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Fireshow

May 18, 2010 in Photo | No comments

Sanja Vatra asked me to take some pictures of her fire show during the Uferlos Festival last week. I was more than happy to oblige.

The weather was horrible, it was raining cats and dogs. Despite this, a nice crowd gathered to see a great show.

Sanja Vatra Poi Fireshow

In order to get the fire swirling and some of the background, I dragged the shutter at 1/3s. The auto-focus of the Canon 5D decidedly did not feel up to the task, so I used f/8 for a good depth-of field and focused manually. These choices left me to use ISO 400 in order to expose the fire right.

I then fired the flash on ETTL with -1EV compensation to Sanja properly. Judging by the recycle time, the flash was firing full pop.

Looking at the pictures on the camera LCD after the show, I thought the whole effort was wasted. After I got home, warm, and dry, I had another look on the computer and felt much better. 🙂

Have a look at my Flickr! photostream for some more pictures.

Nightfall Construction

February 18, 2010 in Photo | No comments

Walking the streets, I came upon a fascinating construction site. An older concrete building was being torn down to make room for some modern apartment buildings.

As I watched, the last glow of sunlight disappeared and the moon became the brightest object in the sky. The rubble and the construction equipment turned into silhouettes, giving them a strange quality.

Nightfall Construction

Nightfall Construction

The times when the sun appears and disappears from the sky are often the best times for photography because light is most interesting then. Nightfall certainly is the most convenient of these times – I don’t have to get up early. 😉

Black and Orange Butterfly

September 29, 2009 in Photo | 1 comment

I saw this unidentified black, orange, and off-white butterfly at the same show as the last post:

A black, orange, and white butterfly sitting on a green leaf tip.

Black, orange, and white butterfly on a green leaf.

The slight motion blur of the wings and antennae make the butterfly come alive for me.

This image, like the last, was taken in available light at ISO 400, 1/80s, f/2.8.

Black and Yellow Butterfly

September 27, 2009 in Photo | No comments

Earlier this year, I visited a show of tropical butterflies. It was cold outside and way too hot and humid inside. However, the water drops dripping about everywhere made for some really nice pictures with the colorful butterflies:

A black and yellow butterfly sits on a green leaf, just as a drop of water is about to fall.

Black and yellow butterfly on a green leaf.

Notice how the narrow depth of field draws your eyes to the eyes of the butterfly. I feel as though it will dip into the drop of water for a quick drink before taking off again.

Unfortunately, I did not take any notes and I can not find the name of this wonderful little critter.

For the technical minded: the picture was taken in available light at ISO 400, 1/80s, f/2.8. It would interest me to see how the image would look at f/4 or even f/8 with increased depth of field to include the butterfly wings … next time. 🙂

Fireworks over Church Tower – How to Photograph Fireworks

September 13, 2009 in Helpful Hints, Photo, Technique | No comments

Freising is having it’s 80th annual fall fair this year and the town celebrated the last day today with some spectacular fireworks:

Blue fireworks in the night sky over a church tower.

Blue Fireworks over Church Tower.

In case you are wondering, it is actually quite easy to make this kind of photo if you know what you are doing:

  1. Set your camera on a tripod and use a cable release or a remote control (infra red remote, RadioPopper, PocketWizard, you name it) to trigger the exposure. I use a simple remote control cable.
  2. Turn off the auto-focus and manually focus the camera (usually to infinity). This is faster and more reliable than having the AF hunt the night sky.
  3. Crank up the ISO as far as you are willing to live with the noise. For example, on a Canon 5D, ISO 800 is great and ISO 1600 is acceptable. A Nikon D3X will go even higher, as will a Canon 5D mark II. A pocket digicam will probably struggle at ISO 400 and above. Experiment – preferably before the big event.
  4. Use manual exposure mode and open the aperture as wide as it will go.
  5. Still in manual exposure mode select a good exposure time. I find that between 1/125s and 1/8s works well.
  6. Expose at will and enjoy the show!
Green fireworks in the night sky over a church tower.

Green Fireworks over Church Tower.

I usually use the camera screen to judge exposure. That is, I set the aperture wide open and shoot at whatever exposure time I have guessed. Usually 1/60s is a good place to start as any.

It is normal to see some blown highlights in the middle of the explosions and at the back of the rocket engines. Because of this the histogram and the blinkenlights are useless. Instead, ensure that the night sky is black and that the fireworks are clearly visible.

If the sky is too light, shorten exposure time and/or reduce the ISO. Similarly, if the fireworks are too dark, lengthen exposure time and/or increase the ISO.

Once I have set up the exposure correctly I point the camera at a likely section of sky and snap away. Since the exposure will not change, I only change it to get a different effect. There is no need to check every image.

In fact, I simply snap away until either the fireworks stop or I grow tired of taking pictures. It’s a good idea to have some spare batteries and memory cards on hand …

That’s it. Have fun!

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