Disco Light

In this film, freelance, fashion and beauty photographer Michael Gelfert covers the topic of creating a disco atmosphere for a fashion production at club in Frankfurt, Germany.

Gelfert approaches this topic from two angles; one, shooting in an actual disco using the disco lights as part of his shot, and two, recreating a disco look using studio lights covered with colored gels to simulate the colorful lights of a disco.

For the first part of the film, Gelfert works with a lighting technician, especially there to control the disco strobes and spotlights. He comprehensively goes through all settings and equipment that he needs to use to create the look he wants. Needless to say, it is all done with great effort, but the results are brilliant. Working with a beauty dish as his main frontal light, he cannot change the output of his background disco lights, so he must rely on his shutter speed to regulate the brightness of the surrounding backlighting. Something that requires him to use a tripod and stay pretty much in the same position, all very inflexible.

Since Gelfert wants to move about freely and try new perspectives and angles to shoot from, he sets up a simulated disco scene using the beauty dish again as a main frontal light and three flash heads, each with a different colored gel for his background and disco effect. The results are dynamic and authentic looking and it allows him to be more mobile and also shoot at a faster shutter speed since he can now regulate the power output of the backlights.

In conclusion, whichever method photographers choose to use to create a disco look for their photo shoots, both are technically superb. Although one might be more work than the other to control, both still yield professional results and Gelfert does a wonderful job explaining the details and differences between both techniques.