Capturing moving lanterns at night?

[manda]

Any tips from the experts?

In my exuberance to capture at least one decent shot (see below) ... I was switching between spot or matrix metering. The ISO was set to auto. I switched between my wide angle lens and a prime 50m at f2.8.

In retrospect I might have used flash, but the event was a local funeral and it didn't seem right to be popping away. It was so crazy mad that a tripod would have been a danger too!

thanks for your help

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2132081963_e27eb128b0_m.jpg

[Tanuki]

I would recommend switching to manual mode, set WB to Tungsten and choose a relatively high ISO (maybe ISO 800). Then set your exposure using spot meter on the side of the lantern with EV compensation set between +1.0 and +2.0. This should give you detail in the lantern, but will overexpose the flames in favor of capturing some of the scene around the lantern. If you prefer to isolate the lantern from the background and would like to retain as much detail as possible in the flame, I would set the EV compensation between -1.0 and -2.0 instead.

The reason to shoot in manual is that once you find the right exposure, you can keep shooting and get consistent results. Just don't forget to reset your shooting mode, WB and EV when you're done with the lanterns!

Mike