How do I take better Night Club Photos?

[nickon]

I have a nikon D70 with a DB 800 external flash. I was wondering how i would take better night club photos of people dancing with the spot lights and dance lights. I tried to bounce my flash everywhere to try to defuse the flash more but i will can't get the dance lights to show. does anyone have any tips on taking better night club photos?

[EastCoastHucker]

I have a nikon D70 with a DB 800 external flash. I was wondering how i would take better night club photos of people dancing with the spot lights and dance lights. I tried to bounce my flash everywhere to try to defuse the flash more but i will can't get the dance lights to show. does anyone have any tips on taking better night club photos?

You can set up the flash on your D70 in 'rear', even if you use the SB800 wireless it should work.

[Ronnoco]

You can set up the flash on your D70 in 'rear', even if you use the SB800 wireless it should work.

I agree.

Ronnoco

[GB1]

If I had to guess (as I have not tried anything like this) I would say that you might not want to use your flash, instead using the lighting already there. Of course, you'll get some blur, but that might look good. Using flash on a dance floor might seem a little tacky, less you're in Vegas). You could also try some really close-up shots instead of staying back (!?)

[nickon]

You can set up the flash on your D70 in 'rear', even if you use the SB800 wireless it should work.

'rear',? is that a setting on the menu for the flash?

[berrywise]

'rear',? is that a setting on the menu for the flash?

http://photography.about.com/od/phot.../a042605_2.htm


Also practice dragging the shutter (exposing for a bit longer) to allow some of the ambiant light in the room to fill in your shots. Moving the camera can make the lights in the room streak in your photos while your flash will freeze your subject.

[EastCoastHucker]

'rear',? is that a setting on the menu for the flash?

I have a D70 as well...

To get to 'rear' use the same button that you use to pop the flash open, once the flash is open push and hold that button and change the setting with the ring you use to change the speed.
You'll see 'rear' on the LCD screen as one of the options.

[naraloca]

Hi,

I have a nikon D50, any tips with that same question??? that would be awesome if someone can give me some advice as my nieces are in dancing comptetitions and the pictures with that expensive camera (if you compare to the $250 camera I had before) aren't great.... and are always blurry!!

Thanks a lot

[freygr]

Hi,

I have a nikon D50, any tips with that same question??? that would be awesome if someone can give me some advice as my nieces are in dancing comptetitions and the pictures with that expensive camera (if you compare to the $250 camera I had before) aren't great.... and are always blurry!!

Thanks a lot

First go find an used 50mm Ff1.4 or F1.8 or F2.0 AF lens. This will greatly help by giving you much more light than the F3.5 kit lens. Granted it's an effective 75mm lens but you will be able to have high shutter speeds compared to the F3.5. Also the effective 75mm length has been the choice for portrait photographers. You just have to remember is setup you AF correctly for the type of action you will be shooting!

[MarcusK]

Well, here's what i usually do independent of which camera used:

I usually try to find the setting without the flash that works best for me... as such, i start with ISO 400 (since we are indoors at night) open up the lens to its maximum aperture, and set the shutter speed to 1/60 since they will be jumping around, you might consider faster shutter speeds and as such you will have to go to higher ISO settings...which will start introducing grain... all this is set in the manual mode of the camera...I disregard the in-camera light-meter in this case... many times i was right to do that!

The best way to get the color results other than that mentioned above , IMHO, is dragging the shutter as was already mentioned!

Marc

[danno]

First set your camera to manual mode (I know that this can be a little scary to start off with). Make sure that your flash is set to the iTTL mode... Set your aperture to something in the middle range (i.e. f5.6, f8, or f16) and your shutter speed to no faster than 1/60th. This should result in proper exposure of the subject with some ambient light exposure as well (depending on how strong the ambient light is). The higher you set your ISO, the easier it will be to capture some ambient light. This may take some experimentation to get your formula down just right. And after you nail the exposure, maybe try to mess around with bouncing the flash to get a more natural look.

A quick tip when using flash: The aperture will determine the strength of the flash and the length of the shutter speed will determine the amount of ambient light.

[M_Young]

Learned more from this post. Many thanks to all contributors.