Packed!

I was originally going to leave this one out, however after flicking through the images I thought it might be worthwhile showing you guys the diversity of my work, and hopefully some useful tips for shooting in a busy environment. As suggested by the title, this post is about photography in packed venues.

As a Music Performance photographer, I enjoy whacking the Telephoto lens on and catching those expressive shots of the artist on stage. But there are just some things that throw a spanner in the works, for example, what is the artist isn’t on a stage? Or if there is nowhere to shoot from without the audience being in front of the camera?

There are a few things that can work, depending on the mood of the subject, however if this is the situation you may not have much of a choice.

So to point out the obvious, if the artist is not above the crowd (not on a stage), then try to fight your way the front, as a photographer it is also easier to gain a pathway in busy venues. Make sure you HOLD THE CAMERA ABOVE YOUR HEAD when relocating, this not only means everyone can see your the photographer and generally clear a much less resistant path, but it also means you won't get a drink spilled on your camera or bump into people with your kit.

So health and safety speech over, what can you do to get that shot, should you be unable to get to the front.

Let me take you back to an event I covered a few months ago. This event was a Hip Hop night. As you can imagine, the Hip Hop night attracts a colossal crowd of disorderly delinquents.

The first technique I use is called "f*ck it", it's a great attitude to have, instead of getting worked up about how I am going to do it, I just don’t worry and snap away. We all strive for that crystal clear shot, however, sometimes breaking the norm can open up new barriers and get you thinking again.

Remember the venue I mentioned in a previous post, the dark one that made life hard work...well this Hip Hop night was at this venue. So dark and hard to shoot venue, with a packed crowd...technique 1 indeed.

Technique 2, a difficult one, relying on not only your skills as a photographer and opportunist, but other people too....Luck to put it simply. This technique is just composing the shot of the artist, regardless of all the people in the way, and then waiting for a clear path. A completely clear frame is a rarity, however with some quick reactions and cropping, this technique can be surprisingly effective.  

The last technique, that I can think of, is raising the camera above everyone else. I have used this technique so many times, and had great success. The issue with this technique is it is blind. I never use live view on this technique, so I have learnt to fire with fair accuracy. With a wide angle lens, this technique can have a nice appearance, and add feel to the busy scene.   

If you have any questions or would like to ask something, please email me at ajthomasphotography@live.com

Alternatively you can contact me via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007321418710 

You can now follow me on twitter! just go to https://twitter.com/AJTPhotographer

Low Light Photography

Off the cuff of my last post I would like to talk a little about lighting, specifically low light situations.


So as I'm sure anyone with an ounce of logic will know photography is based purely on light. Without light there would be only black frames. To avoid said "black frames", one must understand how the camera works, and how light works. Assuming you all know about Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO, and how they all work together, i would like to take a trip into exploring low light photography.

Low light photography can be very challenging indeed, and when coupled with the job being paid, causes an infuriating situation. Personally, i find paid work to be very pressurizing, and when the job at hand doesn't quite fall into the camera, things can get very tricky.

This is the way i had lighting taught to me, and the way many people have been taught. There are two types of light. Hard and Soft. These two light types make a significant impact on your photography.



Hard light, is like the sunlight with clear blue skies. very bright and penetrating. This light causes sharp shadows and blown highlights. Hard light is also typically brighter. lighting such as flash units would be considered hard lighting, for their sharp and bright blast.

In a situation with hard light, exposures will need to be fast with a low ISO. Should a longer exposure be desired either a tiny aperture or dark ND filters will be required to avoid hot spots or blown highlights.


Soft light, is like the sunlight in an overcast sky. with the clouds diffusing the light over a larger area. This light is more subtle and thorough. highlights and shadows are often very close in tone, shadows have less of a sharp edge to them and are often dim. with low contrast and dim lighting, this light will often force the photographer to make fine tuning in post production, however with a good knowledge of your camera, on-board solutions are often the way forward. Soft light in photography could be ambient window lighting or continuous "model" lights.

Soft light will require a higher ISO if a fast shutter speed is desired. A polarizing filter is often useful for boosting the contrast.

So now we know of our two lighting types, we can begin figuring out what to do in low light situations. From my own personal experience, i have discovered three methods for shooting in low light situations, depending on the subject, one of these three will sufficiently allow decent photographic work.

First off is the obvious. Take the light with you. If you don't already have a hot-shoe/external flash you i highly recommend you go out and buy one. Try not to get too wound up over the prices, with most kit it is always better to with a brand you know and trust (Cannon, Nikon, Sigma etc) however, with an external flash, as long as you are confident it will have a good flash on it, it should be worth it. For my external flash i found a Chinese knock-off of a Nikon Speedlite. Initially, i was unsure about purchasing it, but after reading reviews and checking the specs i decided to go ahead and buy it. I payed about £40 to have it on my doorstep within 2 weeks, not bad considering it came all the way from China. The flash is absolutely brilliant and i use it regularly. I will add another post soon about using external flash units.

The next two techniques are for when an external flash is not available.


If you can't get yourself an external flash, then that doesn't mean you can't shoot in low lights, it just means you will have to compromise on a few things to get the shot. The Second technique for low light photography requires boosting your ISO to quadruple digits. Somewhere between 2000 and 6400. to shoot with this high an ISO, depending on the subject, it is better to shoot in black and white.



Grain and Noise show up as tiny white speckles, which when shooting in colour means a high level of interference. Because black and white photographs are just blacks, grays and whites, the noise doesn't interfere as much, and they can often add a cool dated look to the images.

The last technique is purely for still subjects, such as landscapes. This is the obvious one, when shooting in low light, slow down the shutter speed. I often find myself indulging in my personal work, consisting on landscapes. This means i spend a fair amount of time in low light situations such as sunrise or sunset. More recently, however, i have found myself experimenting with Astrophotography, which often requires an exposure of 30 second to 2 minutes.


Long exposures will not work for moving subjects, unless you are trying to achieve an abstract look, in which case it works very well.

If you have any questions or topics you would like me to discuss please email me at ajthomasphotography@live.com or contact me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007321418710

Thanks again!

Second Event

This was my second ever photographic event and my fist paid job. This event was a Reggae event held at a local nightclub. Upon arrival i realized instantly that the light was far to low. This Photo (Left) was taken without a flash unit, and the exposure brought up in Photoshop.

 I asked my employer if he could turn on more lights, which unfortunately made no difference at all. So it was time to bring out the external flash.

Once the flash was brought out, i had a slight play around finding a good balance between stage lighting, external flash and my exposure. once this was achieved i knew the exposure i had to play around with. most of the night was shots like this (right). Up close performance shots.

 I was also asked to take crowed shots. This is something i particularly dislike, however work is work so i took the shots i found interesting. unfortunately with events held in a nightclub, there are lots of drunken people asking for group photographs, and once one group has one, EVERYBODY wants one. This is a fact of photography and you cannot refuse you just have to get it over and done with, especially if you have been asked to do so. Shots like these are my favorite crowd shots, i like to find an image that shows personality but also satisfaction with the event, as opposed to groups of people posing.


I much prefer to be separated from the crowed to avoid this and allow myself to get into the performance photography. Every time i go to an event, i try to find a portrait such as this (right). i like to find people looking completely natural in the most unnatural circumstances, like on a stage. I love finding those Studio type shots out on location. There is always an interesting background and the location often adds a strange twist to the image.



It is also interesting to try and find texture and pattern on location or event shoots. Sometimes. it is the simplest shot that makes a cracking image.

For this shoot i shot mostly in black and white, this was because of the lighting. the lighting was very dim and therefore my images were grainy.

The stage lighting also conflicted with my external flash, often giving a strange balance of coloured light and cool flash.

Overall, for my second shoot, i was very happy with it. despite this being one of the first times i'd used my external flash, i was very impressed with the outcome of the images. I would love to go back and do a similar event with my new experience, and i'm sure it won't be long before i am back at this venue.

Thanks readers!