During the last couple of photo shoots at Lipgloss, I finally got a chance to play with my new Tokina 11-16mm lens in a nightclub environment. I love the ultra-wide angle and fast F2.8 aperture it provides (although, I almost never go down to F2.8 and usually hover around F3.5-F4 to keep things a little bit more in focus).
As most people know, nightclub photography is especially challenging due to a variety of factors that range from technical issues such as extreme low-light and constantly-changing ambiance to logistical annoyances (impenetrable crowds of drunk people, noise, spilled drinks and etc). There is no time to mess with focus or other settings – a nightclub photographer needs to be able to grab shots on the fly. It’s a battlefield out there! One advantage of the Tokina is that it’s built like a tank. And, even though it doesn’t have a silent motor and focusing is therefore not as fast or smooth as with my Canon EF-S 17-55mm lens, because of Tokina’s narrow ultra-wide range, it’s usually not a problem. The glass is pretty sharp, even if that is not always evident from my quarter-second exposures :) I do wish it had IS, but even without stabilization the lens performs quite well.
I really like the extreme wide angles you can get with ATX-116, such as this shot of former Lipgloss resident DJ Chase Dobson, who came back to play a set on August 19th:
And, even though it’s a wide lens, you can still a little bit of bokeh effect when you get really close to your subject, zoomed in to 16mm at F2.8:
Of course, vertical people shots at 11mm can look pretty distorted, in a fun way :)
At 16mm (below-right), distortion isn’t too bad:
Former Lipgloss resident DJ Chase Dobson with resident DJ/Lipgloss co-founder boyhollow (love those guys!):
James Holden & James Yardley from Double // Shadow:
Lipgloss resident DJ Option4:
Full slideshow with many more photos from 8.19.11: The Return Of Chase Dobson w/ boyhollow set:
Full slideshow from 9.2.11 LIPGLOSS vs. Double Shadow: boyhollow & option4 w/ James Holden & James Yardley set:
Would you like me to shoot your nightlife event or dance party? Contact me!
4 Comments
Ask for a IS on 11-16mm lens?you can’t be serious man…
I know, it’s completely unnecessary at such a wide focal length :)
absolutely :)
So, i m looking for a super wide angle lens to purchase these days, for just this purpose (nightclub photography).How does Tokina feels to you after sometime you use it?Do you recomend this lens?
If you have a crop-sensor camera body (such as Canon 7D, 60D, T2i, or Nikon D7000 and etc), the Tokina 11-16mm is probably the best value for an ultra-wide angle lens you can get. It’s very well-built and the optical quality is superb for the price. I find that I don’t use the 11mm end for nightclub shots very often, other than for crowd shots and large groups of people, but it’s nice to have. When photographing just one or two people, I usually stick with 14-16mm to minimize distortion. But yeah, I would definitely recommend this lens. I’ll be posting more nightclub photos I’ve taken with it in the next several days. It’s also great for landscapes and astrophotography (I saw some of your night sky time-lapses – good work)!