how to shoot fireworks?

[EOBeav]

Yeah, you're looking for exposure times of anywhere from 4-30 seconds. VR isn't going to help you one single bit. Do whatever you can to stay off the boat and get on terra firma with your tripod. The most expensive camera/lens combo will do you no good if you can't keep your camera still. On the other hand, you should be able to get some good shots even with a Rebel (Nikon or otherwise) and a kit lens if you can keep your camera perfectly still.

[gingerlp]

I was afraid I'd get that answer! I'm pretty committed to the boat (to the tune of $800 mon-refundable dollars) so I'll just be taking the pics for posterity rather than art. We'll have a video camera too. Being there is much more important than the pictures anyway.

I meant Canon.

Should I use a smaller f-stop/faster speed.to try to reduce the blur as much as possible?

What kind of lens would be best? I'm thinking some kind of wide angle would be best.

Ideas?

Thanks for all your advice! Keep it coming!

ginger

[gingerlp]

Originally Posted by mat

if you really want to shoot the fireworks i suggest you ditch the boat idea and shoot from land. Because like the others said in this thread if the boat is moving in any way you will not be happy with the results. Also to get multiple bursts in one exposure i covered my lens with black construction paper in between firework bursts.here is one of my favorite shots from july 4th 2007. I'm adding the exif data so you can see my settings.




camera
canon eos digital rebel
exposure 22 sec
aperture f/16.0
focal length 34 mm
iso speed 100

wow!!!!!!!!

[Krusty79]

I was thinking of posting one of my images, but Mat's blew mine away. Great job!

My tip would be to not start shooting right away. Some fireworks explode close to the ground and some are way up in the air. Some do not go straight up. I had a problem with parts of the explosions going out of the frame. So, I would first get an idea of where the explosions are occurring so you don't cut them off. You'll probably have to use a pretty wide focal length to fit everything in.

I think Mat had a slight advantage in that the fireworks were shot from a line and not from one central spot. That makes it a little easier to see some separations between the explosions. You don't want to expose 3 explosions, all in the same spot, because it will look messy. Ideally, you want the explosions in different parts of the sky, but all still within your frame.

I think I shot at f/8 and used a remote shutter release in Bulb mode so I controlled the shutter manually.