Hot Air Balloons

[SimplyM]

We crew for hot air balloons, and this weekend (tonight, tomorrow morning and evening) we'll be going to a rather large hot air balloon festival here in NJ, and our pilot wants me to take some pictures for him. Any suggestions for photographing hot air balloons, in flight and during inflation? Any specific settings? The constant movement and wide range of colors can make it rather difficult!

[JudyB]

Amazing view, the pattern could make you dizzy if you look long enough!

I have never been in a balloon that is one thing that is on my bucket list!

This is an unusual picture!  Awesome!!!

[Barbarian]

I'm surprised that the contrail adds so much to that shot.   Makes it something special.   I saw some detail in the sky that wasn't very well defined.   So I tonemapped a bit...

[Barbarian]

A couple of years ago, Mrs. Barbarian did some shots on balloons at the Plano Balloon festival.   She found that one needs to get back a few hundred yards to get a good shot, and that it's great if you can get upwind of the launch site with sun at your back.   Oh, and if you have a tripod, night shots are great.

[Barbarian]

[Barbarian]

[Jeanne Lee]

I've been to the annual Balloon Festival in September here, twice.  Both times the wind was too much on that afternoon and the balloons didn't fly.    

Simply, that's a fantastic shot from directly beneath.   

Barbarian, those are great pictures of balloons in all states of readiness.  If I get to go this year, and they actually inflate and get off the ground, I'll try to remember about distance and wind/light angles.

[Barbarian]

Those are, as I said, Mrs. Barbarian's shots.

[jimiam]

We crew for hot air balloons, and this weekend (tonight, tomorrow morning and evening) we'll be going to a rather large hot air balloon festival here in NJ, and our pilot wants me to take some pictures for him. Any suggestions for photographing hot air balloons, in flight and during inflation? Any specific settings? The constant movement and wide range of colors can make it rather difficult!

Super nice shot M. It really shows off that pinwheel design.

[SimplyM]

Thank you all for your kind words, and Barbarian for your ideas and examples!  I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to this... I had a time-consuming summer activity.  At the festival I mentioned it was actually really hard to get good shots because I was so close to everything and we had unpredictable/semi-cloudy skies, but these are a few I liked, all from the same beautiful morning.








I don't know how/what to do for processing on my computer, so these are straight off the camera. I welcome help and suggestions!

[JudyB]

All these balloons are wonderful.  Such bright colours and clear sky. 

Going in a balloon is on my bucket list!

[SimplyM]

Thanks, Judy!  Flying in a hot air balloon is a great experience.  It's very calm and quiet, and you don't feel the wind at all - it's nearly surreal, actually.  We count ourselves very blessed to have the opportunity to crew and get a flight about once a year.  If it wasn't for that, we'd never have been able to do it because it's so expensive!!!

[Jeanne Lee]

It looks to me as though your "straight off the camera" pictures don't need any processing.  I don't know how you could get them any sharper for clearer.