Advice for photographing bonfires needed

K

kreuzberg

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The 12th of July celebrations will be happening this weekend and my town is having a bonfire and fireworks and I was wondering if anyone has an idea what settings I should use to take a few photographs?

Should I use the maximum aperture or something average like f8 and how long would I need the stutter open?

I'll be using a Fujica ST605 with a 55mm f2.2 lens and Iso 200 film

Thanks!
 
I'd be using a nifty fifty wide open (f/1.8, f/1.4 etc.) and getting candid shots of people round the fire, with out-of-focus flames in the frame somewhere. Setting the ISO to around the 640-1000 mark should let you use shutter speeds of about 1/30 sec.

Leave the white balance to daylight for a lovely orange glow. Setting it to tungsten will make the flames look pale yellow.

EDIT - d'oh, read the OP more carefully. You *might* get away with candid shots in available light at ISO 200 film and f/2.2 if you can hand-hold down to 1/8 sec or so, but otherwise go the other way - small aperture and tripod. Or use flash.

A.
 
strumstrum said:
blimey, I was using one of these last week, had it given me, only gone through half a roll of film so not sure what they will come out like but cameras back then, what a faff :thinking:

best of luck.
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:lol: It's how most of us old gits started out - you youngsters don't know you're born...lol

In my day we used to have to paint the emulsion on glass plates in the back of a wagon... (shades of Monty Python 3 Yorkshiremen Sketch)...
 
have a look ay my bonfire site - www.biggarbonfire.org.uk for ideas - I think EXIF is intact on most recent shots too. Nothing simpler really! Have fun! Any questions just ask - but I'm only on-line briefly as I'm in France at the moment. I'll be shooting fireworks on 14th July here. I also have fire shots on Alamy - link below.
 
Arkady said:
:lol: It's how most of us old gits started out - you youngsters don't know you're born...lol.
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Hey, I am a youngster too!:lol:

A tripod is out of the question because it would draw too much attention but I've just checked out the location and theres a few seat/bins/rocks about that I can use.

The reason I asked roughly what setting I should use is that my camera uses stop down metering and I wasnt sure if this metered the complete frame or only where you were pointing it. Does anybody know?

Obviously I don't want to have the surroundings properly exposed but the bonfire over exposed or vice versa. Also being stop down metering, in low light it is almost impossible to read.
 
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