Shooting at a "Rave"

I will be taking some photos at a rave type concert in May. I am

assuming it will be dark and will be using fast film and flash. I

am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what to use. I am

planning on using NPZ for the color and shooting it at 800. I have

shot it at 1600 before, with adequate results, but I am looking for

as high quality as possible in the prints. I am also going to shoot

some TMZ @ 1600. There will be a back stage area where I will

(hopefully) shooting the bands in a staging area. There I plan on

shooting Tri-X or maybe Plus-X if there is enough light.

 

I have never shot something like this exactly before, so any help

would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I actually shoot at clubs with similar settings but I use digital. You definitly want to go half and half on flash and available lighting. The entire scene is more dramattic if it isn't too sharp and some movements are captured. Flash really doesn't flatter people when they're on the dance floor. For close ups and bystanders flash is the way to go. Lastly, you do need some color. B&W is cool but clubs and raves are all about neon bright colors. You'd probably want to spash it here and there with colors. Hope you have as much fun shoot as I do.

http://www.photo.net/concerts/mirarchi/concer_i

 

 

use Photo.net to your advantage. Go to the learn section (cut and paste the above... it covers everything you want to know about.

 

Search the archives for more. I used to shoot a lot of raves back in the day... but I much prefer slide film for it. It takes a bit more work but the colors are more vibrant and the results are cool. If you search the archives there is a shot on slide film of the DJ Punc Rock tour of Asia in 2002(?). Good luck.

I just shot my old band's latest club show. I did it all B&W using Delta 3200, one roll at 3200 and the other at 6400, HP5 400 shot at 1600, and a roll of HP5 shot at 400 using flash. I haven't developed the flash shots, but the 400 shot at 1600 was incredible, and the 3200 shot at both 3200 and 6400 also worked well. Club had very little lighting away from the stage, large stage, big club...gave up on dancers without a flash, even with ISO6400, one can not shoot in the dark :).

Try shooting with second curtain flash (if your camera & flash can do that) & longish times (around 1/15) to get some movement in the pictures.

Roman

I shoot a lot at concerts, and I normally use a 200 film. If you have a good flash, you don�t really need a faster film, unless you want the effects. It all depends on what you are planning to do with the pictures. If they will be printed I wouldn�t use a faster film, as your images might get too grainy.

 

Mona

I can't say anything about color films since I shoot so little of it. I've never tried to push it either. TMZ works pretty well at EI 1600, but it is grainy and not too sharp at all. If that is what you expect, then go ahead and do that. However, if you are looking to minimize grain here are a couple of alternatives. You can use Tri-X at about EI 1250 and soup the film in Diafine. Works great and the shadows will hold some detail. If you have even lighting you can go as high as 1600 with this combo, but I play it safe and give it a little more exposure. In most situations, I prefer this to TMZ. I find it works so well that I reserve TMZ for when I need to go up to EI 3200. TMY also works reasonably well at EI 1600 when developed in diluted XTOL. Plus-X without flash indoors is useless unless you're in a white room with lots of windows on a sunny day. It's just too slow. Save the room in your bag for a few more rolls of Tri-X and TMZ.

get a flash bracket.

 

A rave and a concert are two different things. At a concert you are paying to see the preformers and listen to their chart toppers.

 

At a rave, you are going to have an expereince which is much less centered on the DJ and much more you and the music. It depends on how its set up, but most raves I have been to focus on light "effects" like stobes, lasers, projectors, blacklights, (bubbles) etc. While concerts just use gelled stage lights to shine on their preformers during differnent moods of their songs.

 

Flash is probably going to kill the atmosphere of the lighting, so what I suggest is gelling the flash with a gel that is most like the lighing setup. If there is mostly blue light, use blue gel. Amber light, use amber gel, yellow light, use yellow gel. Then the flash is not just a hugely illuminated burst of "daylight" in a sea of darkness.

 

If you really want high quality, get some assistants and some slaves to help fill the background.