Billy Ocean

Asking for honest feedback and convo about shooting in nightclubs. What works best??? Here's my pix.











By the way... for those interested these were taken at a wharehouse party in Red Hook Brooklyn last week "Storm/Caffiene Reunion"

DJ's are Frankie Bones, Jason Jinx, & Derrick Sessions.

I used my Dig Reb with kit lense for this... as some of you remember I'm a total newbie to photography... I really enjoyed playing with the settings and really enjoyed the atmosphere. I'm looking forward to shooting more parties and music gigs. Any advise on settings, tips on shooting action photos in low light settings ect ect would be appreciated. And of course brutal honesty about the pix... I can take it!!!

A couple more

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Chamaeleontidae

The kit lense isn't very fast f3.5 - 5.6, if you have $70 bucks Canons 50mm f/1.8 lense would be a cheap way to get a much faster lense.

If you increase the ISO you will get a faster shutter speed, and hopefully lose the motion blur. (but realize that setting ISO to 1600 you will have a larger grain in the image)

I also suggest trying AV mode and using the scroll wheel to set the aperature to as low a number as it will let you (probably 5.6 since you are probably shooting fully zoomed) (also realize that this will also give you a shorter depth of field, so make sure the camera is focusing on your target)

As for shooting tips Try to time stopped motion, that way even with a slower shutterspeed you will still get a good shot.

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ngdawg

The second is good, but needs to be cropped. The fifth too is a very good shot. Too bad the turntable detail wasn't more refined-with his sillohuette it would have been terrific. (I like sillhouettes against scenery.)
I personally am not fond of blur, but it can be an artform-a guy won second place in an artshow that I finalled in with his blurry shots.
When taking shots, you need to fill them; you have a couple that are 'off'; while the second conveys because of the smallness of the man and screen, the 6th, for example just looks offcenter-the screen to the left overpowers the DJ. When shooting people or animals, their head should be as close to the top of the view as can be without either cutting the tops off or getting too much space underneath. Get in closer and center the main subject or 'theme', like you did in the 3rd pic. The crowd shot is an example of not centering. Too much ceiling. If you were going for the ceiling the crowd should be slightly out of focus and taking up less space. As it is, the photo is cut in half-ceiling/crowd. Which brings me to another hint I learned in both interior design classes and photography classes. 'Thirds'. Pictures shouldn't be half this/half that. Main subject or idea you wish to convey should take up at least 2/3 of the shot, the other third being the surroundings of that subject. Once you get that 'thirds' imbedded in the brain, shots become 'automatic'.
Experiment with subject matter. Re, the third shot, I'd have focussed on his hands and the turntable.
Don't be afraid to take 3 or 4 shots of the same thing. Never walk away after just one. Shoot. Adjust the shutter and aperature slightly, shoot again. A good trick I learned watching a master of photography, Bruce Weber: When in a crowd, try holding the camera up high over your head, point it slightly downward and start clicking. Also, kneeling and shooting upward gets unique perspectives.
Red Hook, eh? My grandmother lived there for years, Columbia St, I believe (or Ave?) in the projects. Not exactly the Ritz...hope it's a better area now.

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Konichiwaneko

night club shooting, lots of light intake (f1.2~f2.0) lenses work best, also it's okay to up your iso.

I haven't done night club shooting in a while, just haven't been in town.

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ratbastid

I don't know a lot of technology of photography, so I can't really advise you there. I think I second what ngdawg said--you want to practice composition and cropping. Those are the elements that separate snapshots from photography.

Billy Ocean

This is the exact kind of feedback I was looking for. I went back and tried recropping some of the pictures and trying different techniques with other "night club" shots and I'm happy with the results so far. Thank you so much for taking the time.

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serlindsipity

here's somethign you can try. I assume you have a Digital SLR.

Go into manual settings, set a small aperture and a long (2-5 second) shutter speed. But here's the kicker, still use the on camera flash, and itll define people just enough and still give you lots of movement.

If you need an idea of what it will look like, go to www.skmartist.com and look at their party pics. I shot them all, and yes half are just people hanging out, but usually the last third of them are much more arty and you can get an idea.

Good Luck!

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saltfish

The photos you have provided are in a style that compliments the genre of music performed. The flowing colors and the blur-motion effect captures the spirit of the music as well as the technique of the performers. The use of void in combination with the existing light really makes the pictures *pop*.

Great job, thank you for sharing, I look forward to seeing more of your work.

shakran

1st 2nd and 3rd are out of focus, and I don't think they quite capture what you're going for. You needed a more creative angle - next time try shooting low, from about his 11-o'clock through his hands to see his face behind with the turntable looming in the foreground. Also on the 1st you have your subject dead in the center - - not as appealing as your 3rd where you have him on the left 1/3rd vertical. The 4th is the best of these series. It could use a little less exposure - I suspect you had the cam on auto-exposure and it was factoring in all the darkness in its iris equation.

The 5th is a good silhouette, but if you'd moved about a step and a half to the left it would have been better - he'd have been silhouetted against the light background instead of the darkness.

The 6th is the best as far as emotion - the guy's actually smiling. Unfortunately the framing is off - - -If you wanted to show the screen you should have moved more in front of him. As it is now, you have the horror-movie framing - - -any time the pretty girl in the horror flick is about to be killed, they frame her on the right side of the screen, facing right, so you can see the emptiness behind her that's about to be filled with the monster. Otherwise, if they're facing right, they should be on the left, and vice versa.

the 7th is good! Love the motion blur on the hands.

the 8th could be a lot better - the motion blur of him moving his head is great, but unfortunately your camera isn't steady and so things that aren't supposed to move - the equipment - are blurred as well. Destroys the effect. Picture crisp, sharp, glowing audio equipment with that fast movement from the artist - - you'd have one hell of a motion shot. You need to go get a tripod.

The 9th just needs some recomposition - you should have stood so that the column almost blocks the view of the guy at the turntable - put that in the foreground, and then you'd have some real depth to your pic, while also compressing the interesting stuff so there isn't a big black hole between them.

The 10th, with the green laser, is your best shot. You're a little overexposed in the center, but then with all the flashing lights it's nearly impossible not to be. The color mix, fromthe purple walls to the green lasers, to the sprinklings of blue off the disco ball - all REALLY nice. About the only thing I might do is to frame it so less of the ceiling shows - - the light poles and insulation detract from the really nice almost mystical look you have going.

For the same reason the 10th works, the 11th doesn't. It's a confusing collection of light blobs with a few green lines going through it. Could have worked better if you'd set the camera on a tripod, irised WAY down, and set it for a 30 second exposure to let the laser go crazy and a lot of motion to happen on the floor.

too much headroom on the 12th, and the focal point is the plywood box. You needed to move around to his front again to get his face to be the highlighted area.

The 13th is crazy, and I really like it. That's art.

the 14th is also art - we have no idea what the hell the scene is, but it's great abstract art.


Other tricks to try with an SLR on a longer exposure is to zoom the lens in or out while the shutter's open. This takes a VERY steady hand, but if you do it right, the subject in the center is in focus and whatever surrounds it gets these wild streaks going.

Like this (no I didn't take it)




Using this effect in a club setting could yield some really crazy shots, especially with that laser going.

Billy Ocean

Great idea, I'll give that a try.



This is just amazing feedback, you're right on so many levels. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to go through these and give me advice and critisism, it will only make me a better photographer. Thank you so much.

Thanks to everybody. I've learned so much from this forum. And although I only swing through about once or twice a month, I will always return here because of the great people here.

Thank you.

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"To live outside the law you must be honest." - Bob Dylan