The Official Photography Thread - Vol. 3

[ksteezy]

here is a shot i took, WB set on auto.

1/100 f1.8 2500

notice the lights bleeding on her skin, this is due to the high ISO and aperture, sucking in alot of ambient all around.

 

[ksteezy]

my point is WB is seriously the last thing on your concerns list when shooting in a nightclub out of all places...all your shots are going to have a very inconsistent tone depending where you are shooting and you will drive yourself nuts trying to edit the photos to show some sort of consistency in your work which is very important, nothing more amateurish than handing out a collective group of images all with a different tone to them.

 

[Fong$tarr]

I am actually learning a lot from all this. I freaking suck at shooting with flash. Part of me getting a Mark 2 is so I never have to. But now I sort of want to learn since I feel like that is a whole cop out of hating something I don't have knowledge in. Anyways......good little reads on this whole thing. Hopefully I can get an external flash in the future and know what the heck you guys are talking about later.

 

[thewinners]

They seem a little too cool, technically speaking.

What white balance did you use?

 
Hope you don't mind... here is it after I went into Photoshop with it.

Did you add the vignette, or was that how it came out of the camera?

Of course i dont mind, i actually added the blue tint to that one, thought it would make it look cleaner. i was trying to base my shots off of www.retrosuperfuture.com ... i added the vignette because i see that alot in product shots. i always shoot in auto wb, i need to get in the habit of adjusting it when necessary though.

 

[bigrockford]

Bro why are you getting so defensive?...yes I used someone else's write up and pictures and linked his site for reference, since is pretty much the same thing I've been trying to explain to you since last page but perhaps my word is not enough, so there you have it, an actual club photographer illustrating what's common sense to anyone that has been shooting for a while.

You shoot at the club every weekend huh?

I've shot at clubs many times, mostly when I first got started, unfortunately that gig doesn't pay much so I stopped....now I do weddings and other parties and I have a pretty clear understanding on how to handle ambient light ad it has absolutely NOTHING to do with WB...so YES YOU ARE WRONG.

Have no clue what TheWinners are...

Cool story bro... Its OK to be wrong sometimes.. Just accept it.

 

[thewinners]

also another thing i realized during this conversation is that my temperature in light room on this photo. which is the result of the blue tint. i have a preset that i add to all my photos after i upload them into lightroom for editing.

 

[2morrowbegins2day]

******g cold in LA...

Gotta go shooting soon maaaaaaan!

lol

 

[ksteezy]

Cool story bro... Its OK to be wrong sometimes.. Just accept it.

Now you just trolling.

Sit back and take notes homie, you can learn a thing or two and apply it to your job in the clubs.

 

[bigrockford]

Now you just trolling.

Sit back and take notes homie, you can learn a thing or two and apply it to your job in the clubs.

I would have gladly took note Steezy. I respect you photography skills. But it looks like I was right. Pull your notepad out "homie".

also another thing i realized during this conversation is that my temperature in light room on this photo. which is the result of the blue tint. i have a preset that i add to all my photos after i upload them into lightroom for editing.

Thats the reason for the blue tint. The first SET of Bars is your WB. Looks like the first one is too far in the blue (cool) area. Your exposure bar will set the brightness of your photos.

 

[ksteezy]

WB is never an issue fam, SPECIALLY in club photography and that's the one and only thing I've been trying to explain to ya, every picture you take will most likely need some WB adjustment in PP...however that's not the issue, I can assure you had he shot with a lower ISO higher shutter, the blue ambient light and lasers would not have bled on the subject, WB is not selective of subjects, if it was indeed a WB issue everything in the shot would have the same blue tint.

Bottom line is NOT a WB issue, say what you will, think what you will, I've been shooting for 5 years in all sorts of environments and lots of events and my style is very well based in capturing ambient while bouncing flash and never have I had my WB set in anything other than auto, and my shots are always correctly exposed and well balanced....

All shots shot with WB set to auto, and didn't have to adjust it in PP, and all with different lighting due to multicolor strobes...

I'm all about passing the right knowledge along since I'm pretty much self taught, took ALOT of trial and error, so trust that when I decide to give ya some advice on photography I know what I'm talking about.

WB is irrelevant when dealing with nighttime indoors photography....is simply something people shouldn't worry about because all it takes is for you to slide a bar on LR to correct it.

 

[khankussionz]

I was just posting before I went back and read ksteezy's last post. If it was a WB issue, the whole picture would definitely have that tint. After seeing the lightroom snapshot I think part of the issue is the processing. Those shots were at a high ISO if I remember correctly and then to boost the exposure will bring up that blue ambient light bouncing off the subject.

 

[thadocta]

was installing some doors and decided to take some long exposure shots of the sparks


how can i get the background a little darker?

 

[khankussionz]

was installing some doors and decided to take some long exposure shots of the sparks


how can i get the background a little darker?

Ambient light is controlled by the shutter speed. If you raise that then everything else in the picture will darken.

 

[thadocta]

did some light editing still doesnt look right :\

but if i raise the shutter speed will i still get the same effect from the sparks?

 

[ksteezy]

was installing some doors and decided to take some long exposure shots of the sparks


how can i get the background a little darker?

Shutter and aperture work in opposites of each other to control light....when shooting outdoors on a bright day and you want a shallow DOF you will have to have your aperture at the lowest possible depending on the lense and then compensate with a very fast shutter...so low aperture (1.2 -2. high shutter 1/4000tth or something along those lines, or if you want less DOF you'll go up on the aperture and down on the shutter, to get the right exposure.

Shutter speed - the amount of time the shutter remains open to "absorb" light

Aperture - think of this as the cameras pupil...your eyes pupil dilates in the dark to bring in more light and constricts in bright light for you to be able to see, is no different than a camera, when someone tells you "shoot wide open" that means drop your aperture, some lenses can go all the way to f1.2 these are amazing in low light conditions....the bad part is that at such apertures, your Depth of Field becomes very shallow, this is how you get that nice bokeh (background blur) everyone loves, but often times you will miss focus, as you have to be very precise on where you are focused.

These two settings are the fundamentals of dealing with light and pretty much what your foundation should be based on, learn to master those and everything else will follow.

I'm sure many in here are aware of this, but figure some might not and this can help.

 

[khankussionz]

Shutter and aperture work in opposites of each other to control light....when shooting outdoors on a bright day and you want a shallow DOF you will have to have your aperture at the lowest possible depending on the lense and then compensate with a very fast shutter...so low aperture (1.2 -2. high shutter 1/4000tth or something along those lines, or if you want less DOF you'll go up on the aperture and down on the shutter, to get the right exposure.

Shutter speed - the amount of time the shutter remains open to "absorb" light

Aperture - think of this as the cameras pupil...your eyes pupil dilates in the dark to bring in more light and constricts in bright light for you to be able to see, is no different than a camera, when someone tells you "shoot wide open" that means drop your aperture, some lenses can go all the way to f1.2 these are amazing in low light conditions....the bad part is that at such apertures, your Depth of Field becomes very shallow, this is how you get that nice bokeh (background blur) everyone loves, but often times you will miss focus, as you have to be very precise on where you are focused.

These two settings are the fundamentals of dealing with light and pretty much what your foundation should be based on, learn to master those and everything else will follow.

I'm sure many in here are aware of this, but figure some might not and this can help.

Yea sorry, aperture here would make the total scene darker too but increases your DOF. You would have to keep your shutter open longer to keep the look of the sparks. You could also toss a ND filter on it to lower the total exposure to keep the DOF. I totally forgot that he wanted to keep the sparks and in that case aperture would accomplish that.

 

[thadocta]

was installing some doors and decided to take some long exposure shots of the sparks


how can i get the background a little darker?

Shutter and aperture work in opposites of each other to control light....when shooting outdoors on a bright day and you want a shallow DOF you will have to have your aperture at the lowest possible depending on the lense and then compensate with a very fast shutter...so low aperture (1.2 -2. high shutter 1/4000tth or something along those lines, or if you want less DOF you'll go up on the aperture and down on the shutter, to get the right exposure.

Shutter speed - the amount of time the shutter remains open to "absorb" light

Aperture - think of this as the cameras pupil...your eyes pupil dilates in the dark to bring in more light and constricts in bright light for you to be able to see, is no different than a camera, when someone tells you "shoot wide open" that means drop your aperture, some lenses can go all the way to f1.2 these are amazing in low light conditions....the bad part is that at such apertures, your Depth of Field becomes very shallow, this is how you get that nice bokeh (background blur) everyone loves, but often times you will miss focus, as you have to be very precise on where you are focused.

These two settings are the fundamentals of dealing with light and pretty much what your foundation should be based on, learn to master those and everything else will follow.

I'm sure many in here are aware of this, but figure some might not and this can help.

Thanks for the advice. very much appreciated

 

[bjamez20]

b&w tracks by bjamez20, on Flickr

my b&w submission

 

[yallayalla]

on the WB club setting.. i usually set it on flash mode

ive been shooting clubs for about a year now with an external flash

just sharing

 

[twosickjays]

WB is not selective of subjects, if it was indeed a WB issue everything in the shot would have the same blue tint.

This is just plain wrong. Simple as that. It is even highlighted in that article I posted. The whole image would have the same blue tint if all of the light sources were the same and the WB is off. Go shooting on a sunny day with your WB set to incandescent THEN the whole image would be tinted a different color.

"So if you used flash in that environment, and was "mixing" the balance with the ambient, your flash would appear … too magenta. Your camera is balanced for FL, and there is a daylight-colored light source. Your flash. So that light would react to the color shift in a not great way."

 

[twosickjays]

Here are two quick examples with 2 lights mixing poorly.

First image the lamp has the proper white balance, but the subject up front(hand and brush is tinted blue).
Second image the flash is white balanced properly, but the lamp in the back is too warm.


Here is both matching for good measure.

 

[bigrockford]

It is true that the blue lasers are bleeding on the subjects. That is inevitable. It is also not the issue. The issue is, that looks a tad bit over exposed, and the subjects do not have much of their skin tone due to a large amount of blue tint. The first picture (guys) looks like he used a flash, the second (girl) doesn't look like a flash was used. There is no reason that blue light would be strong enough to over power a flash unless it was a strong blue spotlight on them.

 

[Fong$tarr]

Here are two quick examples with 2 lights mixing poorly.

First image the lamp has the proper white balance, but the subject up front(hand and brush is tinted blue).
Second image the flash is white balanced properly, but the lamp in the back is too warm.


Here is both matching for good measure.

So what did you do to match up the colors correctly for the last photo? Was it just some adjustments on tungsten white balance mode?


Does anyone use that setting where you just change the temperature of the white balance? Forgot what mode it is called but I was messing with it yesterday and found some decent results. It has a pretty wide range and starts off in really warm colors. Drop it down toward the bottom and I find it at a decent setting for yellow lights.

 

[djaward]

Shout out to LA08NATIVE for the info. Thanks.

another question for you guys,

When my picture is ____________ means I need to adjust my Fstop. In other words how do I know when I need to adjust my fstop?

I know bumping ISO to a higher level means brightness (please correct me if Im wrong). So what does fstop do?

And does Fstop adjust the blurryness in a picture. For example, if Im taking a picture of a close object, will the Fstop make the background blurry?

What about if Im taking a picture of a tree froma distance. What will the Fstop do if I adjust it.


Sorry for the questions, just trying to understand a little more.

 

[ksteezy]

Twosickjays - the first image is overall cooler, THE WHOLE IMAGE, the second image is overall warmer, THE WHOLE IMAGE....thanks fr leoving my point bro

Here is my point, you guys jumped at the idea of WB adjustment and bringing a grey card to the club I'm not saying knowing how to control your WB on the brink is important, but is not something you should focus on, same goes for manually controlling your flash output...you will drive yourself crazy and mess up ALOT of shots, those two Settings is best to let your camera and flash compensate for on their own while you focus on what will really make a difference shutter/aperture/ISO.

If anyone can sit here and tell me is more beneficial to control your WB manually while shooting in a club, they simply have no clue WTH they are talking about, NONE.