What’s Your Preference?

Seltzer · #1 (**permalink**) 06-29-2008, 11:24 PM

Well, it's that time of year again here in the US.. What tips and tricks does everyone have for taking great fireworks shots?
I went to a fireworks show last night so I have a few shots on my flickr and it reminded me of a few things to make sure of before trying to photograph fireworks like making sure that you are used to your tripod and find a spot that is not behind trees for where Waiting a short time before opening the shutter gets a different image without a bright white spot in the middle of the fireworks from the explosion. Which can be good as well once you know to take the picture.
Some other fun I had after I got better at following the tracers before the explosion was to zoom in and open the shutter (on bulb mode) and then zoom out quickly. As with this one:

Here's another random shot from the evening that I find quite amusing because it looks like the Quake symbol...

Any other tidbits to remember or try?
Here is a helpful prior post from the blog.
http://digital-photography-school.co...aph-fireworks/

Nicole · #2 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:18 AM

The essential thing to remember is that tripod (and as heavy as you have if it's windy where the fireworks are). Some tripods have that little hook on the bottom to hang your bag on for extra weight if you need it. And a remote is incredibly useful because that way you can set up your framing when the show starts and take your pictures by listening for that "woomph" noise that the fireworks make when they're being fired because that's often a really good time to open up your shutter. Too many bursts get too messy, but it's good to get a few fireworks in a single shot.

And last of all, if you can get a good background it helps. This was the best I was able to do for backgrounds at last years Guy Fawkes fireworks, I'll be on the lookout for a better background again this year.

But the lack of wind last year really caused havoc with the smoke.

Those are my tips for fireworks

mseigafuse · #3 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:28 AM

I did get some very nice shots in bulb mode (see my Flickr). But, I also foolishly tried to catch the entire finale in a single shot - it looked like a war zone

. So don't do that. Do use a tripod as already noted and absolutely try not to forget to enjoy the show!

Nicole · #4 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mseigafuse

I did get some very nice shots in bulb mode

Yes! How did I manage to forget that one in my ramblings?

Bulb mode is great for fireworks.

arphot · #5 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 12:57 AM

I was discovering bulb mode the other night when we were getting some lightning and I was trying to capture the ever-elusive flashes. Now, from what I was gathering, I put the camera in bulb mode. I had a remote and waited. Sometimes a short period of time, sometimes longer. On the longer waits, when I finally released the shutter, the camera seemed to hang up (it said busy) a bit. Is it that in bulb mode, the camera is like on hold and the shutter is awaiting release? Why might my camera be hanging like that? In case you miss my signature, it's a Canon Digital Rebel XT. I did manage to get some fireworks from the last couple of years following online instructions. It was fun and a learning experience.

Seltzer · #6 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 01:12 AM

The camera was probably just writing the data to the card. Especially if you were shooting RAW+L JPG (like I do sometimes) or if the flash was on (for whatever reason).
Basically it is just filling out writing to the queue. Mainly will happen when trying to take multiple pictures in a row.

One more thing that I forgot to mention was that for a few of the shots I couldn't get the full explosion just due to how close I was to them.

Nicole · #7 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 01:15 AM

arphot, is there any chance that your camera has the noise reduction feature on? With the Nikons you have the option to turn on the noise reduction feature with exposures longer than 1 sec (maybe?

), so if you take an exposure longer than that amount of time it will say busy for the same amount of time where it does another frame of the same duration that's solid black. That was the first thing that came to mind at least.

arphot · #8 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicole

arphot, is there any chance that your camera has the noise reduction feature on?

Well, you've stumped me on that one. I'm not sure I have NR on my Canon. I'll have to check. Thanks for the tip and I'll get back.

mseigafuse · #9 (**permalink**) 06-30-2008, 02:08 AM

I can't speak for your Canon as I've never used one - but on my Pentax the amount of time it takes to process and store the image on the card is just about equal to the exposure time - if I take a 60 second exposure then it won't be done processing and writing for almost 60 seconds. I haven't quite figured it all out yet, but sometimes I can take another exposure and sometimes I can't until it is done. I would think it would buffer some - I haven't quite figured out the limits of the buffer on my camera yet. Maybe your "hang" is similar to this (as suggested by seltzer)...

Mike