Another Club Photography Thread

[zooki]

I do apologise but i've read the others and i'm just getting confused.

I'm doing it as a favour for two nights this week and i've been left in the lurch.

I've got a D40 with a 300 AFDN flash and that's all i've got to work with.

I know I need to slow the shutter down, firstly; how? secondly I heard that this will kill my batteries, is this true?

Also, is it wise to curtain the flash with the sync flash? If so is it flash then sync flash or at the same time?

Sorry this is labourious for people who have already answered these before but I really appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[Will B]

Hi, sorry, but you dont mention what your going to be shooting and under what conditions...

 

[zooki]

people dancing in a dark club

 

[Will B]

Depends on the ceiling height and other factors..but start off in manual widest aperture possible, iso 200 and shutter speed of 1/80th. Bounce the flash (1/2 power to start with)off the ceiling and go from there. Adusting aperture to control the subject/flash power and shutter speed to get the desired amount of ambient light.....bit of a balancing act all in all but you should be able to get some good results.

 

[zooki]

the club's like a cave, really low ceilings, this is another thing i'm worried about, i don't know how well the flash will bounce.

i don't know how to change shutter speed, aperture etc.

so it's a no to using the sync flash then?

 

[Will B]

Shooting in anything other than Manual mode with a flash bounced will get you a mixed bag of results. Get to grips with manual mode and have a little practice before hand. Yhe low ceilings will help rather than hinder. A flash head at 45deg to horizontal should get you some pleasing results. Shooting at a fairly fast shutter speed, 1/80th, will mean that curtain/rear sync will have little effect on the outcome.

 

[Will B]

Any slower and your going to get some blur, unless of course your going for some arty results in which case curtain/rear sync will help to achieve the effect. Any faster and you will have to up the iso to capture the ambient light and the d40 gets noisey after iso400

 

[zooki]

I never thought to use manual because it's a lot of walking backwards and forward trying to get things in focus, but it's working really well.

^^ that's the kind of stuff the girl that normally does the pictures does, i'm guessing that's a slower shutter? if so, how?