How to be a good club photographer?

[reddragdiva]

Here's a contentious question on photography: something for the photo guide on how to take a good picture on a night out. It's an issue I was avoiding, but people seem to want it. Here's what I have so far in the guide:

• Frame the shot properly in the LCD if possible — it saves time editing afterwards. (Taking photos is fun, editing photos is boring.)
• Most cameras advise "save battery by not using the LCD or flash," but you need both for clubbing. Take spare batteries. Take a spare card too.
• Don't just photograph people's face and shoulders, get a full-length shot as well — their outfit will have been planned from top to toe. (courtesy ciphergoth)
• You can't use flash in smoke. Don't even try — just set the camera fast and brighten the shot later. If you must use flash in smoke, turn saturation/vividness down.
• Sort out permission from club and subjects sensibly. Use common sense — upsetting people is bad. (noted by bramsmits)

This is well out of the technical area and into matters of opinion. And I really don't want to end up inadvertently writing a book-length list of ideas and side-issues. But what works for you? What obvious errors do you get sick of seeing that a non-technical automatic photographer could fix easily?

Comments

[drpete.livejournal.com]

What obvious errors do you get sick of seeing that a non-technical automatic photographer could fix easily?

Red eye.

[reddragdiva]

How do they fix physics? Compact cameras have the flash near the lens. You could use something with a flash standing off to one side, but that sorta loses the 'compact' aspect.

[hazyjayne.livejournal.com]

Red-eye reducing flash?

[hazyjayne.livejournal.com]

Portraits that are badly composed... the rule of thirds is very easy to follow...

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Is there such a thing as a compact with a mobile flash head? I suspect not, and that club ceilings are unlikely to reliably be a suitable color in any case...

[reddragdiva]

In my experience it blinds the subject twice and gets a maybe red-eye-reduced shot of a scrunched-up face. I'm not a fan.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Don't use flash when your subject is some distance away. You'll just get the backs of people's heads if e.g. you're taking a picture of a band.

[reddragdiva]

Oh, good one!

[reddragdiva]

Higher-end compacts sometimes have a hot shoe. But as I said, this misses the point of a compact camera, i.e. being compact. Flash basically sucks.

[baljemmett.livejournal.com]

A tool of the devil.

Granted, it might work most of the time, but it's still evil. Best is to not use flash unless absolutely unavoidable -- it would appear to be a fairly common mistake to rely on the camera's automatic flash, which doesn't always take into account subject distance or environmental factors such as smoke.

[hazyjayne.livejournal.com]

Oh and, flat surfaces are your friend when doing long exposure shots :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If they're holding a drink ask them if they want to put it down first; people are not walking adverts for beer companies.

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

don't use flash with bands full stop unless they have agreed to it and you have a good enough flash gun to actually cover the distance effectively.

i'm always very amused when you see sporting events and thousands of flashes going off in the stands... silly really!

[neenaw.livejournal.com]

What obvious errors do you get sick of seeing that a non-technical automatic photographer could fix easily?

Photographs of badly dressed mingers.

[baljemmett.livejournal.com]

What amuses me is sitting in raised seating at a concert, looking down over the stalls; you can see the effective distance of their flashes quite easily, and it's nowhere near adequate!

Oh, that reminds me; how about "when using an LCD to frame / review shots, cup a hand over it if possible" -- I've taken the odd photograph which has someone standing in the background taking their own photograph, and their screen stands out quite distractingly (but not until you get home and look at your efforts, of course!)

[ladykathryn.livejournal.com]

Red eye's really easy to edit out, but an awful lot of work to avoid in the first place.

[ladykathryn.livejournal.com]

Warn someone you're taking the photo, even if it's only a 2 second "hey, over here" - avoids shots of the back of people's heads, open mouths and sudden wardrobe malfunctions.
Also, don't take pictures of me. Breaks the camera.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

And it never works in my browser That flash-non-flash thing can remove redeye.

[reddragdiva]

Taste is probably not teachable. Good thing our friends are all breathtakingly gorgeous and impeccably well-dressed.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I was imagining a flash head that could be pointed at the ceiling; I can see that would be impractical on the tiniest of compacts (and perhaps impractical to do within a sensible budget on the rest...)

[redcountess]

Diva always gets the subject's permission first. He only takes candid photos of crowds and people whose permission he has implicitly.

[reddragdiva]

Surprise shots of people who don't know and trust you produce pissed-off people, yes. I'd link to my photo policy if the site wasn't playing up ...

[trayce.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the no flash in smoke point. I've seen your photos and mine rooned by a damn smoke machine and a shit flash.

Problem is, dark room/flashing lights/moving bodies makes for some tricky work!

[reddragdiva]

Or by accident! e.g. a shot of Kitty and Hazyjayne which looked posed but was me testing front-fill flash on the 400 ...

[reddragdiva]

Sometimes a photo really just isn't possible and you have to get what you can to bother.