Steel Wool Photo Shoot

mikem

I am very new to DSLR Photography and will be attempting my first real Manual shoot with my Nikon D3200 this coming Saturday night. It will be a 'steel wool' shoot and I was hoping that someone here could give me some recommendations on settings to use. I believe someone told me to consider using the self-timer option on the camera. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

bruto

I assume that you are going to photograph burning steel wool at night.

Self timer will help prevent camera jiggle when you start, but you'll have to start it a bit before the fire works begin, and you will be limited to a 30 second shutter time. On "bulb" setting, the self timer simply opens and closes the shutter in a second or so.

If at all possible you should get a remote release. Nikon sells it for ten bucks or so, and Target has a multi-brand one for about the same, and others may have them cheaper. It's something you can pretty much afford to buy from a dealer. Aside from allowing immediate vibration free shutter release, the remote is also the only way you can leave the shutter open without holding it. If you put the shutter in "bulb" mode, the first push of the release button opens it, and the second closes it. This cannot be done with either self timer or shutter button.

I'd start with a middling F stop, around f/8, a fairly low ISO (maybe 200 or 400) and long shutter speed. If using the self timer, set it at 30 seconds.

You'll need to manually focus before hand. If it's too dark to see well, shine a light on the target and manually focus on that. Don't count on auto focus.