Amazing clubbing photos - How do they do ?

Hello Guys !

Not the first time I see some kind of shots where people in front are in focus while background is blurred.
You can see a lot of clubs have online gallery where they publish photos of guests chatting, dancing, etc with background lights like neon and objects blurred while front portraits are very clear and in focus...
This makes a nice effect and I wonder if these shots are post processed ?

THANK YOU for your tips !

Its called slow sync flash, its created by combining a slow shutter speed with flash.

THANKS a lot Lojt for your quick answer !

Slow sync flash (?) muuum, until now I never investigated this side, so I guess I should do some search about that...
I saw another example but I guess it is the same technique although it looked like a fisheye shot without the distortion, so this one might have been post processed, don't you think so ?

THANKS A LOT for your help !

Did you take those shots? If not rmove them. Or make them links.

really simple, i used to do it all the time when i was shooting school socials.

slow shutter speed, i used between 1/15 and 2 sec, depending on the light.

the flash pop will freeze the people, and keep them sharp (providing they are in shadow) and the movement (you shaking, or moving the camera) will get the light trails happening.
other than that, its trial and error.

Hello canonnoob !

No of course I didn't take these shots as I'm asking how they managed for the effect but you're right that I should indicate the site I got them.
In quite a few clubs in Shanghai near where I live, they use this kind of technique and upload in galleries.
I guess this is here the fashion and it makes the event report quite lively. But for these shots I found them from a website in the US I think HERE.
Thank you for reminding me to link !

Thank you Echo63 ! your explanation is very clear...
In fact I've seen these shots before but was never so interested as to investigate about the technique. Just the fact that I've got a few events reports to do in a near future, I thought I could do a few trials.
For sure you're pretty right when you talk about "trial and error", this is the key to progress in lots of domains and especially when taking photos

wont the second curtain sync help in these too? of course with a slow shutter speed...

Hi johnj2803,

Yes you're right ! in fact as far as I know Slow sync flash has 2 options:

1 - ‘Front curtain sync’ the flash fires at the start of the exposure
2 - ‘Rear curtain sync’ when the flash fires at the end of the exposure

and it seems that both can be used for the kind of "event photos" I was referring to.
So I guess I'll have to try both options asap (of course as you said with a low shutter speed) to see the difference...

PS : While "Googling", I just read that action/sports photographers also use Rear Curtain Sync when shooting with a panning technique...

If the images aren't yours, please link to them, as per Image Posting Rules.

On the nightclub shots: Very, very, extremely long thread here.
Probably more then you wanted to know.

Hello René !
Sorry about that. Photos are removed. Thank you !

RogerLee wrote in post #9024367
Hi johnj2803,

Yes you're right ! in fact as far as I know Slow sync flash has 2 options:

1 - ‘Front curtain sync’ the flash fires at the start of the exposure
2 - ‘Rear curtain sync’ when the flash fires at the end of the exposure

and it seems that both can be used for the kind of "event photos" I was referring to.
So I guess I'll have to try both options asap (of course as you said with a low shutter speed) to see the difference...

PS : While "Googling", I just read that action/sports photographers also use Rear Curtain Sync when shooting with a panning technique...

that's what i thought thanks for researching it i used these methods (rear curtain and slow shutter) together to get those kind of shots before.

On the first vs. second curtain: It only makes a difference if the subject has a constant direction of motion. For instance a procession with candles or a panning shot of a car with lights.
Dancing tends to be pretty erratic as far as movent goes, so all second curtain flash will do is screw up your timing...

Hi johnj2803 !

In fact the first thing I always do while looking for a technique is a search on whatever engine but I could not put a name on the technique.
Of course I had also seen some panning shots with cars etc and a quite similar result but I was wandering about the indoor technique.
I see that there are lots of possibilities with the "slow sync flash" technique if we look for some kind of 'creative' shots.

Anyway I already learned a lot on this forum (Thank you all) and now I'm already starting to do my homework !

René Damkot wrote in post #9024499
On the first vs. second curtain: It only makes a difference if the subject has a constant direction of motion. For instance a procession with candles or a panning shot of a car with lights.
Dancing tends to be pretty erratic as far as movent goes, so all second curtain flash will do is screw up your timing...

thanks this is nice to know.