Fireworks

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6 Jan 2003
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745
Went to my towns free display tonight. These are the 5 best out of probably 90 shots taken. Hope you like them :

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rather than create another thread, hope you dont mind me putting a few of mine in here.
Shooting info as follows:
ISo 100, f/8 or f/11 and shutter on "Bulb" with a guestimated exposure time. ;)
Have to say it was damn hard, took 136 and got 15 that i like. They are not perfect but i was there mainly to watch the display since its awesome.
Post processing in Capture for cropping, levels and sharpness.

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Hi, thanks for the replies. Setting used can be see in my Flickr account, but generally :

F8-F10
2-4 secs
Iso 100
Manual Focus set to infinity
Tripod and remote shutter release (absolute must)
 
Thought I might as well add to the thred :D

Heres 5 (err 6, shhhh) of my best....

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It was my first time photographing fireworks with a manual camera, so I was playing around with the settings half the time and I had a little bit of a smoke problem, but I think it added to the first pic!
 
I took a few at Flame & Thunder at Santa Pod. I couldn't really use a tripod in the crowded area so I had to make do with freehand shots.

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And the bonfire itself

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I can't believe how sharp your photos are. I had great fun taking some myself (first proper attempt), however most of mine seemed to end up out of focus. Maybe this was down to not using a remote shutter release? I didn't think it would be strictly vital given the darkness and length of exposure.

AndrewPE28 - how on earth did you get sky so dark? Those snaps are incredible!

Here's my pitiful attempt anyway:

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Most of the pictures I got turned out to be really noisy. I'm using a Nikon D70s at ISO200 (the lowest it goes), and between 2 and 15 second exposures. This next picture for example has this problem - see the noisy browns along the horizon line?

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Could this be due to the sensor heating up on the long exposures? Its slightly less obvious in these compressed jpgs - but really blatent in the original RAW files :(
 
Well ok pitiful was probably a bit strong. However, sifting through the 80 or so I took, 90% are utterly unusable. I wonder if my exposures were a bit too long... Roll on November 2008!
 
Yes, its unusual to say the least. It was an 8 second exposure and all those things shot out together and left the trails behind them.
 
Basically the following for DSLR but you'll have to experiment with shutter speeds on the night :

ISO 100
Aperture f8 to f10
Shutter Speeds between 2 and 10 secs
All noise reductions off
Manual focus set to infinity
Standard metering (matrix on Nikon)
Shoot in RAW if possible
Tripod (100% requirement)
Remote shutter release ( a must but you can do it by hand or use the self timer)

Really just take loads, try to watch for the rockets going up, then press the shutter and pray :D

I'm back off out tonight for a paid display which should be excellent, just hope that there is little wind and the sky's clear.

Oh one last tip, try and be upwind from the display to avoid the smoke.
 
Decide roughly how you want your shots to look beforehand... Do you want to include people / objects to give it a sense of scale, or do you want to isolate the bursts ? You can do both obviously, but its better to know what you want before you start...

I would say a Tripod and Shutter Release are a must. You can take shots of fireworks without a tripod and isolate the burst but it is difficult to get a sharp one. You can also take shots without a shutter release, but again its difficult especially with the timing....

Another thing to consider is the lens.... If you want to include people/objects you are going to need a fairly wide angle as the fireworks go really high.

Pre-focus at a specific point, I usually aim for just in front of where the fireworks are going to be fired from - and then switch it to manual focus. Then, there is no need to focus each shot.

Using a shutter release I set mine to Manual & Bulb mode.... Anywhere between F/11 & F/16 and ISO 100/200.
I aim for an exposure between 2-15 seconds depending on the firework & the background.

Theres no point exposing (ooo-er :D ) for 15 seconds if there are large bursts going off as they will blur and overlap eachother - Its OK for a few, say 2 to 4, but anymore and it gets messy... Its also worth trying with a peice of black card to cover/uncover the lens when they go off so you can capture "multiple" fireworks in one exposure.

Good shots with 3 bursts in are usually around the 2-3 seconds range. Basically once I'm all set up, its just press the shutter release as they are about to go off and then release just afterwards.

Good luck and have fun !
 
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