Vivid festival

[hopefull]

Hi, I am hoping to attend the Vivid Festival in Sydney. As a total novice I have no idea of settings etc to capture the colourful night images.
I have a Canon 500d, 18-135 lens, 90mm macro lens.
Any / all advice appreciated. Thanks

[William W]

A tripod would be a useful addition to that kit.

WW

[ricktas]

Yep for night shots, a tripod is a must!

You will find you are shooting between a couple of second and 30 second (or more) exposures at night. The only way to ensure these come out well is to have your camera on a tripod or another firm hard surface so it does not move at all during the exposures.

[William W]

. . . also I meant to mention to use "Mirror Lock Up" - I am pretty sure it is avaialble on a 500D - it most likely will be in your "Custom Functions Menu"

(and a remote release is very useful for Tv between about 1/15th second and 2 seconds).

WW

[Mark L]

Learn with others http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?103271-Sydney-Vivid-AP-Meet-Saturday-26-May-2012

[hopefull]

Thanks, lots of helpful advice.

[Maezyra]

What a shame you missed the AP meet for this! (It was last night) But definitely give this a go!! The best way to learn is through experience.

I consider myself a beginner as well (although I have just been upgraded by the mods to Intermediate on here{A combination of 'Yikes!' and 'Wow! Yippee!'}), so here is what I learn from last night and also last year when I went - A tripod, as stated above, is a must! As for settings, particularly with shooting the buildings, the pictures change quite rapidly, which doesn't allow for overly long exposures. I found I had to bump up my ISO to a minimum of 400, just to get the minimum speed I needed to get the shots relatively clear. I had my camera in Manual and with an aperture of F8 for most of the night - Wide enough to not be too slow, but narrow enough to get most of what I wanted in focus. I found I could not go any slower than 1 second exposures for the changing installations, preferably a little faster. I found that I mostly used my 18-55mm lens, your 18-135mm will be VERY useful. Other than that, my only advice is to EXPERIMENT and HAVE FUN! That's what this is all about!! Be sure to post your results up here too!!

[learn2shoot]

some great advice would love to see the pics you ended up with

[Bathurst]

I'm not sure but I think Vivid is now over. I hope with your new tripod you were able to capture some great images.