm_lightsphere_col (...).jpg, 25KiB, 500x500

Anonymous Mon 17 Dec 2018 04:27:26 No.3408319 Report

Quoted By:

>>3407865
>My older brother used to take nightclub shots and his strategy was to use an external camera mounted flash pointed at the ceiling
If that works for your club then have at it, but all the places I work at have black walls and ceilings and/or high ceilings. So bouncing isn't an option. The best option I've found is just to buy one of the Gary Fong diffusers

>but muh tupperware

Do you really wanna lug around a damn tupperware container with a hole cut in it to two crowded clubs a night while switching between portrait and landscape orientation constantly? The convenience is worth the $40.

Using a bracket is going to make the flash light more even and pleasant but I quit using it because the cold shoe snapped on like 4 or 5 different sync cords and I got sick of replacing them.

>>3408096
Use manual focus points. Mirrorless cameras with EVF should make this a lot easier though.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Dec 2018 11:23:20 No.3408391 Report

Quoted By:

>>3407704
Brits are so fucking weird looking

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