Loy krathong festival of light, Chiang Mai
Buddhist monks releasing Chinese paper lanterns at the loy krathong festival of light, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Buddhist monks releasing Chinese paper lanterns at the loy krathong festival of light, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
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Jul, 2015Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in the grounds of a Buddhist monastery in Chiang Mai, Thailand during Loy Krathong Festival (Festival of light)Time
I think that this photo was probably taken at about 10' o clock at night.Lighting
The only lighting in this image came from the various paper lanterns. As a result I had to shoot at ISO 2500 which the D700 struggled with a little.Equipment
This image was shot on a Nikon D700 with 16-35mm f/4. A tripod or faster lens would have been useful, but at the end of the day you have to shoot with what you've got with you. If I had had a tripod I wouldn't have had the flexibility I needed to change angles rapidly in response to the unfolding scene.Inspiration
I came to Chiang Mai specifically to photograph a lantern release. When I came across this scene completely by luck, it was obvious i had to capture it.Editing
I worked in lightroom. Originally I boosted the exposure, decreased the highlights of the lantern flames and filled out the shadows in the tree area. Unfortunately this left too much noise in the sky. So, I took it into Photoshop and blended a darker, higher noise reduction version of the image to the top right to try and make the level of noise in the image more acceptable. This has compromised the impact of the image, but produced an overall cleaner result.In my camera bag
It depends on the situation. For clubs and gigs I use D750s with a 85mm f1.4 and 24mm f1.4 and occasionally a 10.5mm fisheye and an SB600. For landscapes and travelling I'd normally use a 16-35mm f4 or 24-70mm f2.8 and possibly the 35mm f1.4 for a bit of street.Feedback
Get there early (like I didn't) to pick your spot. Be aware that the area is going to be so jammed packed with tourists that once you've settled you are not going to be able to move, so pick a good one. Try not to get stressed out when you get jostled and have tripod legs put in front of your lens. This is inevitable. Just smile, be polite and try to keep calm. No image is worth loosing your temper over. In my experience if you can stay positive, images tend to present themselves to you and everything works out.
