Working a fire scene

[Magus]

Last night there was a huge barn fire near me and running out of the house what I grabbed was my 20D and 70-200mm lens. This is a rural area and I was able to get as close as I wanted but had to stay back because of the lens I had (wish I had taken my whole bag). My question is, for this type of scene especailly a night time fire, what is the best settings for the camera? I left the ISO at 100 and AV mode and shot away.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

I don't think there is a set rule since all fires are not the same, forest fires burn different than prairie fires which burn different than building fires and those can vary concerning the construction, contents, size and amount of airspace in the building.

I shot the Effigy burn at Burning Man last year along with a few other burns and these were controlled burns with items designed to be burned and I still had all sorts of problems handling exposing for hot spots and the heavy contrast of a dark night sky and the hot fire.

There just isn't a simple answer, heck things can vary if you have a cloudy night with low clouds that would reflect light from the fire back down or if there is heavy smoke (which can play havoc with autofocus), etc.

BTW good shot!

[Photographer557]

Magus,

I have taken a lot of fire photos and have found that at least with film they come out better shooting 400 ISO. However, I have not taken any since I went digital recently. I am impressed you were able to use a shutter speed fast enough to stop action at 100 ISO. In the past I needed at least the 400 ISO to get a shutter speed that would allow me to stop action. Your flash will also work if the object or person you want to photgraph is fairly close to you otherwise the flash will ruin the picture. It just takes some time and practice.

[kenw]

one that always helps is to be upwind so the smoke doesn't blind you (or choke you...). It also helps when the flash is needed, smoke reflects a lot of flash back into the camera.

But as far as a general rule, I think they are going to vary a lot. I've always had to make improptu adjustments based on size of fire, day/night, whether I want foreground details or not, etc, etc etc.....

i would tend to use Tv rather than Av. Freezing the action is more important to be that a tight control of DoF imho.