I’ve shot for some clubs in Oshawa, off and on, since last year. A few weeks ago I showed off some shots from Junction, and now here’s some of my favourites from Karma. Karma has some strangely fantastic lighting — big diffused square panels filled with pink and blue lights that line the booths. It wreaks havoc on my white balance, but it makes for some amazing photos.
A few months back, DJ Storm of Oshawa club Junction emailed me to ask if I could come out that way to take some pictures on their Sexxy Saturday club nights. Shooting in a club presents a huge assortment of challenges, the most difficult of which is the low light levels. Creating light where there’s none is not the easiest thing in the world.
The DJ booth is a good place to stake out the joint and figure out where my best vantage points will be throughout the night. It also affords some cool photo ops:
Even though the disco ball, LEDs, and other lights provide for some nifty effects, their levels are all very low. The above picture was shot with the camera set to ISO 3200, an aperture of f/2.8 and a shutter speed that is barely hand-holdable at 1/25th. If you click through to view the image on Flickr, you can see the full EXIF header by selecting “More properties” in the lower right.
The Nikon D300S that I shoot with is pretty effing good in low-light situations, giving very useable results even when it’s jacked up to ISO 3200.
The shot above adds some flash to light up the DJ booth in the form of a Nikon SB-800 with a LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer attached. I’ve slowed down the shutter speed even further, to 1/6th. This allows more of the ambient light into the photo, but the short duration of the flash still keeps the main subjects relatively sharp.
The two shots above are much the same as the DJ booth shot, with some added flash and slower shutter speeds of 1/8th and 1/10th, respectively.
The shot above is by far my favourite of the last few months, for a few reasons. One, the bearded dude looks angry and therefore funny. Two, he’s the most prominent thing in the photo, staring right at the camera, isolated from the sea of people around him. You’ll notice the orange glow this whole photo has, despite using flash. This was taken much closer to the disco ball than the previous photos were, meaning the light was more intense and the slow shutter (1/8th) picked it up a little more than before.
Dragging the shutter on the above photo helped to convey a sense of movement, but the flash still kept much of the important parts sharp. Looks like he’s in the middle of a pelvic thrust.
I love these last two for being totally impromptu club pictures. The first dude held the finger pose for only a split second as he danced around, but I snagged it. The group in the lower photo had no idea I was even there, as I just held my camera up high over my head to capture their ridiculous faces.
Turns out DJ Storm also needed some photos of himself for some promotional posters, so we went into the studio a few weeks ago and banged these out:
I used a High Pass filter technique in Photoshop to give them a slightly more dimensional look. You can read more about the technique on Dustin Snipes’ blog.
On Tuesday night I photographed an Ed Hardy swimwear fashion show at Karma Lounge in Oshawa, Ontario. Using the Nikon D700, I shot almost everything at ISO 6400 and f/1.4 due to the very low lighting in the club.
I also experimented with the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lens on the D700, which is a full-frame (FX) body:
There’s never a shortage of interesting people to shoot at a club:
And that brings us to the swimwear models. You might be wondering, “Ryan, why did you make all these photos blue?” Answer after these:
One major issue with club photography is the very, very strange patterns, colours, and colour temperatures of lights that are used. This is one of the major reasons I shoot raw-format photos (instead of JPEG) — so that I have full control over white balance after the photos are taken. White balancing via the auto function of the camera, or trying to do it manually at the club is an exercise in frustration. Check out the example below of Ashley.
The photo on the left is what the camera decided the correct white balance should be in automatic mode (4450 degrees kelvin). The photo on the right is after correcting the white balance in Lightroom to the maximum allowed setting of 50,000 degrees kelvin (and also setting the tint to negative 150 to combat some of the pink hue). So now instead of looking purple, Ashley looks closer to a regular human again. The problem, if there is one, is that both versions look kinda cool. So rather than trying to pick one, I compromised and just tossed out all the colour and made the selenium toned versions you see above.
Saturday night was one of those times that I really wish I owned a Nikon D700 due to its mind-blowing performance in low-light. I photographed a small performance of electronic music at Toronto’s Rivoli where the lighting was abysmal. I had to push my poor Nikon D200 to the Hi-1.0 setting (equivalent to ISO 3200) and shoot at f/1.8 just to squeak by. Even then, my exposure times were long but I made the best of it.
The back room of the Rivoli is small and loud; the performances bass-heavy like you can’t fathom; and the crowd reaction suitably restrained.
I sat next to an extraordinarily loud speaker to get most of the shots, so I hope the temporary hearing damage was worth it.
Check out the flickr slideshow below!
Performers: Lowfish, Naw, Sales Department
DJs: … and Solvent
Your soundtrack to this slideshow should be samples from Lowfish on iTunes.
1/10 sec, f2.8, ISO 3200, 17mm
This past weekend I was able to put the Nikon D700 through its paces in a challenging environment: Luxy Club in Woodbridge. The event was City Gala, which featured a fashion show and live musical performances in a very, very dark club, peppered with the usual assortment of coloured spotlights, seizure-inducing strobes, and other flashing nonsense typical of clubs everywhere.
1/4 sec, f4, ISO 1600, 17mm w/flash
Six hundred exposures later, I can tell you the camera performed extremely well. It focused quickly and without trouble in the dim light and I was able to fire off multiple bursts with ease, which is how I captured the above shot of Ashley and her friend dancing.
1/400 sec, f1.8, ISO 3200, 85mm
Most of my shots were done at ISO 1600 and 3200, although I also tried a few at ISO 6400 and was amazed at the results. The photos looked better than my Nikon D200 produces at ISO 1600. The D700 paired with the 85mm f/1.4 basically creates light where there is none. Scenes that were exceptionally dark to my eyes came alive on the LCD screen, bringing out detail that I couldn’t even see in the dark club. Amazing!
Model above is my fabulous sister Kirsten Visima, doing what she does best.