Need help with flash/club photography!

[insomniac]

so my friend is having a birthday party real soon and hes renting out some place.. he said theres gonna be dj's, lasers etc so its probably gonna be themed like a club or even be at some club.. ive seen some pretty cool pictures taken by people in nightclubs locally.. i just want to take this opportunity to learn how to shoot these photos.

1) how did he get these light streaks?
2) i notice that people jump around and move alot so wont pics be blurry when people move around? how did he take these?



and this one. the dj's hands are clearly moving but howd the photographer get a clear shot of the dj?


also another thing is, i have a flash but i have no clue how to use it. are there any good guides out there online? i have a pretty old flash.. its a nikon sb-26.
or can i just use pop-up flash? i have a gary fong style puffer but when i use it wont the light spread out everywhere?

sorry, i probably asked alot of questions and i have many more. hopefully someone can help me haha.

[dark0821]

i am not sure how the first picture is taken, but the 2nd one is what you need a variable zoom lense, zoom in or out as you are clicking the shutter, with ur flash on

[ilvtofu]

Lightstreaks actually happen pretty naturally
I took these photos at a pretty slow shutter speed around 1/6 or 1/10 with a 580ex and lightsphere




Lol u have me on FB so just check them out from last year's valentines dance, the pics are really shitty resolution but you get the point, Imagine that in a much darker club, I was surprised at how clear faces were at that slow of a shutter speed with the flash

[m3thods]

Originally Posted by dark0821

i am not sure how the first picture is taken, but the 2nd one is what you need a variable zoom lense, zoom in or out as you are clicking the shutter, with ur flash on

second picture doesn't look like a zoom burst. to me it just looks like a slow shutter speed and an ultra-wide.

if your flash is capable, use second-curtain sync. this basically causes the flash to fire at the end of the shutter action, which will allow you to capture people more sharply in slower-shutter speed. it can also help you "freeze" motion with the background still displaying the motion blur.

I'd suggest playing around a bit with the flash to become more comfortable. I found this site to be particularly useful with flash photography in general, but it is quite a read:

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-pho...hy-techniques/

hope this helps!

[N.V.M.]

Originally Posted by m3thods

second picture doesn't look like a zoom burst. to me it just looks like a slow shutter speed and an ultra-wide.

almost looks more software(PP) than lens.

[Senna4ever]

The first picture was taken with the flash set to the second curtain sync, I'm pretty sure.

[insomniac]

for the first pic, did he aim the flash straight at the people? how can you get just the people and not the ground etc? thanks alot everyone!

[ddr]

look at the shadow and guess where the light is coming from, seem to me it's from camera left.