Shooting an electric light parade at night

<p>Hello,<br>

I plan to shoot our local electric light parade this weekend. Moving floats lit up with Christmas lights in a night parade. <br>

Thinking it could be tricky, wondering what the best exposure will be. I have two schools of thought, but wondering what the more experienced think. <br>

My theories:</p>

<ol>

<li>Av priority, wide open apeture with with ISO 1600 and hope that gives me a short enough shutter speed to get quality shots.</li>

<li>Tv priority, with a managable hand held shutter speed (1/30th?) and hope I get enough light?</li>

</ol>

<p>I'm shooting a Canon Rebel XTi with what I believe is the kit 18-55mm lens. I believe it's a f/3.5. I could use a tripod, but with the different size and shape floats, probably not very practical.<br>

This is my first post. Just got back into the SLR game after almost a decade absence when my equipment was stolen. Bought a used camera, couple lenses, tripod, etc. from a aquaintance and have been shooting a ton. Learning, and relearning a lot.<br>

Anxious to hear your feedback, thanks.</p>

<p>Hi Bill.<br>

According to Fred Parker's Ultimate Exposure Computer, "Candle lit close-ups. Christmas lights, floodlit buildings, fountains, and monuments. Subjects under bright street lamps." will be at EV4. This means f4 1 second at ISO 100. Upping ISO to 1600 gives f4 at 1/15th. So wide open at ISO 1600 is a good place to start. However, it's really asking for f2.8 at 1/30th with some support. A monopod might give you an extra stop of handholdability but will not help with subject movement. Putting the camera in continuous drive mode means you can mitigate against camera shake to an extent by keeping just the sharp ones.</p>

<p>Perhaps spot metering on your main subject might also be worth trying too, especially if backgrounds are dark (or use exposure compensation in matrix metering mode).</p>

<p>It all depends on how bright the floats actually are and it depends on what, exactly, you want to show. Do you want to show the outline of the floats by way of their lighting? That's different than trying to photograph the faces of the people when they're only illuminated by christmas lights.</p>

<p>When I photograph a local light parade, f/2.8 is barely a large enough aperture to show more than just outlines of the vehicles without diving into ISO 3200 or, in some cases, ISO 6400. Autofocus can also be very spotty, especially if you're only able to shoot at f/3.5. </p>

<p>You'll need to be at ISO 1600 for sure with that lens. I'd stay as close to the parade route as possible and therefore as wide as possible (18mm) to keep your aperture at f/3.5 and crop out unwanted intrusions later. </p>

 

Forget Av or Tv (all auto settings) in a situation like this. Use manual and the above settings for ISO, shutter and aperture

to start wih and adjust during the shoot. Chimp and avoid blinkies.

<p>Before you go all manual, try even P and a high ISO. Modern cameras are able to capture an editable image pretty well.</p>

<p>This is supposed to be fun. Of course, if you think fiddling with camera settings in the dark is fun, go to it. ;)</p>

<p>Here's the local Wiccan float in our very own "Lights Fantastic" parade.</p><div></div>

<p>I agree with JDM on this one. I recently shot the electric parade at Disneyworld, and found that the best results were when I set ISO as high as I could stand and set the camera on P mode. Working in the dark with manual settings can be OK, but you need to know the camera controls quite well before starting with that.</p>

<p>Thanks for all of the tips. I tried a variety of the above. Bottom line, I need a faster lens to do this sort of thing, no real surprise there. <br>

Shot everything at 1600 ISO, max on my camera. Some of the floats were very brightly lit, and the Av priorty got me some really good shutters speeds, as high as 1/320 for one super bright float. For the others, I went all manual with mixed results. Did get some cool light streaks that make for interesting pics. Anyway, it was a fun night regardless. </p>