Wedding Photography Tips – How to Take Killer Dance Party Photos!
Published on February 12, 2014
Wedding Photography Tips – How to Take Killer Dance Party Photos! Learn how to take wedding reception dance photos that actually show people having a blast a…
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of emotion or energy in your
wedding reception photos on the dance floor? This new video will show you
a super cool technique to bring your photos to life!
Enjoy and have fun 🙂
-Cole
#weddingphotography #lightingtips
Wedding Photography Tips – How to Take Killer Dance Party Photos!
Thanks heaps man I have been using this technique a lot, going down to the
lower shutter and with DJ lights going at the same time at parties looks
sick :D
how can you not use either rear or front curtain sync? The latter is the
default mode. The flash either fires when the curtain closes or when it
opens. Cant be any other way.
I am just not sure how do you get those shots in focus if it was that dark
and the camera is hunting for focus, will that miss the moment?
Great share! I don’t shoot weddings BUT I think this technique will be
perfect for capturing the fun at a kid’s birthday party this weekend. Thank
you!
look up rear shutter flash setting so the flash goes off post shutter not
pre..all the smearing will be behind subject.
Yes for sure – the zoom makes the trick a little easier and the effect far
more pronounced. Let me know how it goes for ya!
And u use the on-camera flash aswell right? I got a party coming up and i
need to nail this technique xD
Cole, I thought this technique was great for jazzing up wedding photos.
I’ve seen club photos like this and really like that you used the technique
for wedding photography.
Really good tip.
Yes, actually in my case I was only using on-camera flash but if you have
off camera flash in background that could really help make for some
dramatic shots! good luck, you’ll do awesome!
thx, i just gonna try, and see if they want me back next year 🙂 then maybe
i can be there photographer every year 🙂
Hey Charles – to be honest, I don’t recall, I think so because usually I
have it set for rear curtain, especially for dragging the shutter type
shots with flash. That is a great question though, I am not sure if would
matter which flash curtain setting since YOU are the one creating the
blur/light streaks in which the direction of those streaks is dependent
upon which direction you move the camera.
Hey Drew – thats a great variation that I am going to try and the next
wedding I do – thanks for sharing!!
I can see where you can think that, especially with some of the more
“senior” wedding guests on the dance floor, however, its merely something
you can use sporadically to add variety to your shots and convey motion,
energy or showcase the party and people having fun. I def don’t shoot 4 hrs
of open dancing like that 🙂 One thing to note though is, you can adjust
how “wild” you make the lights and motion by changing your shutter speed –
for less wild, use a faster shutter…and vice versa.
No offense, but if you’re shooting professionally, you should know that
there is a very big difference between Rear curtain and Front curtain
shooting. In your case i think it was the Front curtain shooting, because
the blur stips are OVER the subjects. If you wanted to get the blur behind
the people, you should’ve used Read curtain shooting.
Really good tip. But I want to ask, how is the subject in focus, wont the
camera shaking effect blur the subject too.
Using rear curtain sync on these?
Hey Moses – no offense taken…you are correct, IF the subject is moving
and not your camera. In my case I actually just checked the metadata and
can say front or rear sync was not used – no curtain sync was used – which
also goes to my point above about the photographers motion and movement and
how slow of a shutter will control how wild the streaks.
Thanks a bunch man! Yea its a style thing that I know some wedding photogs
can’t get behind but to each’s own…I personally like it in moderation and
think it can showcase the party much better than a flat looking well lit
photo 🙂
thanks for the tip I will definitely try that technique next time^^ though
I gotta say the combination of people beeing all dressed up and this highly
energetic lights seems kinda disharmonic to me….
Thank you so much for sharing! Great job
This is a great video, Ive been looking for some tips on this type of
photography but its so hard to find! I find if I want to achieve this
effect I hold my camera on an angle of about 45 degrees off left or right
and i snap the picture,once i hear the click i rotate the body so it’s
level and you will hear the shutter close. just an amazing effect for
nightclub photography! On that note wherever the shutter finishes is where
the Image is at its clearest, That being the closer subject of focus
Thanks, must try it out particularly with the zoom.
Hey Manikaran! Thanks so much for checking out the video – I am glad that
you dig it! That is a great question by the way, the answer is the flash
itself is what will “freeze” your subject. So its crucial to have enough
flash hitting your subject to make sure your subject is frozen from the
flash.