night club photos (NWS)

^---You're going to get the canned answer everyone else who wants tips gets.

Read through this entire thread. It may take you a few weeks, but you'll literally learn EVERYTHING you'll ever need to know about shooting in a club. I'm serious. The information is invaluable and will be with you the rest of your life. Not only has it helped me with nightlife shooting, but it's helped me immensely with photography in general. I'm really grateful for all the great info and insight I've gained from this thread alone.

It's worth it.

Alright *grabs tall cup 'o joe and gets to readin'*

You wont regret it. Here's some good basics though:

Shoot in manual(M) mode
ISO 800-1600 (if your camera can deal with that well)
Shutter speed between 1/3 of a second to 1/60th depending on how you want your photo to look (obviously the slower speeds will bring in more ambient light/tracers/etc)
I generally shoot around aperture f/5...but depending on the glass you're using, you may want to open it wide to get a shallow DoF (just be careful it's not too shallow as to render people out of focus)
Crop closely (this isn't a rule, but generally pictures look crappy when there's too much random space and there are random distractions in the background)
Use a diffuser on your flash (it'll help even out the light)
Try to refrain from pointing your flash head right at peoples' eyes

That should get you started

jpbimages wrote in post #9965305
Pod: I was just poking fun,

Of? I probably breezed past it. No harm, no foul!

And yeah, don't hit on the models.

I used to have a LowePro CompuTrekker Plus AW:
http://products.lowepr​o.com …ekker-Plus-AW,1925,16.htm

Fits all my gear and laptop. Only problem is that it gets really back-breaking, and after the whole Christmas Bomber fiasco and being in Canada after New Years, they wanted me to just check my backpack with all my gear, plain (due to the No Carry-Ons rule). Luckally I was able to sneak it in my checked luggage for added protection, even though it was severely overweight

After that I changed to the Pro Roller X200:
http://products.lowepr​o.com …o-Roller-x200,2163,16.htm

Fits everything the backpack did, but a little tigher. Laptop area is more unforgiving, so the laptop has to be a thin MacBook Pro type laptop and not a raw power mega-laptop, otherwise it sticks out a bit (so I got an "interesting" laptop bag for that). The amazing thing is how much pain i'm not in when using it, I can just roll it everywhere. Has a nice stand to lean it on, as well as becoming a backpack if needed/if the carry on bin is small, and even then it is sturdy enough to check if needed.

I'm thinking of going to a two-bag system of travel bag and local bag. Travel bag I'll use what I have, and local bag will be enough to carry body, lens, flash/ST and maybe an iPad if needed.

plenty of bags... but used is my tamrac belt system.

recently upgraded to the thinktank belt system with pixel harness.

bags include: Lowepro nova 3, Tamrac expedition 8x, tamrac adventure 9, thinktank airport security 2.0 and some other lowepro bag thats like the expedition that i dont use.


the nova can fit my 70-200, 14-24 and netbook with a spare flash. ( no bodies can fit)

adventure 9 will fit - multiple configurations with a pro body. typical setup is 16" laptop, pro body, prime, 2 zooms, and all cables and what not.

expedition holds almost everything. but has a weird weight to it. but will hold a 17" laptop, and 2 bodies and a plethora of lenses.

my thinktank will hold it all. including extra flashes, 36 spare batteries, laptops, etc.

turbodude wrote in post #9966671
plenty of bags... but used is my tamrac belt system.

recently upgraded to the thinktank belt system with pixel harness.

bags include: Lowepro nova 3, Tamrac expedition 8x, tamrac adventure 9, thinktank airport security 2.0 and some other lowepro bag thats like the expedition that i dont use.

I have a Kata R-103 that is just too small for 1D bodies and which I will either sell or give to some sweet young thing, Tamrac Expediton 8 which holds just the right amount (but then I can't lift it!), and Thinktank Airport Security 2.0 ... plus a bunch of Pelican cases.

turbodude wrote in post #9966671
expedition holds almost everything. but has a weird weight to it. but will hold a 17" laptop, and 2 bodies and a plethora of lenses.

Do you even know what a plethora is? Sorry, had to say it, haha.

And yeah, Al makes a good point. I have cases for lighting and so forth, too. But bag-wise, I've got the Tenba, which, in clubs where I need to have my bag on me (i.e. I don't trust the venue) I'd like to have something a bit more low-profile.

In a perfect world Leica would be affordable and have a wireless flash system. I could fit my "kit" into some cargo pants.

very hot.

hopefully I'll start posting stuff again on a regular basis starting next week... had a chat with a club (well, actually 3 clubs) owner last night and he said I was could start working for them next weekend...
if it weren't for the fact that they have been saying that I could work for them since December I'd believe him... although they've never said "next week you can begin".... oh well, you'll see pics if I do start next week

Ive just read this whole thread, its like the bible!

Ive been shooting clubs in Glasgow, Scotland for about 1 year now. I started off working for tilllate, became the Scottish Regional Manager, and got fed up of managing, training, recruiting doing 3/4 events a week for £60ish a month!

Now I am going it alone, and making a lot more money!

I'm here to sort out my skills though!

My current setup is a 40d with a 10-20 Sigma and Canon 28-135 with a 430 EXII with a lumiquest quick bounce. I have been experimenting with off camera flash on a TTL cable, but have not been happy with the results.

How I started:

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

^---Diggin the photos, bro! Keep em comin.

On a side note, I did a bad thing.... I sold my 40D for a T2i body.

Wanna know the worst part? I don't regret it at all...

The image quality on my T2i is FAR superior to the 40D...and even ISO 3200 is usable to the point of being ridiculous. As far as first impressions go, I DO miss the scroll wheel on the back...and that's about it. With the grip on the T2i, it feels even better and sturdier in my hands than the 40D did. And that LCD *drools*. After the constant disappointment with my 40D LCD, this thing is a god-send. 3:2 aspect ratio 1.04M pixel LCD is off the chain. I've never seen pictures look so good on a camera LCD. Although I'm not a huge video shooter, the 30FPS 1080P video looks SICK. I have no doubt in my mind I'll be using it at clubs.

In a few months, I'll be selling this camera and upgrading to the 7D, which will be even better...but for now... I have nothing but good things to say about the T2i, and that's after months of using the 40D...that should say something for the quality of this "rebel" body.

i love this thread, took me a while to find it but it was worth it. I did a few test runs with a set up I think I like i'll be posting the pictures later today, what does everyone use for diffusers on the flash, I went out with out one with a huge regret, I just bought the lightsphere dome, not sure how I feel about it, a great diffuser but I see the shots on this thread and it seems like the light is a little harsher which works for focusing the attention on the subject, what do you guys think? examples?