Flash is great - don't get me wrong, but standard flash-on-camera shots can look a little ordinary. Getting creative and trying new and different approaches can be a lot of fun and can yield some terrific results.Recently, I've shot several events that begin before dusk, but the action and activity doesn't really get going until after dark. The events I've been shooting have been on the rooftop of a building in downtown Rockville. The parties have a nightclub atmosphere, but everything is outdoors and when the sun goes down, it gets very, very dark very, very fast. Candles and the moon are the main source of light for these parties. This makes getting good, clear and in-focus shots a real challenge.
My job has been to capture the mood and the feel of these Rooftop parties. When the sun is still up in the sky or just beginning to reach sunset, it's relatively easy to get some good shots. But the action really starts to happen after dark, so getting a good shot can be a combination of luck, skill and remembering what worked last time.
So, what happens when you try to catch a full moon and the area you're shooting is close to completely dark? In the shot below, I popped on my flash and set my camera to get the right exposure for the moon.
I took the shot and (as always) crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
I like the shot because clearly, you know who the subjects are, but there's enough going on around the the two women that you can see that they're not in an ordinary nightclub and that they're outdoors. I tried a few other similar shots with mixed results. Sometimes luck was on my side and sometimes it wasn't.
Focus is a big deal when trying to shoot at night. During the day, the automatic focus on my camera works great. Rarely any need for adjusting and it just nails the focus. At night, the camera searches and hunts for something to focus on. But without any light, it usually doesn't find anything. Manually focusing is always an option, but imagine trying to focus on something you really can't see. 9 times out of 10, I couldn't see much at all. I knew there might be a decent shot there, but I was never certain. So, instead of using auto focus or manually focusing by looking through the viewfinder, I tried estimating distances and using the distance ring on my lenses to get the right focus. Now, if only someone created a lens with a light so you can see the numbers on the distance ring, I'd be all set. I had a small flashlight that I stuck in my mouth to read the focus distances. It wasn't pretty, but it worked (sometimes).
Other situations call for trying to convey energy and movement in a night shot. Shooting at night with a flash, leaving the shutter open for several seconds and having your flash set to rear-curtain flash can lead to some really cool effects. The shot to the right is one that I think captures the mood of the evening - high intensity, great view, lots of motion and again, on a rooftop and not inside a bar. For this shot, I stood on the DJ's table (with his permission, of course), set my camera for a long exposure, set my flash for rear curtain (flash happens at the end of the exposure), held my camera up even higher than where I was standing, pointed my camera down at the crowd, shot the picture and hoped for the best.
All 3 parties have been a lot of fun to shoot and great learning experiences. I've learned a lot about night photography and while you might get a higher percentage of rejects when shooting an event like these, the "keepers" can be pretty unique.
You can see and order any of these event photos at these links:
- Sky at Five Rooftop Party - Rockville's Town Square - July 9, 2009
- SuperNova - Rooftop party sponsored by Baci - August 8, 2009
- Sky at Five Rooftop Party - Rockville's Town Square - September 3, 2009
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