Low Light Pics in a Club

[Kawidude]

A friend of mine was part of a comedy/variety show in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. I volunteered to come along and shoot pics of the evening since I had never photographed people in that type of environment before. I brought my 350D and my 70-200 IS with me. I also brought my flash, but after a few test shots I decided against using it. They had some really cool pink/purple stage lights that added a nice vibe to the whole evening. When I used the flash it just overpowered the stage lights and made everything look washed out and flat. Although the lighting was pretty cool it was incredibly inconsistent across the stage. I think I would have had a much higher keeper rate if there weren't so many odd bright and dark areas at different points on the stage.

Overall though, I was really happy with the sharpness and color I got from the lens. It was tricky trying to figure out the best way to shoot this stuff. I was at ISO 800 and typically shooting at f3.2 or 3.5 with shutter speeds anywhere from 1/15 up to 1/60 of a second. I love this thing more every time I use it!

Anyway, just thought I'd share a few of the shots that I liked. The first one is of the guy who hosts the shows.

 

[Kawidude]

One of the first guys on stage played an original song on guitar. He had some talent.

 

[Kawidude]

Another guy came out and recited some poetry.

 

[Kawidude]

These two guys came out and did some insane improv based on suggestions from the crowd. This scene started out based on the concept of making soup. And somehow it got to this point. :whoa:

 

[Kawidude]

Alright, I'm a little bummed that these shots lost some sharpness after prepping them for posting. Oh well, at least the color representation is decent.

This girl was the hit of the evening. She came out and did a belly dance routine. Let's just say she left the stage with substantially less clothes than when she started dancing. :nener:

 

[Chili]

Looks like a challenging environment to shoot in that you handled very well :cool:

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Good choice on using available light. It does a really nice job of imparting the "feel" of a club. Nicely done.

 

[XRpredator]

. . . the scene started out based on the concept of making soup. And somehow it got to this point. :whoa:

well, you *did* say you were in San Francisco.

Nice shots, man! Although more of Mrs. Dude would be cool ;)

 

[Kawidude]

Good choice on using available light. It does a really nice job of imparting the "feel" of a club. Nicely done.

Thanks Rich. It's funny, after going through those shots again I can see some of the mistakes I made. I probably should have ventured into the 2.8 territory in order to get my shutter speed up just a bit more. I think that would have controlled the stage lighting on the faces in some of the shots. I was just worried that at 2.8 I'd have a lot of shots where I missed getting the focus where I wanted it. It was a fun learning experience. I actually volunteered to shoot another one of these shows at a different venue in a few weeks. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Kawidude]

well, you *did* say you were in San Francisco.

Nice shots, man! Although more of Mrs. Dude would be cool ;)

You know, one of these days I'll have to put a little gallery together of Mrs. Dude and post them up just for you! :cool:

 

[rickyd]

You know, one of these days I'll have to put a little gallery together of Mrs. Dude and post them up just for you! :cool:

You mean Belle's future Mother inlaw? ;)