One of my colleagues at work plays with the band Circle of Friends in his spare time. They play a mix of music from the 60's through 80's that's guaranteed to get you up dancing (when there is room). I've seen them live a couple of times now and they can really get a place with the right crowd hoppin'.

They were playing at the Fireside Cafe in Whalley last Saturday night and my colleague asked if I could take some pictures. I did.

The cafe was small, and the lights were low. I didn't want to ruin the ambience all night with flashes, so for the most part I just jacked up the ISO and took my chances.

For my first shoot in a nightclub/cafe, I'm reasonably pleased with the outcome. My ISO ranged from 640 for a couple of shots I took with flash, up to 3200 for available light. The spotlights were changing colours every few minutes, so it was hard to keep the colour balance in check. It was also a trick to get the whole band in focus. Most of the time the f-stop was pretty wide open, resulting in quite a shallow depth of field. Still, a couple of tweaks in Lightroom gave me some acceptable results. More time in Photoshop will also help with some noise.

I was able to take a variety of shots over the evening, and my colleague seemed happy with the results.

Add one more thing to take pictures of on a dreary day on the wet coast. Heh, head inside and see what you can do in there.