night club photos (NWS) (2)

Do you use much FEC, fminus?

I tried using handheld flash last night with ETTL a couple of times and the subjects were just completely blown out by the flash. The head was placed at 45 degrees and I held it up and to the left if that makes any difference... Going to give it another blast tomorrow night anyway.

Brandsanity wrote in post #14170467
Do you use much FEC, fminus?

I tried using handheld flash last night with ETTL a couple of times and the subjects were just completely blown out by the flash. The head was placed at 45 degrees and I held it up and to the left if that makes any difference... Going to give it another blast tomorrow night anyway.

try manual

1/16 -0.3 @f4 diffused with stofen

Well back in DC from miami, what an amazing experience photographing for Wally Lopez the remainder of WMC. Truly a class act.. Now home for only a few days then off to NYC saturday with Wally to photograph him at Sullivan room and Amnesia NYC.. also on deck next month, playa del carmen and vegas!

Here are a few more sneak peaks from WMC 2012!

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/dstylezs/702560​5597/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/dstylezs/687950​5128/

GambitLive wrote in post #14171355
try manual

1/16 -0.3 @f4 diffused with stofen

Cheers for the tip! Looking forward to giving it a go again tonight...

Tomorrow night I'm off to shoot Kevin Saunderson at Joshua Brooks in Manchester and then it's Gerd and Nicholas at a new venue here in Leeds. Looks like I might have some photos to show you guys for once

The new venue looks like it might have rather low white ceilings which will be fun to play with.

Brandsanity: Ah, I never use FEC. The only time I tend to overexpose is if I am too close to the subject.

Like I said before. Pay attention to the lighting.
Shoot with your subjects back against the light, and wait till the light passes over their face if there is a strobe gliding around.

Examples from last night.

@SleazyMermaid - The Garage looks cool as ****! Will definitely create some interesting backgrounds

fminus wrote in post #14173831
Shoot with your subjects back against the light, and wait till the light passes over their face if there is a strobe gliding around.
The most I have to do in RAW is adjust my fill light. But that's about it.

Yeah always do this anyway - the place I'm on about had no lighting whatsoever, practically black all around! It was the flash firing stupidly bright that caused it.

Really like the look of them photos though - do you have a diffuser on the flash? Are you using a gel on the flash by any chance too? Pics look warm, but in a good way...

Brandsanity: I have a stoffen on my camera main, with a warming gel on it. 1/8CTO if I recall, And then a Lumiquest Big Bounce on my off camera flash.

The Big Bounce, I refer to as my moneymaker. It's what really makes photos pop if used correctly. The downside, is its size. Its huge, which allows for nice big diffused lighting, but sometimes a pain to carry around.

It's also built horribly IMHO. It attaches to the flash head via velcro strips. These velcro strips loose their velcro power over time, which means I now use a fat rubberband to keep it in place.This, and time, have caused the plastic to start splitting, and tearing at the joints. Which now I must fix with tape. In its current state, my diffusor looks quite ghetto.

(I did contact Lumiquest about this problem. They said it was not typical and offered to replace it for free. Since I live in Europe, shipping costs, VAT tax, etc., made it a moot offer to me)

So I need a bit of help:

I was asked to try and replicate these photos for a current job I have and I would like to know if I'm on the right track.

http://www.facebook.co​m …&type=3&fb_sour​ce=message

I think that Blacks have been increased, saturation decreased, contrast increased and clarity increased as well. Also it seems his shutter speed is pretty fast (not a lot of ambient lighting).

I'm using lightroom 3 and wanted to know if I'm on the right track.

SpiceSack wrote in post #14177336
So I need a bit of help:

I was asked to try and replicate these photos for a current job I have and I would like to know if I'm on the right track.

http://www.facebook.co​m …&type=3&fb_sour​ce=message

I think that Blacks have been increased, saturation decreased, contrast increased and clarity increased as well. Also it seems his shutter speed is pretty fast (not a lot of ambient lighting).

I'm using lightroom 3 and wanted to know if I'm on the right track.

sounds about right, I would say the tonal curve has been adjusted, shadows and darks lifted, and clarity has been whacked on full./.

this could also be an HDR run which looks more plausible

GambitLive wrote in post #14178615
sounds about right, I would say the tonal curve has been adjusted, shadows and darks lifted, and clarity has been whacked on full./.

this could also be an HDR run which looks more plausible

I didn't even think about the tonal curve. Thanks for the suggestion!

I thought about HDR for a bit, but how would you take a HDR photo in a club with everything moving around? Only way I know how to take HDR photos is through 3 exposures.

SpiceSack wrote in post #14183361
I thought about HDR for a bit, but how would you take a HDR photo in a club with everything moving around? Only way I know how to take HDR photos is through 3 exposures.

shoot in RAW and export 3 versions of the same RAW file, -1 0 +1 (or whatever different exposures work best) and you can make a "fake" HDR from one shot, not as good as 3 different shots exposed differently but at least doable in clubs

SpiceSack wrote in post #14183361
I didn't even think about the tonal curve. Thanks for the suggestion!

I thought about HDR for a bit, but how would you take a HDR photo in a club with everything moving around? Only way I know how to take HDR photos is through 3 exposures.

I was meaning one of those fake HDR plugins that does it with one photo.. and looks really bad.

SpiceSack: That's a trainwreck of post work right there. It looks horrible. Please don't try and imitate this. Not only were those some horrible photos, they were processed equally as bad.

GambitLive: I just realized I can adjust my flashes manually from my cameras menu system. So I might give that a go tonight. As I said before, it was too much a pain with the tiny buttons of the 430EX. But now it's not a problem. Tonight will be the battle of ETTL verse manual.

Ockie wrote in post #14183961
shoot in RAW and export 3 versions of the same RAW file, -1 0 +1 (or whatever different exposures work best) and you can make a "fake" HDR from one shot, not as good as 3 different shots exposed differently but at least doable in clubs

That makes sense, will try this out sometime.

GambitLive wrote in post #14184280
I was meaning one of those fake HDR plugins that does it with one photo.. and looks really bad.

Haha, I didn't even know there were "fake HDR plugins"...

I agree completely, I am not the biggest fan of the previous togs photos but thats what the promoters want... Biggest annoyance is lack of ambient light, I've added some of my own style to the photos, while trying to somewhat replicate the older ones.