Club photography

A big black room, tropical climate and the constant tension that the camera won’t survive that night. This is club photography🙂

So it’s a little exaggerated, but only with the fear, because mostly I stand a little apart from the crowd behind the DJ and only now and then I am drawn to the dance floor and the “dangerous zone” for a few pictures the “crowd”. I then only enter the dance floor after my job or at least without a camera to dance.

I also have a tip for that

If you want to get through a dancing crowd quickly, dance your way through them! I promise you, people will be far more likely to give you room and find it even cooler that you dance than if you try to push your way through. (I speak from experience and believe me, it works!)

The ideal conditions

As you can already imagine, for good conditions you need an open-aperture lens (e.g. a 35 or 24mm with f. 1.4 or 1.8) and ideally also a full frame camera that has no problem with a high ISO value.

Because most (techno) clubs are really very dark and the DJ’s lighting is minimal. (Of course, it also depends entirely on the event and the location). And you should have fun with the music and the whole party, otherwise it can be a very uncomfortable work environment.

The camera settings

I mostly work with an ISO value of 1200-2000, but even with a full-frame camera like the Canon Eos 6D, a slight noise cannot be prevented. The aperture is also very open, usually around f 1.8 or 2.0.

The next problem is the autofocus, which hardly works in this dark. So you only have the manual mode, unless you wait for a light effect from the visual jockey.

But since the DJ is not firmly established and the beats at 130 BPM drive the whole thing forward, you should have dealt with his technique a little. In the worst case, you stand in the club all night and try in vain to run after the DJ and focus on him.

Communication is the key to success

In most cases you can do something against the nasty darkness, namely make agreements. If he is available, you can talk to the visual jockey (light and visual artist) of the club / organizer about your project and ask him to what extent he can control the light for your purposes.

It is also a great advantage to speak to the people you are photographing. So they know what’s going on and can
also help you with your plan to shoot sharp and chic pictures . With a DJ, however, you should do this before his performance and not during it😀

Now I wish you a lot of fun taking photos and if you have any questions you can always get in touch!

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