First Time Fashion Shoot in a Night Club! Yes with a 400D!

Shooting in Night club - Need some help!!!

Hello everyone!
Am new to open photography forums, Iam Eftichia and Im from Cyrpus... Well i'm not a pro photographer, but I started shooting when I was in age of 10, because my father was a photographer…
I did stop because my father closed the shop and left Cyprus for some other jobs. I started shooting for hobby before 2 years again…

Recently I bought a new camera SLR canon eos 400D. I didn’t have time to shoot a lot with the “rebel” but I got really nice pics when I tried… Most of them are portraits and black and white...

I Love portraits, but next week I have my first professional shooting in a club, it will be a fashion presentation of one Cypriot fashion designer and I will take photos for her clothes. It will be in a club, with models, not a catwalk , but I will set the scenes.
I thought I might keep the club concept, drinks, dance and etc and shoot open. I also have the idea of shoot some girls on the couch having their drinks and girls talk.. etc…
Anyway I will have my spot lights, (3 or 4) the club lighting which will be colour (u know), my camera canon eos 400d, a small Canon PowerShot A620, and nothing else… I would like to ask you for some Opinions and advises for the shooting modes…

Thank you very much 4 reading this!

Hi Eftichia

welcome here, I guess you found the right place!

What is the purpose of your assignement?

How will th epics been reproduced, to be shown to whom? will they be published in magazines?

Have your client ask for candid shots or more strickly fashion pics?

In another words, what genre of photography are you asked or do you want to achieve?

What ISO the 400d is capable? I don't know this body, and what lenses will you use?

This will help a lot our fashion photographers to help you!


Best o f luck for your 1st pro assignement, keep us updated of how you ended with it!

Hi Nicolas,

Thank you for answering to my post… and yes I think I might found the right place!

Well 1st the purpose of my job is to take photos of this fashion presentation!!!

Then my work it’s going to be published in magazines, such as madam Figaro (CY) cosmopolitan (CY), and in a fashion designers exhibition in Tokyo.

The client didn’t ask for something specific, just ask for me to take the photos of the models and the clothes (of course), as I want in the club…

So ok, I did found some other photographers work, and took some ideas… The models sitting or recline on a couch, having their drinks, dancing maybe etc...

I went to the club to have a look the concept... It was ok its just you cant do a lot shooting in a club right;
And I think my equipments are not so helpful… as I said to my privious post, the cameras, and my spot lights... I don’t know... I am a little bit anxious about all the work and the result.

So the ISO of 400d is 1600 max, and the lens 18-55mm.

I will keep you updated till the end!

Thank you.

Hi,
I would opt for a faster lens, think about the 50mm 1.4 or the 85mm 1.2
You will need the light and lower ISO max 800 if you want to have serious publications.
ISO1600 will work but for publications it's often a bit too noisy.

So work with the fast lenses, because you use a crop camera the 85mm 1.2 will give you some DOF to work with and it gives you a nice reach, for full bodies use the 50mm 1.4

One tip that is worth gold
Try the evening before the show, you will find the good locations and see what your equiptment does.

Also for the walking models try not to drop below 1/100's

Thank you very match Frank for your tips!

Greetings Eftichia, and Welcome.

In-less I read your posts to fast You will have control over the Club, If this is so have You considered using studio strobes with a radio slave?

I did a shoot for a record company in the back of a music store a few years back and did just that. They are some of the best performance photos as far as sharpness and exposure that I have ever shot!

Just make sure you test your settings on location before the shoot.

Caraite, Eftichia!

Glad you are here.

Night clubs give great atkmosphere. The important thing about shooting fashion is that the clothes are framed on the models in turn frame by the club. The clothes are being sold. The georgeous model are merely an irrestable seduction, eye candy, so to speak, to get one to look at the clothes. The clothes must be photographed well!

So you must look at the fabrics and know you can shoot them without blowing out highly reflective silks or getting moire from fine pattenrs. At night either simple bold or palin colors. Tweeds and fine pattenrs need flash. You will easily photograph the scene but what's being sold iare the clothes. (See Klaus Esser's comments below on fashion v. reportage style. For the former, follow advice of using professional strobes, but also get a photography technician to help you set it up. Account for that time in your plans. Asher)

The secret of wedding photography is preparation. Going to the sanctuary before hand top see there are no lights is standard. You must not be surprised. So, if you can't do it with your eyes closed, so to speak, it is not optional for you to omit practicing this with a standin friend so that the shots are perfect. This applies to weddings but also to fashion shoots.

Speak to the club owners and give them a deal on some publicity pictures in in return for their help.

You need to practice even if you are using studio strobes since you want ambience. You really don't want to light up the place! Once you can see clearly all the hands and feet, it's no longer a club. Part of a club is the deniability that you are approaching close and that your feet and hands are where they are.

I think that the advice of Frank Dorhoof is worth so much. He's a very accomplished phyotographer and yopu might consider getting his video on photographing models. Inexpensive and straightforward. He doesn't ask me to promote his work, I just htink that this is worthile as a jump start to fashion and glamor photography.

I personally like to use the very least flash in this circumstance and use ambient light. You can use the very inexpensive 85mm 1.8 or the 50mm 1.4. You may apprciate the extra light coming in the 1.4 but the 85 1.8 will let you frame your subject to fill the frame. You cannot afford to use anything but all the pixels if you want to fill a spread in a magazine.

There is no doubt that experienced photographers could use the digital rebel to get these pictures. After all people did that with the 3MP 30D! (Look it up on DPReveiw).

However, for the less-experienced, who cannot yet get away with an edgy style with noise using ISO 1600, one has to go for the best lenses and at least the two I mentioned. Use a single prime lens with a dialed-down flash for minimal fill if necessary. Renting, if you can, A 1DsII with an 8 51.2 would use up some of your profit, but if this gets you anywhere near Vogue, you are made!

You'll need to learn how to use it so go a number of times to the camera store until you feel comfortable with the 1DsII and let them set it to AV, 1.2 (or as wide as you can) and learn how to cut down your flash power.

If you are comfortable shooting manual, then even better, but I'd go for AV.

Check the screen and adjust the flash so that it is just opening the shadows, no more.

That's how I would approach it.

If the guy in the camera store knows what he's doing, hire him for a nominal amount to be your assistant and guide so you won't be presured. At least her'll make sure that cups, straws odd pieces of paper are not in the field. You need someone to make sure that the clothes are draped perfectly and not crumpled! Make sure labels are not showing on accessoris and there are no price tages or bits of string.

Working alone in a dark club is a mistake! You can do it, but, having help is going to make this a better thinhg for everyone. What you earn on this first shoot is not important.

Efharisto poli (thanks) for joining us!

Asher

Eftichia Charalambidou said:

Hello everyone!
Am new to open photography forums, Iam Eftichia and Im from Cyrpus... Well i'm not a pro photographer, but I started shooting when I was in age of 10, because my father was a photographer…
I did stop because my father closed the shop and left Cyprus for some other jobs. I started shooting for hobby before 2 years again…

Recently I bought a new camera SLR canon eos 400D. I didn’t have time to shoot a lot with the “rebel” but I got really nice pics when I tried… Most of them are portraits and black and white...

I Love portraits, but next week I have my first professional shooting in a club, it will be a fashion presentation of one Cypriot fashion designer and I will take photos for her clothes. It will be in a club, with models, not a catwalk , but I will set the scenes.
I thought I might keep the club concept, drinks, dance and etc and shoot open. I also have the idea of shoot some girls on the couch having their drinks and girls talk.. etc…
Anyway I will have my spot lights, (3 or 4) the club lighting which will be colour (u know), my camera canon eos 400d, a small Canon PowerShot A620, and nothing else… I would like to ask you for some Opinions and advises for the shooting modes…

Thank you very much 4 reading this!

Click to expand...

Hi!

There are some points:

1) for beiing printed in a magazine, pictures have to have a resolution of 300dpi. The necessity of making crops in mind - the full space of a format is never used - that rises the question, how much resolution the camera delivers remains in the end. Usually 12/16mpx is needed to have reserves.
2) they have to be correct in CMYK. To be separated correctly they better should be photographed as RAW and not as JPG.
3) What´s the point of importance - the fashion or the girls? If fashion is the main thing, you have to have a very good light - clothes must be come out and that also means the creation of colours and the
layout of the creations have to come out distinguishable.
A light for fashion-photography means special things which an amateur can´t be familiar with!
Get to rent some professional strobe-equipment like ProFoto, Bowens, Bron or Balcar and work with umbrellas or softboxes or Molas to get a fashion-photography-light.
Put one big Mola or softbox on a boomer to have it flexible nearby the camera and a second big softbox from aside the camera. That means to surely have a good lit and sharp clothes and good light for the faces of the models and their moving is sharp.
To make light for the surrounding take some grid-equiped spots or an exposure long enough to add the available light.

"Fashion-photography" means a combination of very elaborated light and good models in good moves.
That´s very special!
So make a decision what kind of photography you will do at this asssignment: "fashion-photography" or a reportage of a fashion-event! I would suggest the second! For that kind of photography Frank´s suggestions are good!

best, Klaus

Hello again everyone!

I would like to thank you all :Will, Asher, Klaus, Frank, Nicolas. (SAS EFHARISTO POLY!)
Well I have read your posts, and now am more confidence to do that…I now it will not be easy for me cause am not familiar with this kind of assignment but I will do my best. I will do my practice on Friday before the event begins and see the result… The assignment will be reportage of fashion event and as most of you suggest… The good think is that the half of the club instead of walls has glass (big windows I don’t know the English word), so I can use the daylight because the event starts early, and in Cyprus the night begins after 19:30. Emmm.. That’s from me, thank all of you once again and when I’ll finish with the job I will post some of my work...
Thank you and see ya next week!

Have a nice evening!

Good luck on your assignment. Let us know how it worked! I'm impressed with your enterprise!

Asher