kite festival

paigew · Feb 25, 2012

Next weekend is our city's annual kite festival. I took some photos last year when we went with our p&s camera and they did not turn out the way I wanted. This year I know a ton more and have a nicer camera but I would still like some advice :mrgreen:. Last year you could barely see the kites in the photos I took. There are hundreds of kites at this thing and you could barely see any on the photo. Is there a way to get the kites to really pop out?

Here is a (bad) example of last year

mishele · Feb 25, 2012

Where are the kites?

gsgary · Feb 25, 2012

You have small specs of dirt on the sensor but they could be kites :lol:

dxqcanada · Feb 25, 2012

Take a position where the sun is behind you.
Get a circular polarizer.

tirediron · Feb 25, 2012

Yes. With a longer lens. Think about the physics. At mid-ground of that image, your viewable area probably measures several thousand feet wide, by several thousand feet high. A kit might be two feet wide and three feet long.... Some quick math tells us that a large kit could occupy as much as .00006% of the area visible. Don't worry about trying to get the whole scene in; it's people standing in a field. NOT very interesting. Stand and watch the kits, figure out where the wind is coming from, and position yourself so that the wind is blowing on your face. That should put you in a position to get the most visible kites in your FoV, now zoom. If you can get one or two, great, if you can get a dozen, even better.

paigew · Feb 25, 2012

mishele said:
Where are the kites?

Exactly

they are teeny white spots barely visible below buildings...

paigew · Feb 25, 2012

tirediron said:
Yes. With a longer lens. Think about the physics. At mid-ground of that image, your viewable area probably measures several thousand feet wide, by several thousand feet high. A kit might be two feet wide and three feet long.... Some quick math tells us that a large kit could occupy as much as .00006% of the area visible. Don't worry about trying to get the whole scene in; it's people standing in a field. NOT very interesting. Stand and watch the kits, figure out where the wind is coming from, and position yourself so that the wind is blowing on your face. That should put you in a position to get the most visible kites in your FoV, now zoom. If you can get one or two, great, if you can get a dozen, even better.

Thanks! great idea to stand into the wind

And I will use a long lens. I am glad you mentioned that because I was planning on just taking my 50mm