I'm going to be taking some pictures of my friend fire spinning this weekend and would really like to know if anyone has any tips for me? I only have a 300D with the kit lens and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II (other lenses died when I fell down the stairs). I'm pretty sure he's going to want the normal shots with fire trails (he was disappointed my Flip Ultra didn't capture the trails when we filmed it), but any other suggestions/ideas would be great He's planning on starting public performances soon so needs some shots/video. Oh yeah and I do have a tripod!
If you've got a tripod, you could do a long-exposure shot with him twizzling some fire about, that'd give a nice effect.
Get a really bright flash light or something and shine it in his face while his swirling the fire in a long exposure If possible perhaps borrow a flash and fire it beside him (towards him) etc. while he does tricks in front of some long exposures. If you use the 50mm then be careful with focus. I find mine is a bit finicky. But otherwise than that I think it would give you the best images and enable you to really take advantage of DoF. The kit lens I think you should only use if the location necessitates going wider than 50mm ( if for instance a wall keeps you from moving far enough away). You could try to find some abandoned factory or something or perhaps somewhere really fancy and open as location and see if you can bind it together with the fire acts in the photos although this would need either a well lit place or several flashes. Otherwise just shoot somewhere dark so you'll have him isolated with fire in the darkness without disturbing elements around. ...hope it's useful
Woah there Krikkit! Easy on the technical talk! Cheers for the ideas OleJ, there are certainly things there I want to try although this weekend it's likely to just be in the back garden and/or the park as these are just a hurried "need some basic shots NOW" kind of thing. Annoyingly my flash has decided that even with fresh batteries it isn't going to work any more.
Unless you have a huge back garden I'd recommend the park. It would be a shame to have brick walls and odd fences disturbing the shots. If I wasn't such a lazy ******* I'd do a whole lot more location research Oh and if you decide to shoot in the back garden try doing some shots from the 1st or 2nd floor to get a top view angle. It might be cool
The back garden isn't that big, but it's not tiny so that's something. Unfortunately the park may result in kids trying to stab us up, so not ideal either It's a shame he's moved cos there was a massive hill by his old house where you could get a clear view of Reading (and the festival site) in the distance. Same problem with stabby youths there though. I'll certainly give the shots from above a go. Though I can only use the 2nd floor window as it's a house split into 3 flats and he has the top one.
Even better if you can pop a flash at the end of the exposure with second curtain sync (or whatever the heck it's called) so that you get the subject's face and the fire nicely exposed. Obviously that assumes this is being done fairly late at night - you can't get fire trails during the day since you'd blow the rest of the exposure.
Using a flash is going to be a problem this weekend as mine has died so I only have the one on the camera and he'll be too far away for that. Also, he doesn't stand still and spin AND when I thought more about it, he wears a hat to cover his hair so you can't even see his face anyway. I think this weekend will be more about playing around with different angles and exposures and then I'll have more idea what we can do when we have more time to plan.
No, you really don't want to do that. The best shots by far have the motion blur only on the fire trails, and you'll introduce it to the subject as well if you're not using a near-instantaneous light source (ie flash) to illuminate him. I'd say try using the pop flash a couple of times regardless, just manually set its exposure compensation in-camera as high as you can get it (I know the 400D and 40D at least allow you to set an EV value for the ETTL popup flash; it's not full manual control but it's something, however I'm not sure if you've got that option on the earlier bodies). It may not be enough, but you'll never know if you don't give it a try.
You mean you haven't already, that was the first thing I did on mine, With the exception of the thumbwheel it basically turns it into a 10D. I'd go along with Firehed's suggestions regarding the use of a flash tbh, other wise the shot will just come out blurred.
I just never got around to it. I downloaded hacked firmware for it before I even had it in my grubby mits. I didn't use the camera anywhere near as much as I thought I would though and cannot justify the cost of most of the cool toys for photography I'll give the pop-up flash a go, but the way he dresses (all in black, with a black hat pulled down), there may not be a lot of point using it to show him!
If you or your mate or anyone else for that matter have a camera with a flash then use that as a free-roaming flash. No-one ever said you have to use a "flash" flash If you do long exposures it should be workable
Who said you had to justify the cost? This could work. Not as powerful as the real deal, though. An old film camera (without film) or any digital should work just fine Maybe use some tinfoil to make it more directional.
That's a good point, you strobist. Even if you can just pick up a disposable w/ flash and fire it towards the end of the exposure to get the pop in for the main camera, you'll be in decent shape. If your subject is mostly dressed in black then having your light source off-camera will be even better, as it will help bring out the texture of whatever's being work which tends to really be what happens when you illuminate dark subjects - you're really just creating additional contrast. I can't speak to the features or options available on any firmware version for the 300D, but an off-camera flash would be better regardless. http://flickr.com/search/?q=firepoi+strobist&m=text The flickr photos tagged strobist almost have accompanying lighting information. Use it.
