Balloon Glow

[Nixmomma37]

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie and this is my first post!
I am going to a balloon glow here in St. Louis Friday and was wondering what the best settings would be to get some good shots of the balloons. If anyone has any tips I'd appreciated it, thanks.


I haven't set up my entire profile yet so I have a canon rebel with the standard 18-55.

[OsmosisStudios]

What the bloody hell is a Balloon Glow?

[ravncat]

Two birds - one post! yeah!

- A baloon glow - is hot air balloons early in the mornin - pre sunrise - (though I suppose one could occur after dark) so that the flame for the hot air lights up the whole balloon. They`re pretty cool, I used to go to the one in Albequerque NM each year.

As for shooting it, depends on how bright things are. I suspect you`ll be ok in the automatic modes. I would take along a tripod, so that I could take lower ISO shots to reduce noise. If enough of the balloon is in the frame and light enough - you`ll have fast enough exposures to be at a pretty low ISO.

With the Kit lens, you`re looking at slower apertures - at the 55mm mark - just make sure you pay attention to your shutter speed and Iso. for static shots, I would want to keep that shutter speed at 1/80th or faster - (1/ focal length x 1.6) The lower the ISO you can get away with - the less noise.

You probably don`t want to use flash - ambient is the key - (unless you have an off camera flash and can balance ambient with flash - which is not too difficult once you learn how to do it) Just move about - and around - different angles. Watch the lighting - the hardest shots are going to be while it is darkest. You should get some lovely shots right at that pre-dawn light point.

Once the balloons are in the air, 55mm might not keep them very large for long. Course - experimentation is the key. If you had access to one - this would be a fun time to go out with something like a 50 1.8 ....

[Nixmomma37]

So much for the great tips! How I wish I had a wide angle for this event, but its not to be. I'll post some of my pix!

[Digidave]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

What the bloody hell is a Balloon Glow?

Yeah, you're going to wish you had a wide angle lens.