90’s House and Rave Music!
I was a student in Manchester in the early nineties and a regular at Raves and house music clubs, like:-
- The state,
- The Hacienda
- Sankey’s soap.
- The boardwalk,
- The Limit.
- Home
…and many, many others I can’t remember the name of around the Manchester area.
So when my friend, soul and gospel singer, musician, ukelele enthusiast, vocal coach and all-around positive vibe creator, Sharon, Stacy invited me to photograph her band belting out 90s club classics, it was a no-brainer. Right up my street.
The Location – Revolution de Cuba, Leeds
I arrived just before there were about to start the first set at 8 pm and found myself in a darkish bar/club, with very little light hitting the faces of the five-piece vocal section (is that a thing?).
As you can see in the first few photos, they have got bits of light hitting them, but Sharon (furthest left singer) herself is in shadow. The background is really dark as well.
First thing was to add a flash behind them, pointing upwards directly onto the ceiling. As you can see above, it was a very blue-looking result and didn’t really cast any light onto their faces. This is because the ceiling was actually blue, so naturally, it would reflect blue light.
I persevered and Got a good selection of photos using really high ISO settings on the camera, to make the most of the ambient light, and also mixed it up with the blue light from the background. It’s pretty cool but not quite what I wanted.
A lighting rethink before set 2
After the first set, the band went to relax and I got about trying to work out how to get some light onto them. It turned out that the ceiling in most of the bar was white (or fairly bright grey), so I looked for somewhere to pop a second flash. Couldn’t use a flash stand as it’s a trip hazard and there were lots of drunk people.
Luckily, right in the middle of the dance floor and in front of the stage, there was a whole host of fake plastic trees into which I could pop one of my AD200 flashes – again Pointed straight at the ceiling.
When the band got back, I set both of the light powers to be a nice mix of both lights – the backlight, which you can see in their hair, and also the light in the fake foliage, which is light to their faces. Pretty much everything you see is using the 70-200 F2.8 lens, which means I can get some distance from the singers, and still get close in so you can see their smiles.
After the second set, I went upstairs with the band and started to reminisce about my clubbing days and suggested a few classic songs by “Degrees of Motion” like “Do you want it right now” and “Shine On“, before heading back down to get some final shots in the third set.
All in all, Sharon and her team put on an amazing set of classic songs, each of which brought back lots of fun memories to this ageing clubber. Add to that the technical challenge of lighting up a very, very busy bar and it made a great evening all around.
