photographing a campfire

[Jerry Cunningham]

Has anyone tried to photograph the flames of a campfire with black and white? What part of the scene would one meter?
Sincerely
Jerry Cunningham

[Alan Davenport]

I'd meter the hot coals, as that will be the brightest part of the scene. Then open up two stops from the meter reading. If shooting transparencies you might want to open up only 1 to 1 1/2 stops.

[Skip Roessel]

Try spot metering the actual flame and open three stops. One and a half or two won't give you
a dense enough neg. For tranparency film, open two or two and a half, no more.
Shutter speeds slower than 1/8 give a nice "airbrush" effect to the flames.
Skip