Nightclub photography
So I got a question on YouTube related to nightclub photography and how that can be achieved. In order to answer, I will start with the human eye, which has a dynamic range of 21 stops! Even the best cameras ever made can keep up with this performance – for example the acclaimed Nikon D700 “only” has a dynamic range of 13.9 stops according to DXOmark, whereas the very best modern cameras manage to go to 15 stops.
The dynamic range is the ability to distinguish between light intensity in the darkest of the dark and the brightest of the bright at the same time. The fact that it is at the same time is important. You can always underexpose an mage to make sure you preserve the details in the brightest of bright areas. And the other way around, you can always preserve the details in the darkest areas by overexposing the image. But the challenge is to do both at the same time.
A nightclub with both neon lights (super bright), disco light (bright and moving fast) and also dark areas (could be the dancing floor itself or the side of the bar) has an extremely high dynamic range. It is very similar to shooting the moon at night – you both have something very bright and something very dark at the same time. It is like shooting a 100 watts light bulb in a dark room at night.
Metering
Your metering system is likely to very confused if you shoot at a nightclub, especially if you meter with an average method. 95% of the frame is likely to be pitch black, whereas the remaining 5% is super bright. My guess is that your camera, unless you try spot metering or go to manual exposure, will over expose the image to compensate for the dominating dark. Try to experiment with different metering modes or manual exposure to get the exposure as you want it. You can also give exposure compensation a try.
ISO or not
A camera that can go to crazy high ISO values will not help you. Setting ISO high enables you to capture images where there is little light, buy when doing so, the parts where there is light will be over exposed. In other words, you will loose details in the bright areas. Here I ignore the issues related to high ISO such as grain and noise, the point is that even if you can live with these issues, it will not help you much.
Fast lens
A fast lens has the same features as high ISO, but without the grain and the noise. It will take in more light and enable you to shoot at faster shutter speeds all things being equal, but you will have the same issue as with ISO, that it will only push your histogram to the right and you need it to be extended in both sides.
HDR
High Dynamic Range or HDR you probably know from your smartphone. It offers the HDR feature without telling you what it does – it is an integral service that just presents you with the result. But behind the scenes the smartphones takes a series of images, typically some over exposed and others over exposed, and combine them into one picture selecting the correct exposed parts from the different pictures into one. You can do HDR with your DSLR and combine the images in post processing, and this will certainly work. The problem is just that your subject has to stand still while this happens. And disco lights have a tendency not to obey to this wish.
Loosing details
One of my favorite photographers is Sean Tucker. If you study his work, you will see that he often and deliberately looses details in the dark. His motto is to “preserve your highlights”, i.e. preserve the details in the highlights and let the different shades of grey be one big black surface without any detail.
You can loose details in both ends of the spectrum. Which “end” you choose is up to you. I would imagine that loosing details in a neon light would not matter much, suggesting that you should expose for the dark parts, i.e. over exposing to preserve details in the darker parts. But this is of course entirely up to you and what you want to express.