Hog roast

Tin Foil Hat

Hey folks!

I'm new to this photography thing and I need some advice. I'll be doing a shoot in the middle of the night of a whole pig being roasted on an open fire. I have a Nikon D40, a 35mm f/1.8, an SB400 and a tripod. I'll be starting at 4am and working through sunrise (weather depending). What do I do?

Regards,
Tony.

pullandbang

Bring a knife and fork, few beers, some ketchup and enjoy the hog!

Mountainsandh

*** winy giggles *** sorry Tin Foil Hat, not experienced enough to help really, but I do like sparkles with long exposures in the night, piggy might look a little bit less "raw" as well (recently saw pics of a deer being roasted that looked pretty raw... hem...).

Tin Foil Hat

pullandbang wrote: »

Bring a knife and fork, few beers, some ketchup and enjoy the hog!

That goes without saying. I've already got a few bottles of red packed in the camera bag.:)
Now, how do I photograph flames at night with such crappy equipment. The hog won't be ready for eight hours.

digme

crows

pullandbang

Joking aside, nothing crappy about a 35mm 1.8 (even if it is attached to a Nikon ). Push the ISO up to 800 and shoot wide open. You'll have no problems getting the fire and anything else in the immediate glow but everything else will be black.

Tripod can give some interesting slow shutter speed shots - ISO back down to 100 - aperture at f5.6 - shoot in aperture priority and see what happens.

Flash - shoot manual, shutter speed 250, aperture - adjust as needed. Experiment! As you say yourself, you have a few hours to play around with.

Don't blame your equipment - it's as good as the thought and effort you put into your shots.

Tin Foil Hat

pullandbang wrote: »

Joking aside, nothing crappy about a 35mm 1.8 (even if it is attached to a Nikon ). Push the ISO up to 800 and shoot wide open. You'll have no problems getting the fire and anything else in the immediate glow but everything else will be black.

Tripod can give some interesting slow shutter speed shots - ISO back down to 100 - aperture at f5.6 - shoot in aperture priority and see what happens.

Flash - shoot manual, shutter speed 250, aperture - adjust as needed. Experiment! As you say yourself, you have a few hours to play around with.

Don't blame your equipment - it's as good as the thought and effort you put into your shots.

I have to blame the equipment, otherwise I can only blame myself .
I can't go to 800. The D40 is pretty noisy. Check out this at 200. What do I do with white balance?
As you say, there'll be time for trial and error.

Slidinginfinity

Everything PullandBang has said is good advice.
As for the noise at higher ISO a little noise can be a nice thing.

My advice is use your tripod and get a few long exposures.

Tin Foil Hat

Slidinginfinity wrote: »

As for the noise at higher ISO a little noise can be a nice thing.

Film grain is a nice thing. I'm not so sure about digital noise.

Slidinginfinity wrote: »

My advice is use your tripod and get a few long exposures.

I'll do my best. I'll put the results up here one way or the other. Expect some amateur crapiness.

Diabhal_Glas

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

What do I do with white balance?
As you say, there'll be time for trial and error.

Shoot Raw and you can sort the white balance post production (and maybe sort the noise too).

Gone Fishin

I'm not too sure if there is an Intervalometer on your camera but there is on mine (Nikon D5000). How about setting the camera up to do time lapse? If it is going to take 10 hours to cook, take 1 photo every 6 minutes? Just a suggestion.

melekalikimaka

800 is acceptable imo in a d40, noise reduction software after ftw. try some long shutter, tripod and flash focused on hog