Fire Pit Photography

Photographing a fire pit is a delight and a problematic venture. First, to get a good shot of fire, it has to be a darker time of day, such as at dusk. Since that is the case, and darkness has its own set of problems like secondary light sources and their effect on the camera lenses, it is often difficult to get a good shot. Even the moon can cause problems. So, here is a short tutorial to enable you to take a good photo of a fire pit.

Your first consideration has to be that of whether or not your camera can take night pictures. If you're a digital user, you probably have the ability to adjust your camera settings to allow good night photography. Take a good look at your instruction book and learn how to adjust the shutter speed to stay open as long as you need it to in order to have a good exposure and capture enough light to make a good picture. Most of the time, that adjustment has to be made in manual mode, not Auto (A) or Program Auto (AP) on your camera dial, although sometimes you can make the adjustment in Shutter Priority.

Your ISO will have to be adjusted as low as it can go without making too much "noise" in your picture. Noise is what happens when you get white or black spots or a sort of fog that covers the picture, depending on what you're photographing, and a fire pit will tend to have white spots, or hot spots, if there is noise. Shutter speed and aperture will take a large role here, so make sure you know your camera's capability.

Next, a self timer comes in handy, and a remote controller is even better. Taking a good shot at night is impossible unless you can get the shake out of your picture. A remote controller will allow you to take the shot without the shake that can happen when you need to touch the shutter release. A self timer can help, although it doesn't stop the shake.

And last, but most important, is a sturdy tri-pod. To negate any movement you may have in your camera when you are taking night shots, you need to have a solid base. Getting rid of movement will help you take better shots while the shutter is open for so long.

So, find a great fire pit, take several photos of it at various times of the evening, and make adjustments as needed. You'll find there is a knack to getting a superior night picture!