Advice required please for camp fire shots......

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Paul
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Hi,

We're off on a glamping weekend next week for a birthday do. I anticipate there will be a camp fire we will be gathering around in the evening (if only for warmth :)) and I thought it would be good if I could get a some decent shots of the family to present to them later. Trouble is I don't normally do people shots (done scouts stuff but that's when they're doing stuff, running etc) and have never had the opportunity to shoot any camp fire stuff.

Can anyone advise on the best way to go about it, I'd rather not use flash but use the light from the fire as a nice warm glow and getting the fire into the shots too, shutter speed may be an issue so I may need to up the ISO.

The equipment I will be using is: Nikon D7000, 50 f/1.4, 18-70 (not the 2.8) couple of flash and a diffuser if really needed.

All advice gratefully received.
Paul
 
Just use aperture priority and let the camera meter, keep an eye on your shutter speed and set the aperture and ISO to get the shot you want. View the result and make any adjustments you need to.

This was taken by the light of the camp fire, ISO 3200, f1.4, 1/30...

Y12.jpg
 
If you can gel the flash, it might help if you level the colours out a bit. Try some with OCF and plenty without.
 
Just use aperture priority and let the camera meter, keep an eye on your shutter speed and set the aperture and ISO to get the shot you want. View the result and make any adjustments you need to.

Thanks Alan, I was thinking along those lines but using shutter priority and let the camera sort the aperture. that shot looks like the type of exposure I'll be after, with the subject facing the fire though.

If you can gel the flash, it might help if you level the colours out a bit. Try some with OCF and plenty without.

Thank you Phil, I'm not that experienced with flash, I have used ocf before but usually where I have had the time to use the 'trial and error' method :) I found TTL to be a bit hit and miss at getting the exposure I wanted, so used the flash in manual using the onboard flash as a trigger only.
I got some gels with the Nikon sb-800 but have rarely used them. Could you elaborate on which gel to use to balance the flash with the fire, orange I presume, would I need to use flash exposure compensation to balance the flash with the ambient light?
 
Thanks Alan, I was thinking along those lines but using shutter priority and let the camera sort the aperture. that shot looks like the type of exposure I'll be after, with the subject facing the fire though.

Thank you Phil, I'm not that experienced with flash, I have used ocf before but usually where I have had the time to use the 'trial and error' method :) I found TTL to be a bit hit and miss at getting the exposure I wanted, so used the flash in manual using the onboard flash as a trigger only.
I got some gels with the Nikon sb-800 but have rarely used them. Could you elaborate on which gel to use to balance the flash with the fire, orange I presume, would I need to use flash exposure compensation to balance the flash with the ambient light?

Yes I'd recommend orange, it means you'll be able to cool the shots down a bit. Fire is a lot redder than you think.

Don't go for TTL when using manual flash you can alter the flashes effect on the image by changing the ISO or aperture or altering the flash power or distance. So you've got a lot of variables to balance against the fire.
 
Yes I'd recommend orange, it means you'll be able to cool the shots down a bit. Fire is a lot redder than you think.

Don't go for TTL when using manual flash you can alter the flashes effect on the image by changing the ISO or aperture or altering the flash power or distance. So you've got a lot of variables to balance against the fire.

Thanks Phil, I'm off to experiment.............(y)
 
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