My husband took me out to the Flint Hills last night looking for prairie burns and we hit the jackpot about 10 miles west of Topeka, right off I-70. Found a pasture about a mile wide by a mile and a half long that had been set ablaze. We went down a couple dirt roads to get around the back side of it, and this shot was taken there (and a couple more I may post later). Then we went back to I-70 and I got a couple more when it was even darker (will post later). I had to crop a huge highline wire tower off the left side.
This is my first real attempt to shoot the fires at night and was surprised at the amount of noise I got in the sky at ISO 200. What was I doing wrong? I was trying to control the exposure so my histogram wasn't touching either side.
I also had a lot of trouble using auto focus due to the smoke so a lot of them were blurry. But I had a great time just seeing this sight. I love the sound of the crackling, burning grass and the smell means SPRING IS HERE! I just love this ritual.
35 mm lens
F4.5 @ .6 seconds
Posted by Dena Sanders on April 12, 2009 at 10:10 PM
Angela,
I love the colors, the pinks, the blues, the oranges, with the tree silhouetted. That's a true Kansas prairie image. I think you did well with all the smoke, that's difficult to work with and it came out great!
Posted by Tom Kennon on April 12, 2009 at 10:11 PM
Nice perspective on the fire. Although you did not get the cowboy in your shot, I think the placement of the tree is perfect and adds to the depth in the shot. There must be a lot of smoke in the air in Kansas right now!
Posted by Ken Bachman on April 12, 2009 at 11:14 PM
This must be the evening for fire images.
Angela, Iv'e never tried fire pictures at night but I know that if I underexpose too much and then try to bring the levels back up, I can introduce a lot of noise in the dark areas. A challenge for sure.
Tom your'e right, there was a lot of smoke in Kansas last week. The ozone levels in Wichita exceeded EPA guidelines so of course the authorities instituted a burn ban. It is fine now though since we had some wind and rain.
Nice shot Angela...I can smell the smoke in this picture!
The only issue I've had with noise in my fire shots is if I try to lighten them up much as Ken mentioned.
Posted by Daniel Loomis on April 13, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Despite the problems you captured the colors and the feel of the scene quite nicely. I really like the tree silhouetted against the dark blue sky and glow from distant fires.
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on April 14, 2009 at 5:18 PM
Hi Angela, another fine Flint Hills burn image. I like how the fire line dips into the draw in foreground and the faint glow on the horizon from another burn line. Thanks for sharing!
Discussion
6 repliesThis is my first real attempt to shoot the fires at night and was surprised at the amount of noise I got in the sky at ISO 200. What was I doing wrong? I was trying to control the exposure so my histogram wasn't touching either side.
I also had a lot of trouble using auto focus due to the smoke so a lot of them were blurry. But I had a great time just seeing this sight. I love the sound of the crackling, burning grass and the smell means SPRING IS HERE! I just love this ritual.
35 mm lens
F4.5 @ .6 seconds
I love the colors, the pinks, the blues, the oranges, with the tree silhouetted. That's a true Kansas prairie image. I think you did well with all the smoke, that's difficult to work with and it came out great!
Angela, Iv'e never tried fire pictures at night but I know that if I underexpose too much and then try to bring the levels back up, I can introduce a lot of noise in the dark areas. A challenge for sure.
Tom your'e right, there was a lot of smoke in Kansas last week. The ozone levels in Wichita exceeded EPA guidelines so of course the authorities instituted a burn ban. It is fine now though since we had some wind and rain.
The only issue I've had with noise in my fire shots is if I try to lighten them up much as Ken mentioned.