Beach Bonfire Photo Shots (Night)

[Kwak]

Hi ya'll,

I'm seeking your expertise on how to shoot certain shots.
Planning on shooting lots of photos at the beach bonfire, which will take place at night.

There will be a bonfire and two lanterns. I will be using a Canon Powershot S50 digital camera.
Would like to know what is the recommended setting to shoot night shots to get printable photo shots...


Thanks in advance. Please ask question if I didn't provide much details. Take care! :thumbup:

 

[dissembled]

A tripod! 1 or slower shutter speed. High Iso..

 

[Rob]

Depending on how big the bonfire is, you may be able to hand-hold. At night time, I would recommend using the lowest ISO, not highest, as this will give bad noise in the dark areas (80% of the picture probably).

A tripod is probably a must to get sharp pictures as flash won't help, so you should turn it off.

Rob

 

[markc]

One way to help minimize the effect of a lot of black background is to eliminate it as much as possible. Get in close. Don't use a wide angle. Keep the lens at "normal" or above and fill the frame with the subject. I personally think a lot of black is lousy for the composition anyway. I shot a campfire using 400 ISO handheld. I had a bunch of blury frames, but several came out well. With the digital, you can review and keep trying. Shoot at the widest aperture (lowest f number) and let the camera pick the shutter speed (probably marked AV, or aperture priority).

If you want to do a group shot, go ahead and use the wider angle, but try to position people in the frame so that they take up as much of it as possible. If you are going to include the fire in the shot, fill the frame with a person to get a meter read and use that setting in manual to shoot the fire. That way the fire doesn't mess up the exposure and the people come out right. Same goes for if you need to include a lot of black background. Both will fool the camera's average metering algorithm. If the camera will hold the meter reading by hold down the shutter button halfway, get in close, press the shutter half way, then recompose. This will mess up the focus on some cameras, but others will refocus. Both depends on your model.