advice on nightclub shots

J

james bonk

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I have two questions,

I am taking shots in nightclubs, and my panasonic FZ18 just doesn't do the job. When the flash is on it kills all the nice ambient lights and when the flash is off, everything looks blurred.

So, my first question is, what's the best way off catching the ambient lighting in clubs? while still keeping your subject in focus and crips.

and my second question is, which SLR camera would be ideal for this job?

It must have live view, excellent noise reduction and as cheap as possible.

any other tips will be greatly appreciated

Thanks
 
Welcome to TP

There have been several recent threads about gig photography. All within the last two or three weeks. All the questions have been answered.

To do what you want will require quite an investment in a camera and lenses. Why do you think liveview important, whats wrong with the optical viewfinder?
 
I use a hot shoe flash gun(with stofen) and use manual exposure. that way the flash outputs the amount of light for my chosen settings. iso 1600 f2.8 1/10-1/60s does the trick normally. If the FZ18 can be set to manual then give it a try with the flash raised to see what happens. also shoot wide
 
andrewc said:
Welcome to TP

There have been several recent threads about gig photography. All within the last two or three weeks. All the questions have been answered.

To do what you want will require quite an investment in a camera and lenses. Why do you think liveview important, whats wrong with the optical viewfinder?
Click to expand...

Thanks..

I'll have a dig through those..

I had a sony alpha 200 before and it was a nightmare because it was so dark in some nighclubs, that when i looked through the view-finder i couldn't see anything.
so that why i want a live view-finder, and its easier for me to compose the picture on the view-finder.
 
Its probably really due to your lens not having a wide enough aperture rather than the camera. The lenses that come with cameras are only beginners lenses and the nightclub environment isn't ideal for them.

You need to look at something like a 24-70mm lens. Canon L version is about £ 900 but there is a much cheaper Sigma alternative. Has f2.8 for maximum light gathering capabilities. This would make your viewfinder seem much brighter but will also help focussing.
 
I did it for a while, used to use a 400D with 430ex + Stofen Diffuser. Fine for nightlife photography.

The flashgun is essential and you want the widest lens you can afford. Ultra-wide angle (under 20mm) will be best.

Settings I used to use are:

Shutter: 1/10 ish.
Aperture: Wide open, in my case was f/4.
ISO: 800.

Liveview isn't too great for nightlife photography. Because it has semi-auto focusing (as in you have to press a button to focus and the mirror flips up whilst it's doing so), it's not particularly useful. Forgetting to focus is something you can do so easily, the viewfinder is good on any Canon DSLR, and you should have no problems in clubs.

Oh and you won't get 'excellent noise reduction' on a cheaper DSLR.
 
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