Hot air balloons are inflated at dusk each evening for “Balloon Glow” at the annual Balloons Over Bavaria event in Frankenmuth, Michigan. As darkness falls, visitors get an opportunity for a close-up view of the balloons and a chance to interact with pilots and crews. Photos such as this one, taken at the May, 2014, event, can be beautiful and eye-catching in color, but a black-and-white image is ideal for capturing the dramatic impact of the nighttime light and contrasts.

For the shot, I set my D7000 to shutter priority and auto ISO, and dialed down the shutter speed to 1/30 of a second, fast enough for a handheld shot but slow enough to keep ISO relatively low despite the low-light environment. In postprocessing, I used Topaz DeNoise for noise reduction, Topaz Clarity to enhance contrasts and Topaz B&W Effects for the conversion to monochrome, with additional processing in Adobe Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC.

Nikon D7000
Nikkor 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens at 18mm
1/30 sec.
f/3.5
ISO 400
handheld