Okay. It happens to a lot of photographers, and it probably is going to happen to you if it hasn’t already. You’re going to get comfortable with a certain shooting style and your photos are going to look the same–all the time. Photographers begin to develop their skills and start to take great photos; however, when this happens nightclub photographers begin to find themselves in a comfort zone that they never want to leave. This, in turn, leads to a lack of creativity which leads to nightclub photos that practically look the same. Typical lighting, typical poses, typical subjects. If you want to be great, then you’re going to have to take some out-of-the-box photos!

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your shots. You can’t be, or else you going to be just like any other nightclub photography junkie. One easy nightclub photography tip you should use to produce some creative photos is to experiment with your flash settings and exposure levels. A perfect exposure isn’t necessarily a dynamic and exciting photo. Take a look at the photo above. When I took this photo, I wanted to give these party goers a ‘celebrity feel’ in the photo (i.e. bright, flashy lights). I used a wireless flash and decided to have some fun. I set my flash to manual and increased the power (i.e. to produce a brighter light). I then asked a stranger (which is always fun) to point the flash at the group. With a slow shutter speed (1/4),  I took a 4 shot burst, and this was pretty much the effect I wanted. I wanted the subjects to be blown out a bit while other people in the picture weren’t affected by the brighter light.

So, that’s one easy way to experiment at the club. But, if you’re still hesitant to play around while out at a shoot, then experiment during your post processing. Here, you can get as crazy as you want and not worry about ruining your photo. You should have a back up!

There are so many things you can do during post processing that it would be impossible for me to go over everything. I do enjoy limiting the number of colors in a photo, like you see above, and this is something you might want to play around with when editing. When shooting from within a Dj’s booth, I really like the effect of keeping purples and blues and pretty much getting rid of everything else. Of course, different situations will produce different results, but you get the idea!

So get out there and really, don’t be afraid to experiment! if you want to be great at nightclub photography, learn to expand your repertoire and get some original shots!