night club photos (NWS) (2)

Launch of a new club night here in Edinburgh.. nice change having low white ceilings and controlled lighting with nice colours. I'm used to either huge clubs with dark ceilings, or small clubs with stupid coloured ceilings (red)
Anyway here's a few from the night - taken from facebook so excuse the softness and quality (if anyone had tips for fixing this please do tell - apart from resizing to 960px)

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Man - your shots are always so well lit from top to bottom and have a great colour/tone to them. What's the trick?! I neeeeed to get a second flash. Would I be able to just shove one of the YN565 flashes on my camera for the IR focus then get the 430 in my hand? Love that 2nd fan pic! She looks fun

Seen as this is pretty much the only section I post in, just thought I'd share the new logo I've been working on!

Brandsanity wrote in post #14162755
Man - your shots are always so well lit from top to bottom and have a great colour/tone to them. What's the trick?! I neeeeed to get a second flash. Would I be able to just shove one of the YN565 flashes on my camera for the IR focus then get the 430 in my hand? Love that 2nd fan pic! She looks fun

I've always had multiple flashguns... currently I have 2x 580EXII's and 2x 430EXII's.
the reason I never used the 430s as slaves in clubs is purely because they don't communicate as well as a 580EXII on slave mode. so now that I have the second 580 it's so much easier to get the lighting I want. basically just finding a nice balance of bounce and fill. I usually have one on camera aimed slightly backwards, about 10 degrees from vertical when in landscape position. normally running between 1/8 and 1/2 power. second flash is covered by stofen and at 1/32 power then it's just about adjusting your exposures for the type of photo you want.

I personally like my photos to be well lit and well coloured.. really not a fan of this obsessive desaturation and colour casting that people are doing now. it's even got to the stage of over exposing people so much and desaturating on top of that.... what happened to good old fashioned nicely lit and colourful photos?

p.s. nice work on the new logo.. I have about 7 different logos I can use depending on the type of work i'm doing.. but I'm liking my bold text one justnow

Brandsanity: You would most likely have the 430ex on camera, and the YN565, triggered optically as the fill light.

The benefits of using all Canon, is you can opt for ETTL and Flash Ratio Power which will give you a tremendous advantage in the constant light changes of a club. Having both flashes on manual will give you a bit more work and trouble.

fminus wrote in post #14164578
Brandsanity: You would most likely have the 430ex on camera, and the YN565, triggered optically as the fill light.

Having both flashes on manual will give you a bit more work and trouble.

a) yes it will trigger optically but in a club with moving lights, and stobes you have no control over it. optically triggered slave flashes are pretty much useless in clubs, especially if you are shooting in a big dark club. you will pretty much have to have your master pointing directly at the slave... which deems the master useless.. which not invest in a cable... or if you want to use the 2 flashes properly maybe try plugging a radio trigger into the sync output of the camera, with the receiver on your off camera flash.

b) I disagree. I find that ETTL doesn't help me at all in clubs. if anything it gives me more work in PP adjusting exposures. as it doesn't account for the colour or brightness of clothing or surrounding surfaces you may be bouncing from. and also the ever changing lights don't help the ETTL.
I plan out my flash powers for different areas of each club depending on walls and ceilings etc. this means I have a full set of even exposures no matter what is in the picture.

not sure if anyone else has noticed with ETTL if you take a shot of say a black male wearing a white shirt he will be hugely under exposed. so you adjust your FEC and then you take a photo of a white male in a black shirt and the photo is hugely over exposed. you have far less control with ETTL and it's more work and trouble IMHO (and from experience) - and neither me nor my camera are racist

GambitLive wrote in post #14163004
I personally like my photos to be well lit and well coloured.. really not a fan of this obsessive desaturation and colour casting that people are doing now. it's even got to the stage of over exposing people so much and desaturating on top of that.... what happened to good old fashioned nicely lit and colourful.

If you don't mind me asking. Is this a mini dig at the lights out collective at all? Lol

aidanjones88 wrote in post #14165074
If you don't mind me asking. Is this a mini dig at the lights out collective at all? Lol

no not at all. I'm talking about the whole community of nightlife photographers has moved to this fad... but people are taking it too far. girls want to look tanned... not ghost white. I mean yeah sure one or 2 in an album for that artistic look.. but not allllll the photos.

you're also guilty for that... as previously brought up by other forum members

but no this is not a personal dig at individuals or collectives. it's just a statement that I think nightlife photography has become more of a fashion trend than a display of individual talents... and it's not cool

P.s. I actually like the lights out collective, and a few of them are friends of mine.

GambitLive wrote in post #14163004
I've always had multiple flashguns... currently I have 2x 580EXII's and 2x 430EXII's.
the reason I never used the 430s as slaves in clubs is purely because they don't communicate as well as a 580EXII on slave mode. so now that I have the second 580 it's so much easier to get the lighting I want. basically just finding a nice balance of bounce and fill. I usually have one on camera aimed slightly backwards, about 10 degrees from vertical when in landscape position. normally running between 1/8 and 1/2 power. second flash is covered by stofen and at 1/32 power then it's just about adjusting your exposures for the type of photo you want.

This might seem like a stupid question, but do you just hold the one in your other hand? It seems like a lot to carry all night.

TheBrick3 wrote in post #14165330
This might seem like a stupid question, but do you just hold the one in your other hand? It seems like a lot to carry all night.

yeah, but I also have a case from a Nikon SB900 which I acquired from a friend which has a belt loop, so I just have that on my belt and can stick the handheld 580 in there when I'm not using it

GambitLive wrote in post #14165265
no not at all. I'm talking about the whole community of nightlife photographers has moved to this fad... but people are taking it too far. girls want to look tanned... not ghost white. I mean yeah sure one or 2 in an album for that artistic look.. but not allllll the photos.

you're also guilty for that... as previously brought up by other forum members

but no this is not a personal dig at individuals or collectives. it's just a statement that I think nightlife photography has become more of a fashion trend than a display of individual talents... and it's not cool

P.s. I actually like the lights out collective, and a few of them are friends of mine.

Lol yea I know I'm guilty but as I pointed out back at the forum members I just provide the style that the client asks for. I actually do still have clients who like the whole long shutter light streak thing but I am starting to find that they are becoming more and more rare. But yea regardless whether I agree with the style or not, I just do what the money suppliers want to be honest I prefer doing fast shutter bounced flash but increased vibrancy as opposed to the desaturation.

GambitLive: Ah. For me, ETTL is king. I don't really have time to adjust the flash for different parts of the club. Especially with the horrible buttons on the 430EXII, it would be a nightmare for me.

I just position my subjects with their backs towards the light, and it usually goes well.

I can completely agree with the comment about black people. Shot alone, they expose beautifully. Black skin, under flash looks amazing. But the moment you place a black person, next to a white one, the exposure is ****ed for me. One person is either blown out, or the other is dark as night.

These small discrepancies which comes with ETTL mode is easily fixed in ACR for me. This freedom allows me to work more quickly in the clubs.

But as you said, to each his own. If I had the patience/time, I would most likely shoot in manual mode.