Balancing driving beats and fluttering, MIDI melodies, international DJ Paul van Dyk wove an electric set in his two and a half-hour performance at Dante’s Night Club.
After opening sets by DJ Yanix, and DJ SlantE, Paul van Dyk took command of the DJ booth at midnight and wasted no time whipping the crowd into a frenzy, with new tracks and classic anthems alike.
The German DJ is currently touring in support of his 2007 release, In Between.
Photographer’s Notes:
This was a really interesting set, as it marked my first shot at photographing a DJ. In addition, it was my second shoot using Nikon’s wireless flash system, which Nikon calls “Creative Lighting System,” or CLS. The first time I shot with CLS and multiple flashes was for the Dresden Dolls earlier this year.
Overall, movement in the DJ booth was very limited, due to the narrow space, and I was only allowed to shoot from one side, which further restricted options. Still, despite the limitations, I had a blast shooting this set.
Lighting:
As expected, lighting the DJ booth was quite basic and functional, with a few lamps placed around the essential equipment.
I came packing three Nikon Speedlights: a Nikon SB-800, which I used as the commander, and two Nikon SB-600s, which operated as remote flashes.
For this set, I shot with Paul van Dyk in between the camera and one of the SB-600s to create separation between the background and the subject. This rimlighting flash was set between 1/64 and 1/16 power in manual mode.
Due to a light amount of smoke in the DJ booth, which sat up almost two meters from the floor, this flash caught a good amount of diffraction.
The second SB-600 started off camera-left and was later moved camera-right halfway through the set. Since I was shooting perpendicular to van Dyk’s orientation, these flash placements lit his back and front, respectively. This secondary flash was fired at 1/128 and 1/64 during the set.
Due to the very limited space in the DJ booth, there wasn’t much opportunity to change up the lighting during the set aside from one move of this secondary flash during the set.
Exposure & Metering:
Overall my exposure was a balance between the very sparse ambient effects and the light of the flashes. I shot between ISO 800 and ISO 1250 at f/5.6, with shutter speeds ranging from 1/5 to 1/30.
While I could have used a much lower ISO given the flashes and/or higher shutter speeds, these respective choices reflect a desire to keep the ambient lighting effects in the frame as much as possible.
Lenses & Gear:
I shot with the Nikon D3, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, and the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8. The wide-angle ranges were most useful for overall shots of the DJ booth, including a few hail mary, over-the-head shots, which benefited from the D3’s Live View mode.
End Notes:
A big thanks to Amin and B&W Productions for putting on such a great event. Also, thanks to DJ Yanix, Keith, and DJ SlantE, not to mention PAM for facilitating the shoot.
10 Comments Add your own
1. Keith | June 30th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Yo Todd! These rock. I love the few ultrawides you got. Those offer a unique perspective. How many minutes did you fire off shots from the booth? PVD needs to get his hands up more!
Btw, I ordered a Nikkor 17-55 and D300 today. Can’t wait to start shooting with that setup. I’ll be driving back to St. Louis this weekend so hopefully our paths cross!
2. Todd | June 30th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Hey Keith, thanks for the feedback! The 14-24mm definitely came in handy for a few over the head shots.
I didn’t start shooting until about 45-minutes into PvD’s set, on instructions from Amin. I shot for just a few minutes at first, then went back out into the crowd. I came back after about half an hour and shot for about 5-10 more minutes, then took off again.
I showed PvD’s tour manager a few shots every once and a while, and then showed his agent some shots when she came up to the DJ booth. This act definitely helped things, and I was more free to shoot during the last 30-minutes of the set.
Congrats on the 17-55 and D300. Those are both killer pieces of kit. The 17-55 is an awesome lens for PJ type stuff, you’ll love it.
Give me a shout when you get into town, let’s try to shoot together soon.
3. Will Wilkins | June 30th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Great shots for such a limited amount of space to work with. The one with the blur of the crowd is pretty sweet.
4. Todd | June 30th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Hey Will, thanks! You can see how narrow the DJ booth is in these shots; if anything, the wide angle makes it look bigger than it is. I actually hit Paul van Dyk’s foot while I was turning on the flash when I first got into the booth…
I’m glad to hear you like that shot that shows the crowd, I liked that shot, too. There was a strobe flashing at the time, which is lighting the crowd. I was shooting at a slow shutter speed to pick up the ambient light, so it caught a lot of blur.
5. Celso | July 1st, 2008 at 5:57 am
That’s the great thing about shooting in clubs you know… You can get lots of unpredictable results if you take into account all the strobes and their timing.
Great set of shots Todd, as usual I have to say!
Best Regards,
Celso Miranda
6. Todd | July 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am
Hey Celso, thanks! The strobes and other lighting on the floor made shooting the crowd a lot more interesting, definitely.
7. Keith | July 1st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
One quick question, man. Did you shoot the flashes off rear curtain or front curtain? I cant wait to get my hands on a Sb 800 and 600 to get into stuff like this. I just dont know how you shoot at the longerish exposures + flash without the blur.
8. Todd | July 1st, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hey Keith, I shot with a mix of front and rear, but mostly rear curtain sync. I should note that most all of the light on PvD is coming from the flashes, so it doesn’t really matter too much in this instance.
I’ll let you test play around with my SB-800 and SB-600s if you want. I just put them to more use at Warped Tour for some backstage portraits, too.
9. Pat! | July 2nd, 2008 at 3:43 am
love that 8th shot man
great moment right there
10. Nick | July 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Hi Todd,
Just wanted to say thanks for photographing the show. I see that it is the first DJ that you have shot and I think you did a magnificent job. I am not a photographer, but I like your shots that incorporate the crowd offering some perspective and dimension.
Thanks again,
Nick
speak up
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