JPG: Stories: How To: Funky light effects

How To

Funky light effects

By James Baleno

22 Mar 2009

As I spent a fair amount of time taking pictures at clubs and bars, I started to wonder about using the ambient light from the light shows to better define the picture I was taking. Using my Kodak Z740, I closed the flash and snapped off some shots both using the auto and night settings. What settings you will use depend on your camera and what light show devices the club/bar has in use at the time you take the shot.

Through much trial and error, I found that I could get great shots either way. The key factor here is to get a better overall picture of the crowd, while not getting just the half dozen people in the reach of your flash.

Being an amateur photographer, I don't know a whole lot about all the individual settings like the F-stop and exposure times, but if you know what you are doing, I am sure that you can tweak these as well.

No flash shots can provide great material for either photoshop work or promotional work.

Personally, as I am a Photoshopaholic, I like to wait until there is a fair amount of smoke in the air (read that as fog machine action if you will) and try to catch laser light shows or high intensity mirror beams as they move around. These can be used from some great effects in Photoshop.

While the club that used a lot of the shots I took is now closed (not my fault, crime happens, I wasn't there) I still have a number of the shots on file that I took in this fashion.

Be willing to think outside the flash cube (did I just date myself here?) and look at what the ambient light has to offer. Digital cameras with instant review can really let you get an immediate feel for how the shots will turn out, so use it, and utilize the information in each shot to tune the next one until you have the perfect shot.

Good luck and happy club hopping.

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