Hot air - part two

Well here I am back from the Hot Air Balloon festival in Hamilton "Balloons over Waikato" where I learnt a few things about taking photos at night, and of air balloons.

Here's what I learnt from this experience:
1. I majorly need to get a zoom lens. There was little I could do with my 18-55mm. I have two in mind that I'm trying to decide between but which one??
2. Expect the unexpected-and don't expect something to be a certain way...I was expecting to be able to get close to the balloons at the night glow, but there were barriers up and it was impossible to get close to them as there were so many people.
3. Just because someone has used a particular shutter speed and aperture in a photo or the rules say so, doesn't mean it's going to work... I had a list of settings to try but I didn't have much luck. keep fiddling around and if you find a good setting DON'T change it to another and then forget what the other one was!!
4. I need to study up more and practice night time photography. I had studied up a lot on night time photography of lights but I think I need to do a bit more research on the topic. I also need to study up on what to do if it's a foggy morning...
5. A tripod is probably a good idea (if possible).
6. And DON'T EVER take someone with you that is stressed about an assignment they haven't finished. You'll never hear the end of it.

Right, now for the photo's...


Balloons at night-Brightened up a bit in RAW



Balloons alight



A foggy morning by the lake...balloons were being set up behind me...(HDR)



Launching...



Jack in a box...up up and away!
f10 1/40 ISO 320



Let loose...



Spectators watching a bright balloon launching
(HDR tone-mapped with slight desaturation)



Inside the green and pink balloon before launch

Hot air...

Well, I have been invited to an interesting event tomorrow night... An air balloon festival! So that will be fun to try out some nighttime photography and the following morning they're off again, so we'll be getting up early to see them. So how do I photograph air balloons? Especially the ones at night? Time to google...

Outdoor night scenes usually include large areas of darkness broken by smaller areas of light from buildings, signs, and streetlights. Pictures of outdoor scenes are quite easy to make because good results are obtainable over a wide range of exposures. Using short exposures emphasizes well-lit areas by preserving the highlight detail, while the shadow areas are dark because of underexposure. Long exposures help retain the detail of the dark areas, while highlight detail is lost because of overexposure.

Therefore: A wide range of exposures can be used.
Short exposures = detail in light areas
Long exposures = detail in dark areas

If you do not have an exposure meter or cannot get a good reading, bracket your exposure.
Focus carefully; depth of field is shallow at the wide apertures required for existing light photography.

So...Use AEB (1/2-2 stops)to retain detail in less bright areas.
Wide apertures are required for night photography with existing light (eg: lots of lighted up air balloons)and of course depth of field will be shallow.

I have a handful of apertures and shutter speed combos to try based on various photographs of lights at night by other photographers so I will just try to experiment.

Wish me luck and hopefully I'll be back here on Sunday with some good photos!

Flash o_0

Yesterday I got my new Flash :) It was a lot bigger then I expected and looks a bit top heavy on my camera! The batteries have been charging all night and half the day and now all I have to do is learn how to use it...
I know my camera settings pretty much off by heart now but that took a while for it to all be ingrained into my memory. So..now it's time to get my head around the Flash. At least the manual isn't too long, but even then there's still a lot more I will need to learn from books or the internet. I'm still learning things about my camera too.
Here is a good site I found on the Canon users photography forum which I will be reading in the next few days...
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

Until next time.....

Macro Photography

Yesterday I decided to have a practice with my macro lens outside in the garden. Here are some of the shots I took...

No Night Photography Tonight

OK, so that idea will have to wait a bit. I found out that my camera can only take exposures of up to 30 seconds unless I set it to BULB and hold down the shutter button (which would not be good for minutes or hours). SO, I will need to get a shutter lock mechanism. Apparently someone put masking tape across there button and produced quite a good photo, but an easier way is to buy a shutter release remote. Then I can release the shutter, go away and come back 5 minutes later or whatever and stop the exposure. Knock offs on Trade me which are exactly the same as the Canon product seem quite cheap (unless I want the one with the built in timer which is quite expansive). So I will put that on my most wanted list.

In the meantime, here are some amazing photos using the technique I was trying to achieve tonight....
http://www.lostamerica.com/index.html

In other news of the evening, I decided to buy the 580EX II flash off Trade me (what don't I buy off Trade me? You cant get anything cheaper elsewhere-my camera was a bargain!). I was thinking about the mkI and also the 480EX II but I thought why not go for the biggest and best? So that will be arriving in a few days. All I need now is my remote, a telephoto lens as my lenses range is short and a new camera bag to fit all of this in! But I'm sure I will find plenty of other gadgets I need...

Night Photography Tonight

Since becoming jobless again in the last couple of days I have had more time to study up on photography techniques again. I want a wide variety of techniques ingrained in my brain before we go to Vanuatu in July so I can get some awesome shots while I'm there. So far I know off by heart how to take auto exposure bracketed shots to create HDR images so mainly do those, otherwise I know AV (smaller the F# blurrier the background), TV (the smaller the number the slower the shutter speed or blurrier/finer the eg. waterfall OR the longer the exposure, or just use my wide angle or macro lens (which still needs work).

My next major task which I would like to become more experienced with is nighttime and low light techniques. Because everyone who has a camera knows that they are the most troublesome shots to get right.
I would like to be able to take good indoor shots without the flash making things look too bright or horrible and good non-flash shots. I'm probably going to get an external flash in the near future which is probably going to be the Canon 580EX. I may as well get it rather than the cheaper 480EX if it's going to give me more range and have more features. I've learnt when it comes to photography that it's probably not always the best to get the cheapest because you will regret it later if it doesn't have the features that you (find out later) you need.

So anyway, today I have been reading up on some articles about outdoor nighttime long exposure photography. Ok its a bit more advanced than what I was originally intending (just learning how to take indoor photos and use a flash more efficiently)but I thought that the photos were amazing and I had to have a go. Also it would be a good technique to add to my knowledge for Vanuatu.

Tonight I will have a go to create one of these types of photos (weather and lighting situation around the neighborhood depending)although it's better to take them around full moon. The next full moon is in about a week and a bit so I'll have a go then as well.
The tips I have learnt and will try are:
1-4 mins are a good amount of time for an exposure.
F5.6 with ISO 100 are good settings to use for this.
Paint an object with light (a torch or flash) to give it light or put a torch inside something. Also use coloured cellophane or filters to create colourful lighting effects.
The smaller the f# the the closer to the subject you need to be (but not too close).
Use Bulb for extended exposures.
Try to get some sky in as this will create nice lighting or star trails.

So I will check back in later with the results of my next experiment...