There are many people who think nightclub photography provides photographers with a limited skill set that applies to taking photos only in nightclubs. That’s the wrong way to think. In fact, nightclub photography prepares you for many different types of photography.

Two common areas nightlife photographers get into are band photography and concert photography. If you’re a nightclub photographer, definitely look into opportunities to be a band or concert photographer because you will have a solid foundation to do a good job.

Whether you’re shooting bands in small bars or are the photographer at a big concert, there are several things that will be different than what you may be used to, but not difficult to master with your nightclub photography skills.

1. You need a really fast lens, f/2.8 or faster. At many band or concert photography gigs, you will not be able to use your flash. You need to have a lens that can shoot in low light very well.
2. Use spot metering. Because you probably will shoot without a flash, you don’t want stage lighting to force your camera to underexpose your subject and make them a shadow. Using spot metering and focusing on your subject, let’s say a singer, will tell your camera to meter based on your subject and not any other lighting in the frame.
3. Have a telephone lens handy, preferably a 70mm-200mm f/2.8 lens. In band and concert photography, you don’t want to get in the way of people watching, so you don’t want to position yourself in between bands and the audience. You might get in the way and begin to annoy people. So, you need to position yourself further away and just zoom in to shoot your subjects.

These 3 quick tips will help you get a head start. Your understanding of nightclub photography should take you to the next level.

A common question among aspiring nightclub photographers is how much do nightlife photographers make a night. It will depend on a photographer’s experience level, what exactly the person is asked to do on the job, and one’s city.

Clearly, if a person has more experience, his or her pay rate will be more because people assume they will get more and better photos than if they hired less experienced photographers. If a photographer is asked to shoot at a club, does the job involve any photo booth and/or kiosk work, or is the job solely about walking around the club and snapping photos. How much you get paid will depend on exactly what you do? Lastly, larger, more popular cities tend to have a higher standard of living, hence, nightclub photography jobs should pay better than lesser known cities, states, or even countries.

To give you guys an idea of how much you should make for one shoot, $100-$300 is average for about 2-3 hours. Again, that is an average. Some people get more, others get less. If you’re starting out, expect to charge about $50-$75 a night at first. Build your portfolio and experience, then you can negotiate for more.

What’s happening on November 1? After a very, very long time, it’s finally done. The Ultimate Nightclub Photography Guide is now going public! For those of you who have been waiting for so long for this, we are sure you’re going to find the guide to be very informative and useful.

The Ultimate Nightclub Photography Guide will be available to the public on November 1, 2010 for the normal rate of $97. You’ll make more than that in just 1 or 2 shoots as a nightclub photographer. Believe me, the guide is worth more than that!

However, for a 24 hour period, we are going to have a GREAT Early Bird rate that will NEVER be this low again. Both the guide and the free bonuses will be yours for a very affordable price.

To get in on this one-time, 24 hour Early Bird special, make sure to sign up to our email list so we can send you more details. For signing up, we’ll also send you a sample of the guide and a 3 day video mini-course! Sign up now!

Hi everyone! It’s been a long time. I’ve been a busy guy working on various projects. I wanted to let you all know that I am sharing free video nightclub photography tips at Nightclub Photography TV. Boy, it’s been ages, and our guide is still not complete! Sorry, we’re perfectionists! To hold everyone over though, check out the free weekly episodes at NPTV. I’ve posted the latest episode here. Another one will be airing tomorrow. (There will be a new episode every Monday.)

When someone gets into nightclub, nightlife, and concert photography, knowing and using the right nightclub photography settings is a big deal. As a ‘newbie’, no one wants to take bad photos because as a photographer, you won’t want to be embarrassed by showing your subjects a horrible shot! So, understanding what settings to use for particular shots is very important. What shutter speed? What aperture? What ISO? Over expose or under expose? There are so many questions and you only have a few seconds to adjust your camera between shots in a nightclub night when the party starts.

I will be discussing many different camera settings for different situations in the Ultimate Nightclub Photography Guide that will improve your photos immediately. Right now, however, I want to focus on something much more fundamental, and really, much more important than knowing a few different shutter, aperture, and ISO combinations. I want to emphasize that you really need to know your camera inside and out. In other words, truly master all the functions, features, and menus of your camera. Honestly, I know many photographers who are only weekend warriors and they cannot handle a camera as quickly and gracefully as a professional. If you don’t use your camera often, you’re not going to be able to make on the fly changes in different settings fast enough. As a result, you’re likely not going to get a good variety of shots because you’ll probably stick to the camera settings you’ve grown used to, and if you’re slow, you’re going to miss some great photo opportunities while you’re fiddling with your camera!

The point is, knowing what nightclub photography settings to use for different shots is one thing, but more important than that is knowing your camera like the back of your hand. Unless you shoot very often, I doubt you could tell me, instinctively, what direction to ‘turn the knob’  to increase shutter speed, widen your aperture, or lower your ISO. These are extreme basics you need to know when shooting in a dynamic environment like a nightclub.

Start handling your camera everyday. Even if you don’t have a shoot, make sure you practice, practice, and practice. Also, when’s the last time you’ve read your camera’s manual? You might be amazed at the things you will learn about your camera that you never knew, or be pleasantly reminded about certain features you used to use but forgot about for some reason. Once you know your camera very well, you will have a lot of confidence to experiment with different nightclub photography settings on the go.