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Garry Black Photography

Question:

I am going on vacation to the Rocky mountain area in a couple of days and there are several wildfires blazing right now. What is the best way to capture fire on film night and day?

Answer:

To get spectacular shots of forest fires is pretty difficult. With the fires there is usually more visible smoke than there is flames. But every once and a while there will be a burst of flames - but you would have to be very close to the fire line in order to get these shots. I wouldn't recommend getting that close unless you're a trained firefighter or with one. Or a photojournalist who has some 6th sense about danger.

If you just what to capture an overall view of the fire/smoke, you can accomplish this from a save distance. For the night shots, have your camera on a tripod. Set your aperture to F 5.6 - 8 and an exposure time of 3 - 10 seconds (depending upon the brightness of the fire) using 100 ISO film.

For the daytime shots it would be just like taking any other picture in the day. Just keep in mind that the smoke (light or dark) will influence the exposure - over or under expose accordingly.