Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

[John Liddle]

SWMBO and I intend to go to see the Carnival procession at Weston super Mare in November. This will be in the late evening, so we know we will have to cope with a wide dynamic range between the background and the immensely bright floats. Everything will be moving, so HDR is out of the question - so what might be the best approach?

My initial thoughts are either for low ISO, middling aperture and let the camera look after the shutter speed, or middling aperture, short exposure time and let the camera manage the ISO.

Has anyone tried this and have advice to pass on?

[Wayne Els]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

I don't know if it helps but I took this at F4 1/100 ISO4000 I'd guess your conditions would be similar.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/fuhB7n]

[John Liddle]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

Thank you Wayne - I suspect my situation will be similar as you say, although from what I have read, there will be a much higher number of light bulbs, so the dynamic range I have to cope with will probably be even higher.

[Nathaniel]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

I think with so many lights in and around the carnival, you may not need to use any flash at all. I will be tempted to shoot with the available light with a lens not wider than 24mm. I am basing this on my experience of taking concert pictures using the stage lights without any flash. I took these without flash using the stage lights- just an example. The camera used was the 760D without flash.

Mammy- Al Jolson- Issy Dye 8th Sept 2016 008 by Nathaniel Ramanaden, on Flickr

[John Liddle]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

Thank you Nathaniel - I am sure you are right about flash not being needed - I think there will be more available light than I need or want!

[rcarca]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

Last time I did anything equivalent was at New Year in Oxford Street. With a 5Diii I still think we have a mean machine for high ISO shots. This was taken at ISO4000, and for this sort I happily go up to 6400, at 1/200th sec shutter speed, but wide open at f2.8:

Oxford Street by Richard Anderson, on Flickr

Inevitably they take some pushing and pulling in Lightroom to get them into shape. If you decide to let the camera decide the ISO, I would limit it to say 6400.

Have fun. In many ways night time is one of my absolute favourite genres of photography!

Richard

[John Liddle]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

Thank you Richard - most helpful

[Nathaniel]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

I like Richard's example and thats what I'd go for.

[Wayne Els]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

Thank you Wayne - I suspect my situation will be similar as you say, although from what I have read, there will be a much higher number of light bulbs, so the dynamic range I have to cope with will probably be even higher.

If you have more lights then I'd think the DR will actually be less as my shot went from complete darkness to electric lights.

In which case I'd go for similar settings, maybe upping the shutter speed if possible to make sure that people are sharp. As Richard says I'd limit the ISO - in fact I'd set it manually, auto tends to run away if you let it.

[John Liddle]

Re: Any advice on photographing the Carnival please?

Thanks for the further thoughts Wayne.