After a week of juggling between work and photography, I’ve finally finished clearing up my folders for the Night Festival 2013 for the Redux performances…
This post will be the Redux performances at the Night Festival 2013. I apologize for constant postings of the fire performances by them… But I really find their performances amazing!
Here, I’m sharing the last 5 photos from this performances.
Throughout the performances, I do have a couple of long exposures shots too. Doing long exposures during this kind of performances is similar to light painting. You can get interesting perspectives of how the performance is like. Thou you have to trial and error to get the timing down.
Techie Corner
If you have read my earlier posts, you would know that I’m shooting mainly with my 5D mkIII with 70-200 f2.8 IS II (I LOVE this setup).
There are frustrating moments where you will be unable to focus on the subject as the lighting is pretty bad if it’s not lit by the fire. Manual focus is NOT an option in my opinion. Especially so when going for close ups in low light actions. Shooting at f2.8 @ 200mm, a slightest shift in subject’s position will make your frame useless. I went in with one-shot focus instead of AI-Servo. Tracking is (in my opinion) useless as it will be tricked the moment the fire is not hitting the focused area.
Most of my shots are around 1/250s to prevent any handshake and to have a decent freeze in the subject’s motion. Thou I did attempt creative shots using low shutter speed like 1/30s. But didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked.
Now, to the long exposure portion… I’ve a tripod setup with my 500D 10-22 combo mounted on it just waiting for the action to happen. Set with Evaluative Metering mode with -2ev. Shooting with Shutter Priority mode (Tv). The reason for using Tv over manual is to minimize the time required to adjust the “effect” I need.
Certain scenes are more suitable to do longer exposures, while some shorter. Bulb mode exposure isn’t really a choice as it will require too much effort on my end to keep shooting with 2 cameras at the same time. (Yes, I’m shooting both cameras at the same time. I’m using a wired remote to control the 500D)
The timing is subjective, but I’ve done from 3secs up to 13secs. For the 2 long exposure pics, the top one is 5secs while the bottom one is 13 secs.
Whatever you do, don’t take too much time to decide. Just set it and shoot it!
Afterthoughts of the Event
There’s a sin that many photographers (including me) make while shooting…
That is, not enjoying the event as much. While frustrating yourself trying to take that shot, that moment, etc. These amazing performances are going on. Reviewing photos while the performance is going on.
So, what are we (photographers) doing over at the performances if we are not there to watch the performances? Looking thru the viewfinder or LCD screens is NOT watching the performance!
It’s easy to get hidding behind the viewfinder and start spamming the shutter while the event is going on, but I still firmly believe that there must be a balance between appreciation of arts (and the performers) vs photography if one is to be shooting at the event such as this.
That said, I’m as guilty to be spending at least 80% of my time looking thru the viewfinder and I hate myself for doing that… I’m trying to put down my camera more often to enjoy the event more often now rather than looking thru the viewfinder all the way..
Regards,
YK
My Photo Journal 
So, what changed? I think most of it boils down to increasing conscious awareness of light; since you need to be constantly aware of how much light there is, you’ve also got to decide what exposure to set: do you meter for the highlights, the shadows, or somewhere in between? It forces you to think about how your tonal choices affect your compositional balance: if you expose for the highlights, there are going to be large dark areas that must be accounted for; conversely, if you expose for the shadows, what aren’t you going to be able to see because it’s now overexposed? On top of that, it’s necessary to think about the technical limitations of your equipment, too: jack the sensitivity too high, and dynamic range is going to be severely compromised. How does this affect your tonal scale, and in turn, the aesthetics of the final shot? The really important takeaway here is that there’s no such thing as a right exposure for any given situation: there’s a right exposure for your end intention, and it’s up to you – not the camera – what that should be**.
This is definitely very true. And those decisions have to be made at that instant when the light intensity changes.
Many times (especially on the first performance) I still do get caught between what settings to use due to unexpected movements and intensity of light. But something for sure, shooting it over and over again (repeated performances) gets you familiarized with what to expect which will definitely aid one in that decision making when the moment comes (or is about to come)