Ideas and tips for dance night photography

[kuul13]

EDIT: So sorry for the typo on the subject line.. I meant ideas and tips.

I have to click some pictures for Valentine's Day dance party. As dance floors are always dimly lighted, I want to know some tricks on how to capture the mood of the event? Do you know of any sites that can show some pictures with little setup info? I am looking at Flickr but not getting much.. may be I am using correct keywords.

I want to know what angles would be best and how to capture some dance movements. I guess I should use on camera flash and bounce it off from ceiling, also use higher iso.. am I right? Any suggestions and examples would be appreciated.

[BigFuzzy]

First, what kit do you have? (ie body and lenses and/or flashes!)
Do you have off camera flash, or just your pop-up/hotshoe flash?

Bottom line is you have to learn your flash (whatever type you have). In order to get decent shots in these conditions you almost always need flash. The key to to use manual settings and set your shutter speed to be slow enough to let in some of the ambient/background light, and use your flash to light your subject.

You also need to learn how to use rear curtain flash on your camera.

No one will be able to tell you exactly what to use because we don't know exactly what your lighting conditions are.
So we can't point you to places with specifics for what you seek, we can, however, send you to places like neilvn.com and strobist.com to learn about lighting.

The below two images were taken at probably 1/30th second with my hotshoe flash set at 1/2 power. All these are approximations and won't guarantee success for you, but they worked for me to light the subject well while allowing in some of the cool ambient light.

[RLucas]

If you have a place to bounce, try not to do it straight up off the ceiling. It will created the weird raccoon eye look. Think about where you want the light to come from and point the flash head in that direction so you get some nice directional light.
As fuzzy said above, if you have dark/black ceilings and walls, you're only choice will be to use direct flash and drag the shutter. If you can check out the venue ahead of time, it will make your life much easier.
If you like to read, check out http://neilvn.com/tangents/ . I've spent hours reading this. He mainly focuses on on camera bounce.
Good luck!

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by RLucas

If you have a place to bounce, try not to do it straight up off the ceiling. It will created the weird raccoon eye look. Think about where you want the light to come from and point the flash head in that direction so you get some nice directional light.
As fuzzy said above, if you have dark/black ceilings and walls, you're only choice will be to use direct flash and drag the shutter. If you can check out the venue ahead of time, it will make your life much easier.
If you like to read, check out http://neilvn.com/tangents/ . I've spent hours reading this. He mainly focuses on on camera bounce.
Good luck!

Thanks for the link Luke.. I'll be reading this Do you guys shoot with the flash on camera or off? Do you use difusers or reflectors of any sort?

[BigFuzzy]

Jon, in my two images, I shot them with my 430ex on camera (ugh, I know) shooting straight at the subjects (as seen by the highlights on their faces).

I find that none of my clients have ever cared about these types of party shots and are simply amazed that I'm able to get these shots compared to the "black background over flashed faces" party photos they normally see. So my butchering of the light by not getting it off camera isn't an issue though I'd love to do this stuff more.. properly.

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Thanks for the link Luke.. I'll be reading this Do you guys shoot with the flash on camera or off? Do you use difusers or reflectors of any sort?

I just got my flash 3 days ago, so I haven't done any real stuff with it yet, other than shots of my feet and such. Haha. All my "knowledge" is theory atm. I want to work with on camera first so I can get a better handle on it. ASFIK, the only modifier he really uses is the Black Foamie Thing
He will also gel if he needs to as well.

[kuul13]

First, what kit do you have? (ie body and lenses and/or flashes!)
Do you have off camera flash, or just your pop-up/hotshoe flash?

Thanks again Al for your response, I have Nikon D80 and different lenses (50mm 1.8G, 70-300mm) but I am planning to use 18-135mm kit lens (considering the space I would have). I have off camera sigma flash that triggers from pop-up flash. As you mentioned before, I am already started understanding my flash and reading articles on strobist.com.

With slow shutter speed, I thought the images would be bit shaky? Your pictures @1/30 looks really good. Did you have the high ISO in these pictures?

Luke, thanks for the link. I will try to absorb as much as I can .

Actually, apart from how to use my camera/flash I wanted to know see some good party/dance shots to get an idea.

Thanks again guys, I always look for your suggestions/tips and advises. The responses are always amazing and fast.

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by kuul13

Thanks again Al for your response, I have Nikon D80 and different lenses (50mm 1.8G, 70-300mm) but I am planning to use 18-135mm kit lens (considering the space I would have). I have off camera sigma flash that triggers from pop-up flash. As you mentioned before, I am already started understanding my flash and reading articles on strobist.com.

With slow shutter speed, I thought the images would be bit shaky? Your pictures @1/30 looks really good. Did you have the high ISO in these pictures?

Luke, thanks for the link. I will try to absorb as much as I can .

Actually, apart from how to use my camera/flash I wanted to know see some good party/dance shots to get an idea.

Thanks again guys, I always look for your suggestions/tips and advises. The responses are always amazing and fast.

I've mostly used my 24-70 2.8 lens almost exclusively on 2.8. You may struggle with your kit lens if it doesn't get down to at least 3.5 but then that would be at widest angle.

I shot all of these probably at 1600 iso(possibly even 3200) and used the awesome noise reduction of LR.
With rear curtain flash your shutter speed isn't as big a deal as you might think considering that your image is being flashed at the very end of the exposure which means the flash blasts and freezes the motion right at the end because your flash speed is much faster than your shutter speed.

I can easily get away with 1/20th of a second with rear-curtain flash and f/2.8.

Suggestions for actually fun shots. CHANGE THE PERSPECTIVE. Do not spend the whole event shooting straight at your subject.

Get high (it's also flattering to less than skinny folk, but also in general)



Get low (shot this at 1/6th a second to get that sense of motion and the rear-curtain flash froze motion at the end. Goes well with the dancing I think)


Get really really low (not the best image, but you get the point)


Ideas without photo examples:
Change angles.. twist the camera
Focus on details like crasy hair/shoes/accessories/etc

Just stay away from the standard cheesy posed crap.
Good luck!

[kuul13]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

I've mostly used my 24-70 2.8 lens almost exclusively on 2.8. You may struggle with your kit lens if it doesn't get down to at least 3.5 but then that would be at widest angle.

I shot all of these probably at 1600 iso(possibly even 3200) and used the awesome noise reduction of LR.
With rear curtain flash your shutter speed isn't as big a deal as you might think considering that your image is being flashed at the very end of the exposure which means the flash blasts and freezes the motion right at the end because your flash speed is much faster than your shutter speed.

I can easily get away with 1/20th of a second with rear-curtain flash and f/2.8.

Suggestions for actually fun shots. CHANGE THE PERSPECTIVE. Do not spend the whole event shooting straight at your subject.

Get high (it's also flattering to less than skinny folk, but also in general)

Get low (shot this at 1/6th a second to get that sense of motion and the rear-curtain flash froze motion at the end. Goes well with the dancing I think)

Get really really low (not the best image, but you get the point)

Ideas without photo examples:
Change angles.. twist the camera
Focus on details like crasy hair/shoes/accessories/etc

Just stay away from the standard cheesy posed crap.
Good luck!

Thanks Al, really appreciate your suggestions, examples and tips. I will try my best to get some decent shots. I was reading all about "black foamie thing" from Neil vN and it is so amazing to see his pictures. I am gonna try that at home first and then in party.

I have an off-topic question for the same event. Since I will be clicking family portraits also, and we will print the pictures for the guest based on the size they select. We have two sizes - 5x7 and 8x10. I read about the aspect ratio for my Nikon D80 and it seems it doesn't account for 5x7 and 8x10 prints. I went through the following link Aspect ratio & D80 and it seems, I need to make sure I have enough space. Any recommendation from you on my composition and placement of subjects?

Thanks again for ever helpful tips.