Night Club shooting tips from those experienced please.

[Conk]

A Friend I work with has a band that is doing very well lately and wants me to shoot his band at night club gigs. Does anyone have any tips as well as settings/lens they would recommend.
I'm using the D-Rebel. I have a 35-105mm f.5-4.5 lens which I thought a good choice of the lenses I do have. 420ex flash.
Should I be using a different lens?

[robertwgross]

It kind of depends on the size of the room.

I can't tell what the wide open aperture of your lens is (f.5 is not descriptive).

However, if you take the guide number, divide by the aperture, then that should tell you the ISO 100 range in feet. If you crank up the ISO to 400, then you'll have twice the range. However, not knowing how wide the subject is, it's hard to guess any more.

Personally, I would try to lay my hands on a wider and faster lens if possible. The wider lens will cause you to be closer, and that makes your flash brighter on the subject.

On the other hand, if that band has colored lights and stuff, then you will need to absorb more of that ambient light, and that will dictate a faster lens. Maybe much faster. The 50mm f/1.8 lens is cheap. You might give it a chance.

---Bob Gross---

[Moppie]

Iv had great success shooting a mates band in a club.

Since you know the band, make sure you get access to the stage.
IMO you need to get close, haveing a zoom lens is great, but you then need to get above the crowd to avoid getting them in it, and it limits your angles.

I got good results with my A80 useing the lowest F stop it would allow (either 2.8 or 3.5) and shutter speeds ranging from 1/2 to 1/10sec depending on how much flash I used (often none) and what the stage lights were doing.
Of course anything below 1/10 got lots of motion blur in some shots, but many have a nice contrast, with one band member standing still, and so showing up nice and sharp, while another is well blured from fast movement.

With a faster lens you should be able to get great sharp shots, and be able to capture a range of colour from the stage lights.

Also note that most clubs set the stage lights to a computer that syncs them to the music, if you can get a feel for what the computer is doing you can time your shots to get the lighting effect you want.

Also, WEAR ear plugs!
Especialy if you get really close, I have no idea what sort of music thier playing, but if your shooting from right in front of a bass driver, and your not wearing ear plugs, you will suffer some tempory hearing loss.

[Conk]

Thanks guys. Sorry for the typo Bob. That was a 35-105mm f3.5-4.5. I've decided the 50mm f1.8 MKI is the lens to use and shoot raw.
I'll definately be wearing earplugs. Here's the band-Undersound from Vancouver. http://www.supernova.com/bands/profile.php?band_id=7206#

[garnerfoto]

I do a fair amount of gig photography myself. The lighting in most clubs is dismal at best.
I start with my 100/2.8, but if the light is poor I put on the 50/1.8.
I start with Tv mode at 1/60, ISO 1600, exposure compensation at -1/3 or -2/3.
With extremely low light I have shot at 1/30 sec. If the light is better than average I will bump the ISO down. I try to keep the aperature reading less than 3.5 as I like to lose the background when possible.
With a shutter speed of 1/60 you can capture the motion of a drumstick creating a fan, the motion of a power chord being struck, but still get sharp faces.
I have always shot available light. I just bought a 550EX and will be learning how to use it for some creative effects during the next few shows I attend.
Earplugs are a must if you value your hearing. I keep a handful in my bag. I wear them during my dayjob, and wear them during my nightclub job.
Also be prepared to have the other band(s) that is(are) playing request some pics also. I started out shooting my friends band, and things have just snowballed from there.
I now shoot for a webzine covering the local music scene. The money isn't good, but the exposure and experience for me is great.
Now I have bands calling me to shoot promotional pics, presskits, and CD jackets. Maybe this will work into shooting for national and international acts.

[Conk]

Excellent tips Thomas. Thank you. :D

[gcunnin11]

Quick question to those with experience including you Ralph.... I am going to be shooting in a halfway decently lit club and I have a Canon 20d w/ a 17-40mmL f/4, Sigma 15mm 2.8/f , and a 50mm 1.8/f (that I don't really intend to use) and I have two flashes to use... Obviously primary 580EX II, and a 420EX. I also have a ST-E2 remote for both of them, but the 580 will act as the master and the 420 as a slave... The question is... Would it be ridiculous to utilize both flashes, the 420 in my hand? Both have Stofen omni-bounces but I don't know that I will get as great of a lighting effect for the possible irritation of the surrounding subjects having two flashes going off... Any ideas? Cheers~

[MegaTron]

I think 2 flashes would be overkill, and they would just a big hassle. Your 580 is more than enough. I would just use direct flash, and mess with the shutter speed (1/3-1/60) and keep the aperture around 5.6 or so and see what you get.

[Pete]

Make use of the ambient light. Don't be afraid of high ISO, wide aperture, low shutter speed.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=369787

[PhotosGuy]

For a stage, I used the 70-200 f/4 @ ISO 1600 here:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=372180

[blackshadow]

Take a look at the stickys in the performing arts sections.

I'd recommend a 50mm f1.4 over the f1.8 as the 1.8 has a tendency to hunt for focus in low light. Shoot RAW, crank up the ISO and NO FLASH! A lot of venues don't allow it and more importantly it blasts out the ambience of the stage lighting.

[blackshadow]

Quick question to those with experience including you Ralph.... I am going to be shooting in a halfway decently lit club and I have a Canon 20d w/ a 17-40mmL f/4, Sigma 15mm 2.8/f , and a 50mm 1.8/f (that I don't really intend to use) and I have two flashes to use... Obviously primary 580EX II, and a 420EX. I also have a ST-E2 remote for both of them, but the 580 will act as the master and the 420 as a slave... The question is... Would it be ridiculous to utilize both flashes, the 420 in my hand? Both have Stofen omni-bounces but I don't know that I will get as great of a lighting effect for the possible irritation of the surrounding subjects having two flashes going off... Any ideas? Cheers~

How the hell are you going to set this type of thing up in a typical club gig? There are bodies flying everywhere, beer etc - it's just not practical.

[nielkotze]

Hey all. I've been shooting in night clubs for 2 years.
I started off with a bridge camera - it looks like an DSLR, but the lens does not remove, does not have a mechanical shutter and the lens is operated manually like a proper lens.... and shooting with the popup flash.

In Dec 2009 I bought my first DSLR, a Nikon D3000 (the entry level model) and was still shooting with the popup flash. Around June I got my first speedlight - a SB-600. As a notice to speedlight photography I thought that the lighting was great but in reality the lighting was very harsh.
I experimented with DIY bounce cards.... first tried a business card since the SB600 does not have a built-in bounce card.... It worked ok.
I made a A5 sized bounce card (black at the back / White at the front) which gave my bounce and fill flash at the same time.... it worked better.
Then I made a A4 sized bounce card which gave softer light.... it worked even better.

In December 2010 I bought a Nikon D7000, which was a major upgrade from the D3000!
I discovered that the popup flash of the D7000 can also act as a flash commander for the SB-600 and started using my SB-600 wirelessly (with the A4 bouncecard) - mostly handheld..... this was another improvement.

My next improvement was a DIY softbox that fits over the wireless SB-600. This really improved my photos. The SB-600 was my only light source. The popup flash only sent a preflash for the slave and did not actually help with the exposure (not a lot anyways).

My next and current improvement was to buy a SB-700, which has a built-in commander.
The SB-700 is mounted on my camera, triggers the slave flash(es) and also provide fill light. (Part of the major improvement in my photos)
I often had problems with the Slave SB-600 failing to fire due to strobe lights and other bright lights interfering with the wireless (optical) triggering. The SB-700 fixed that problem!
Nikon provides a diffusion dome with the SB-700 which I use to diffuse the flash output.

I use 2 lenses in night clubs: Nikkor 18-105mm VR and Sigma 10-20mm.
I usually shoot at ISO400| F5.6 | 1/15 s or slower.

This might be Greek to you but someone might just learn something from this post.
If you are interested to see my results check out my blog:
http://nielkotzephotography.blogspot.com/

[boingy]

I'm so intrigued with nightclub photography or even night photography both with and without flash... Too bad late night outings is not my thing anymore...