Photography in a Night Club

The photograph below is one of about 600 that I took in a local club last weekend. It was my first attempt at photographing a band in a low-light situation. Aside from the expected problems like maneuvering through the crowd and overpaying for refreshments, I learned a lot.

My first impulse was: high ISO. I cranked it up to maximum: 2 EV over 6400. Bad idea. Consider the photo below. 1/400 second shutter speed is great, but the noise from the high ISO is such that a quality, large print would be almost impossible. Maybe an 8 x 10 print would look good.

The Nikon D7100, which is a great camera, does not show the ISO in the viewfinder. The LCD window on top of the camera shows the ISO, but it is not backlit and thus is invisible in low light. So I had to walk over to a lighted area each time I wanted to change the ISO. That sucked.

After I took over 300 photos, I realized that the high ISO was a big problem. How? By previewing the images already captured. I would typically take a dozen or so photos, then sit down for a bit.

I finally set the camera to ISO 6400. Still noisy, but not as bad as before. I also opened the aperture to maximum. That lets in more light, but also produces a very narrow depth of field. That means if you accidentally focus on a microphone stand instead of the singer, the photo is no good.

Next time, in the ideal world, I would want to use a faster zoom lens and lower ISO. Still, I am pleased with the results and encourage everyone to try it, with permission of the band, of course.

Happy Holidays!

f/5.6, 1/400 second, ISO 2EV over 6400

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