Susan17 Loc: Elk Grove, CA

I am a way beginner and want to take a picture of my fire pit. It is gas and has glass that is coated with gold. The reflection of the flames is gorgeous. I have no ides even where to start with f-stop, etc.. I have a Nikon D80 and a tripod. I would really appreciate any suggestions.

Dave Chinn

I would start by mounting your camera to a tripod. Put your camera in the manual mode. Set your you shutter speed to about 30th of a second. Note as you go you may want to experiment with the shutter speed. Set your aperture between f8 and f5.6. Again you may want to experiment with those settings. ISO @ 200 or 400. No flash. And go for it. Just experiment with your camera settings until you get what you really like. Have fun !!!

Susan17 Loc: Elk Grove, CA

Thanks!

tk Loc: Iowa

Hey, show us when you get them!

Dave Chinn

Your welcome. I am assuming that you are shooting this at night.

Susan17 Loc: Elk Grove, CA

Yes

pooterpa76 Loc: Lebanon, Pa.

also, take careful note as to where your camera is metering. this will have quite an impact on your exposures. (whether it's metering directly off of a flame as opposed to if it's metering off of the pit material)

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I would not shoot in manual. Let the camera do the work; that is why you bought it.

I do not have a Nikon but I presume it has controls like my Canon 60D. I use creative mode with either a fixed shutter speed or fixed aperture. The camera will set the other. This is the usual trade off between stopping the flames and depth of field. You can also change ISO to get both shutter speed and f-stop into a range you want. You decide which you prefer. You may want to check the histogram. You will have a lot of shadows but adjust the exposure to move the flames/highlights to the right.

As mentioned above, probably no flash. It wipes out the dramatic difference between the flames/highlights and the shadows. It also loses the reds of the flames. If you want that drama of the flames, shoot without the flash. Otherwise, use flash.

Good luck.

PS I am from the other Elk Grove: Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

wildman Loc: Bluffton, SC

Meter on the flames and shoot in RAW!

wildman

myts10 Loc: SE Ohio

Experiment with those “creative modes”. I used the Sunset setting to get the following shot. It enhances the reds, oranges and golds of a sunset, will do the same for flames.

K2KImages

If your goal is to let the camera do the work, this is great. For all given f stops, and ss, there is two setting combos for good exposure. In manual mode you can be creative, which is what photography is all about. You just can not duplicate some of the creative effect with auto settings(letting the camera decide). Bracketing, exposure, even focus is controlled by camera or the photographer. Good luck.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

In the days of film, you had a single unique combination of film speed, shutter speed, aperture, and development to produce a good negative. Digital, especially with raw files, is very much more forgiving. You can salvage a badly exposed picture more easily. I have seen a lot of sloppy, boring photography foisted off as creative. Has nothing to do with film or digital; has to do with expectations and taste.

As has been said elsewhere in this forum, the beauty of digital photography is that the cameras make a lot of the routine technical decisions so you can focus on the creative. And if you do not like the camera's "decision", just override it. The worst thing about any automatic camera, film or digital, is that the user may not bother to learn the significance of shutter speed and f-stop. You have to know both like the back of your hand.

A lot of people here say bracket this much or that much or use such and such speed. This may have worked for them but the next person has to decide if that advice applies to the shot at hand. By seeing the photo and histogram instantly, an informed photographer can decide if another shot is necessary and, if so, what should change.