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Thursday, June 16, 2011

A guide to nightclub photography

By Elijah Dreslen


For photographers, capturing the atmosphere in a nightclub can be harder than it looks. The nightclub experience is a multi-sensory assault of sound, light and vibration, and conveying this in a still image takes a combination of experience, skill and good fortune. Experimentation is key, ultimately allowing you to develop your own way of working, but it's worth getting to grips with the basics before trying to forge your own style.

In a nightclub environment, there are essentially two kinds of shot you will take. There will be some close-up portrait-style shots, with DJs, MCs and general revellers as your subjects, and there may also be some wider shots that give some sense of the scale of the event.

People often love posing for the camera, but many of the best photos tend to come from capturing the action in a less staged manner. If you can manage to blend into the crowd and still get the angles you're after, you might just get a candid shot that makes far more impact than a standard cute girl pouting at the camera.

Lighting is one of the main issues when shooting in a nightclub. It can work against you, but can also produce highly atmospheric images. You'll need to use a flash - having a diffuser fitted will make skin tones more flattering and having an independent flash gun will give you more control over the strength and positioning of the light.

If you want expansive crowd shots that look sharp, you'll need a small aperture, and therefore a longer exposure. To keep everything in focus, a tripod will be necessary in that situation. When all else fails, you can try whacking up the ISO, but that should always be a last resort when low-light conditions are making it hard to get the shot you're after.




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