help please: using G1 for pics inside nightclub

[allan2635]

Hi,
I am not a pro photographer but just take pictures inside nightclubs during special events for a local site. I have a canon G1 and have used it a few times at clubs now. However I am not at all pleased with the pictures that come out.
Please could any of you help me out and give me some tips and settings as to how I could achieve the best shots.
Just to give you all an idea about the setting inside the clubs I visit frequently. lots of people dancing/movement, dark/dark lights(blue, green,red), lots of lasers lights.
I would love to take pics on their original form and color (no flash)
here's a link to the pics i took recently.. http://www.metical.cheatindex.com/Armin_10Nov2001 please give ur feedback. thanks a lot for the help in advance.

[shaunyc]

No luck viewing your pictures I'm afraid - page not found.

OK, so we have some variables and some constants.

The constants are the amount of light at the club (assuming you avoid flash, as you have indicated), the settings that the camera will choose for that amount of light, and the fact (I'm guessing) that you can't ask everyone to hold still while you use a 1/5 second exposure.

The variables are your framing, your position with respect to the available light, your camera ISO, and your expectation of how the shots will come out.

If you want crisp and recognizable people shots make sure there is plenty of light bouncing off their faces, get in tight, spot meter off the face, and set a shutter speed in Tv mode that will allow you to hand hold. If you're still getting underexposed shots or the aperture can't open wide enough crank up the ISO to 400. If that still isn't enough try and rescue deliberately underexposed shots in Photoshop by adjusting Levels.

Or try something different. With the lens on wide angle, deliberately choose a slow shutter speed and capture splodges of blurry color and moving people. If possible you might like to try bracing the camera against a wall (or use a tripod if the club lets you) so that some parts of the shot are crisp, but the people are blurred, creating the sensation of movement. Try and get enough movement and light in the frame to make interesting shapes.

You've chosen a tricky environment - clubs are generally dark with occasional splashes of high intensity light that a camera's limited range of sensitivity will find hard to handle.

Experiment on a day when the results are less important than your attention to technical details. And don't forget to post some of the results here!

ShaunyC

[toglenn]

From my experience, Night Clubs are very difficult because of the contrasts between areas. Using the camera's internal flash will also, in most cases, will give you unsatisfactory results. The glare for white table cloths against the dark can be terrible. I find using a bounce flash mounted in the accessory shoe works most of the time but finding a suitable bounce surface is sometimes difficult. In those cases I use a white cardboard, held by a friend, at a 45 degree angle above the vertical pointing unit flash unit. The Canon EX 430, 540 or 550 flash units would be needed.