Hi,
I'm a beginner photographer and a Cub Scout leader. At a recent campout with the kids I had hoped to get some good shots around the campfire. I use a Canon 20D and recently picked up a 50mm f/1.8 lens which I had hoped would make it possible to snap some shots in this low-light condition (fire only) without posing. Well, I was unable to get any that weren't blurred from movement. Does anyone have any suggestions for settings or lenses that will make it possible to get candid shots around a campfire? I would love to see some shots that others have been successful with and their settings.
what ISO were you using? you should have been able to bump your iso on the 20D up to 1600 and at 1.8 maybe a 1/90s *ish*? did you use a tripod? i did alot of timed exposures and particularly liked how some of the blurred figures came out... i did an odd self-portrait on one camping trip... but i was using ISO 100 and a 20s exposure for this shot.
In addition to what Daniel said, I'd also like to mention that the camera meter likes to overexpose night pictures. You may want to take a test picture at ISO 1600 or so, and if you see that the camera overexposes then dial in some exposure compensation for that. This is a similar effect as the camera underexposing when on snow.
