Comments on: How To Take Club Photos

By: Tom Godber

Tom Godber — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:49:53 +0000

Yep exactly right – though there’s obviously a finite limit as to how long the shutter speed can be before the freezing effect of the flash breaks down, and you can see it often when eg. the outline of someone’s hair is blurry but their main features are sharp (hair on the sides of the head will receive a lot less light than the features facing the flash).

By: authhor

authhor — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:37:15 +0000

Tom, I’ve been to many sites. This is a premier site for night photography based on simplicity, clarity, and comment response. You ought to publish this in Photography Magazine. I want to elaborate on your response to Javier’s ambient light question. You said ambient comes from long exposure. I take it long exposure meaning longer shutter speed? Typically, longer shutter speed leads to blurry picture; however, are you saying the flash freezes the picture even with the extended shutter speed?

By: Tom Godber

Tom Godber — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:31:22 +0000

Hi David, glad the site is of use, I’m afraid I’ve no idea about Olympus gear but good luck searching!

By: david

david — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:35:12 +0000

thanks a lot this website really helped me! I was wondering if you had any good suggestions for an E-TTL flash for an olympus SLR?

By: Tom Godber

Tom Godber — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:26:01 +0000

Hi Javier,
The ambient light comes from the long exposure – you need to get some coloured lights in the background, and then leave the exposure open long enough to let it seep through. The flash is much shorter and just freezes the action in the foreground… you can test this pretty easily, start by doing a P mode photo and the background will be black, then switch to Tv mode at the same speed, and slowly dial the speed down taking more shots to see the colour appear
I haven’t bothered to shoot Rear Curtain Flash for club photos, it hasn’t ever been neccessary here…
The flash compensation can make a difference – I wouldn’t say I have a consistent rule, I just shift it up and down after checking how shots are coming out.
Cheers

By: Javier

Javier — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:04:06 +0000

Hey its me again, thanks again for this wonderful tutorial.Quick question’s

How do you get so much ambient light with just the flash pointing straight?

Also do you shoot in Rear Curtain Flash ?

Do you mess with any of the flash compensation or exposure values ?

Thanks a lot man.

By: Tom Godber

Tom Godber — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:45:14 +0000

Hi Joe,
Thanks! I’ve had to take a break from club photos for a while as I’m swamped with other commitments, but I’m hoping to get back into it early Summer – hopefully see you then!
Cheers, keep up the good work,
Tom

By: Tom Godber

Tom Godber — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:44:19 +0000

Hi Steven,
No gels at all – the club lighting is usually rotating through all sorts of unpredictable colours, and I’m looking to get the foreground people looking fairly natural with the temperature balance without caring what the background colour actually is – so the gel would be quite redundant, and eat into flash power/battery light. Though I could imagine that it could sometimes be useful, in some venues.
The Stofen will usually move about depending on the enivronment, but in many clubs you have unpredictable walls and ceilings which aren’t any good for bouncing so I’ll tend to default to straight forward or slightly tilted up – the interesting lighting will come from the background environment, with the flash just ensuring the subjects are light enough to look ok. This will then only change if there’s a specific case for bounce that comes up.
Hope that’s some help!

By: Steven Davis

Steven Davis — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:01:44 +0000

Thanks a lot. Are you using any gels at all, or just straight white flash?

Also, if using a stofen, do you point at the subject directly, or bounce it somewhere? Or point up at like 45 degrees?

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:52:54 +0000

Happy holidays Tom, Nicely structured tutorial for nightlife photography. A great deal of effort has been put into this mate. Never got the pleasure to meet, I’m Joe from tilllate london (projoesnaps) and was always a fan of your work, so was happy to see you sharing this little gem of info.

I agree practice make perfect. (For anyone interested in getting into nightlife photography) Its a perfect environment to experiment with settings, techniques and develop your style. U gonna shoot anytime this new yr? else enjoy the holidays and hopefully bump into you on a social! Take care and Happy New yr!