Camera Settings

[wesleyfarnsworth]

I'm shooting a surprise birthday party tonight and was wondering if anyone had any tips on what setting i should

use to try and catch the birthday boy blowing out the candles. I would like to see the smoke from the candles as

their being blown out. I'm using a Nikon D80 with a 18-135 kit lens.

[seismiccwave]

>>I would like to see the smoke from the candles as their being blown out. <<

 

Sorry no such luck. The smoke comes after you blow out the candle not as you blow out the candle.

 

So your best bet is to put your camera on continuous mode and start shooting as birthday boy is blowing out the candle.

Put your camera on a tripod. Then you can combine the images together in photoshop.

[sarah_fox]

I've done it, but it's a bit of a fussy sort of image to capture, and the results might not be stellar. Use the trick

candles that relight, and you'll have both smoke and flame -- and a boy blowing. Crank up the ISO, use a fast lens,

and use a higher shutter speed to freeze the rapidly flickering flames and rapidly moving smoke. You can always

photograph a volunteer to test your settings before the event. I suggest shooting in manual mode, so that you will

know exactly what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO you want. Also, shoot in RAW mode, so that you can pull out

the dynamic range you need in postprocessing. (you'll probably need a fairly steep gamma.) An 8-bit JPG file might

not show all the details you want. As Hansen suggested, reel off a whole bunch of frames in continuous shooting

mode, starting as birthday boy draws a deep breath to blow out the candles. Oh, and focus your lens manually. It

would be too easy in low light for the AF to go searching for focus while all the action has come and gone.

 

I captured the following photo just as an experimental snapshot on the fly. It could have been done much better with

a faster lens (and faster shutter speed), but it might give you a starting point. It was taken long ago with a Canon

EOS 10D, 125mm, f/5.6, 1/25 sec, ISO 1600. Oh, and they were the normal candles, not the trick ones I suggested.<div></div>