How do I take professional photo's of a night club?

Question

I have to do a small photo shoot of the inside of a club, that has florescent lighting, neons... ect. I was told to use clamp light? Any one know what I need to do?

Answer 1

If you're doing promotional photos when the club is empty I'd suggest a tripod, cable release and an ExpoDisc. The ExpoDisc is used to accurately set White Balance in mixed lighting situations. Go to shutterbug.com and search for the review of it in the May 2007 issue.

Looking at my ever-present FotoSharp (fotosharp.com) "Day & NIght Exposure Guide" we'll choose Scene # 13: Night clubs with dim lights

At ISO 200

f1.4 @ 1/4 sec.
f2 @ 1/2 sec.
f2.8 @ 1 sec.
f4 @ 2 sec.
f5.6 @ 4 sec.
f8 @ 8 sec.
f11 @ 15 sec.

At ISO 400

f1.4 @ 1/8 sec.
f2 @ 1/4 sec.
f2.8 @ 1/2 sec.
f4 @ 1 sec.
f5.6 @ 2 sec.
f8 @ 4 sec.
f11 @ 8 sec.

At ISO 800

f1.4 @ 1/15 sec.
f2 @ 1/8 sec.
f2.8 @ 1/4 sec.
f4 @ 1/2 sec.
f5.6 @ 1 sec.
f8 @ 2 sec.
f11 @ 4 sec.

At ISO 1600

f1.4 @ 1/30 sec.
f2 @ 1/15 sec.
f2.8 @ 1/8 sec.
f4 @ 1/4 sec.
f5.6 @ 1/2 sec.
f8 @ 1 sec.
f11 @ 2 sec.

At ISO 3200

f1.4 @ 1/60 sec.
f2 2 1/30 sec.
f2.8 @ 1/15 sec.
f4 @ 1/8 sec.
f5.6 @ 1/4 sec.
f8 @ 1/2 sec.
f11 @ 1 sec.

As you can readily see you won't be hand-holding the camera. If you are shooting with people present try to pick "peak moments" when the activity is slowest. Or just accept the blur caused by movement. A flash bounced off a piece of white card stock would definitely help - if you can use flash in the club. (Flash head pointed straight up. Make a "hood" for it out of white card stock. Make sure your camera and flash are both TTL compatible so the camera can measure the flash off the sensor.) Obviously if you're using flash the times I listed will be ignored. The main problem with using flash is to make sure it doesn't over-power the ambient lighting. Hope you can take some practice photos in the club when its closed.