Funky Buddha kicked my backside

Working a nightclub fashion show was always going to be a challenge. Let’s face it, they’re not the sort of place that is renowned for brightly lit runways and clean white backgrounds. Quite the opposite in fact. The three I’ve worked in recently were dark. Very, very dark. When the show started, they all turned what little lights they had on way down.

E.g. The shot at the top of this page from the Agnes Valentine set at Funky Buddha was a full three stops darker during the show than the rehearsal (second image).

Funky Buddha kicked my backside that night. All I had with me to cover the show was a single 580exII.

Lessons Learned…

• shoot on manual mode – I started out with aperture priority but this led to extremely slow shutter speeds, even at ISO3200, f/4
• forget trying to bounce the flash – black walls and black ceilings don’t reflect much light. Sounds obvious but the guy next to me was suggesting it. The bouncer’s shirt worked really well until he complained.
• dragging the shutter to burn in the house lights requires far too slow a shutter speed. With a model walking towards you that can only lead to an unacceptable level of subject blur and destroy the shot. Pushing the shutter speed up will give a nice brightly lit subject but you can kiss goodbye to the cavernous nightclub in the background
• focus is an issue – it’s dark and there isn’t much contrast. AF assist is a must.
• AF assist on the 580exII does not fire in servo mode
• colour balance – without a grey card this is going to be way off. The environment throws too many changing light colours into the shot e.g. Gel’d disco lights, halogen point spots, UV tubes, lasers, led matrices, neon and even candle light. Thank goodness I didn’t have any ugly fluorescent tubes to deal with too
• lighting levels can and will change between the rehearsal and the show

The biggest question for me is how to light a fashion show in a nightclub? What I was aiming for was a brightly lit, sharp image of the model showing all the detail of the designer’s outfit but bringing in the ambience of the venue into the shot too.

To be brutally honest I’m not happy with the results and most of the images are unusable. As a learning experience though, this was amazing.