Settings for firelight portraits??

[Marvin]

Hi all,
Next week we will be going on a holiday where we will be sitting around campfires (well, if there is no fireban). I had a trial run last night around a fire taking pictures of the kids toasting marshmallows and the like and didn't have much success.
I was wondering what sort of settings I should use - I have the SB800 (if needed), the kit lens, 50mm 1.8, 24-120 VR or a crappy Tamron. I was thinking the 50mm would be good. Anyone have any ideas on what lens and settings to use? Should I use the flash? If so, on what setting?
Cheers,
Lee

[gstark]

USe whatever lens you like, and start by metering of, say, a person by the light of the campfire. Use your histogram to fine tune your exposure.

You're going to be using slow shutter speeds, so a tripod will probably be the order of the day.

Use whatever lens you think will capture the scene that you wish.

[BBJ]

Hi all,
Next week we will be going on a holiday where we will be sitting around campfires (well, if there is no fireban). I had a trial run last night around a fire taking pictures of the kids toasting marshmallows and the like and didn't have much success.
I was wondering what sort of settings I should use - I have the SB800 (if needed), the kit lens, 50mm 1.8, 24-120 VR or a crappy Tamron. I was thinking the 50mm would be good. Anyone have any ideas on what lens and settings to use? Should I use the flash? If so, on what setting?
Cheers,
Lee

Marvin, sounds like fun the holliday bit and i too am going away for a few days. We are heading to Pt Fairy near Warrnambool for 4 days so will get out and do some pics when i am allowed, but anyhow have fun and good luck with the camp fire.

[Aussie Dave]

Marvin
I don't imagine the firelight is going to give off an abundance of light, certainly not high enough light levels to be shooting with any quick shutter speeds.

To combat this, you can either use Gary's suggestion with the tripod and meter off the people's faces...however I would be concerned that the shutter speeds required will be too slow and you will get movement blur (should the subjects be moving/blinking/laughing etc..).

Another alternative, being you have an SB800, would be to use that in addition to the above, but play around with dialling down the flash, so the ambient light of the fire is much more dominant. Hopefully by doing this it will allow you to increase your shutter speed OR use a better aperture for greater DOF (if this is required). If you wanted to get really adventurous, take the flash off the camera and use it as a slave, which will allow you to get the flash closer to the subjects and influence where the shadows will be cast.

At the end of the day it's going to be a balancing game against your aperture & shutter speeds. Whatever's most important needs to take priority. I guess the 50 1.8 gives you greater scope to open the aperture right up, requiring far less flash.

You might also run into some White Balance problems if you mix flash with the fire light. I'm not sure what Kelvin temp fire is (can anyone answer this ??), but I'm sure you'd be able to PP the images to look good.

Looking forward to seeing the outcome....

[gstark]

You might also run into some White Balance problems if you mix flash with the fire light. I'm not sure what Kelvin temp fire is (can anyone answer this ??)

Lower than tungsten.

Probably similar to a candle.

In this sort of situation I wouldn't be too concerned about wb, actually. The campfire will give impart a warm feel to the images, and I think that's probably desirable, to some extent.

[Yi-P]

Will the SB800+warm filter gel work along with the fire's light temp?

[Justin]

I've done a bit of this on camping trips

without flash you need a long exposure and a high ISO.

WB - doesn't matter that much - auto or cloudy if no flash, flash WB if using the flash

The fire will be warm enough without a warm filter as long as you use fill flash (i.e. wind it down a bit)

Also you may want to use rear synch - expose for the natural light then add flash so that you capture the colour of the 'natural' light from the fire. If it's too slow still set the exposure a stop or two faster. This will probably be all around the 1/8 - 1/15 second mark so very hard to hand hold and also you will get people movement if it is candid

Crappy example:

1s f/3.5 at 18.0mm iso800, no flash, WB -1 whatever that means

[robw25]

marvin
definately definately need a tripod, and if you use flash and there's smoke between you and the camera the flash will light up the smoke, and helpfull people will get a better photo

cheers rob

[Marvin]

Excellent advice as usual. Thanks guys!
I'll have a bash and post a couple if they turn out ok.
Or maybe even if they don't to get some more ideas!
Cheers,
Lee