Calling all camera buffs – the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is coming October 3-11! There’s a good article in the September issue of Shutterbug magazine titled Photographing the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, by George Schaub. The 2 page spread covers the best times for photographs, suggested camera gear, how to dress, cost, photogenic side trips, hotels, restaurants, etc. Mr. Schaub points out that each day the festival begins with the low light (6 AM) Dawn Patrol and Mass Ascension of balloons. He suggests that you bring a fast (f/2.8 or higher) wide-angle lens (28mm or wider) and that you test what ISO setting works best under the low light conditions (he used 800). He also recommends using spot or center-weighted metering reading off the glowing balloon to ensure that the surrounding dark sky doesn’t throw off your exposure setting.
I agree with George’s suggestions, and offer a couple of comments. First, for those not familiar with the festival, there are also many late day/evening low light photo opportunities such as the Glow and, as George mentions, a big fireworks display on some evenings. The light changes quickly during these dawn and evening events, so remember to check your ISO settings often at these times. Finally I would suggest that if your camera gives you this option, turn on the exposure bracketing function during these times with something like +2 Frames – giving you a two-shot bracket with overexposure and normal exposure. In this way, if you have 2 or 3 glowing balloons in close proximity, you will achieve acceptable exposure(s) to capture the entire scene. In very difficult lighting conditions it will allow you to combine detail in both the shadows and highlights using exposure blending or High Dynamic Range (HDR) post processing techniques. And if all of this hurts your head, set your camera mode to “auto” and just go out to enjoy the Balloon Festival and have fun shooting!
Below is my photo from one of the evening Glow events in 2013 shot with a Nikon D300, Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens set at f/2.8, and an ISO setting of 1000.
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