Fireworks Photography

[Bazz]

Hi everybody,
I just upgraded my point&shoot to a micro four thirds camera last week and I'm basically shooting all kinds of situations i can get in front of the lens. The annual fireworks festival was a must see of course. I'm wondering what you think of one of my first experiments.

[rawHulk]

Well here are some of mine.. Just sharing..

[Masey]

Just sharing this gallery of images I shot in 2008 during Vancouver's annual 2-week long firework's festival.

Masey.com.au Image Gallery | 2008 Celebration of Light, Vancouver BC

[remo@blore]

my first attempt at capturing fireworks...

[vincentgarrucho]

[Kari]

I have been hired to photograph an event that will be held on a m/v cruise during the fireworks tomorrow night. I read the tips and tricks for fireworks, and they were great, however, in my situation, my main job is to get portraits of the guests in front of the fireworks. So, no on tripod due to no room (people drinking, dancing, tripping, you know the drill), and can't slow my settings down too much or my subjects will be blurry.... any help would be great!!

[krm4zd]

So I tried practicing last night and nearly all my shots came out blurry.I followed directions,

used a tripod & shutter release
Used a 18-55mm & 55-250 mm lens
set the lens @ infinity (directions said to face the lens and focus it clockwise until it stops)
was in bulb mode
lens was set to "M"
ISO was @ 100

I was pretty far away from the fireworks, does this make a difference

I practiced several times some times w/ the shutter open for 6-10 sec or even 3-4 sec

Should it have been open longer?

[goldeyedgirl]

Here are some shots taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ28...a great step above a point and shoot, but not an SLR. I cheated and put the camera in the "Fireworks" mode which happens to be the exact settings in the How to Photograph Fireworks Displays by Darren Rowse found on this site. There was really no good angle to shoot from given where I was and where the fireworks were likely to appear in the sky. I mounted the camera on a flexpod on the roof of a car. After the first couple shots went off I had a general idea where in the sky to focus on. Then I just listened for the sound of the rocket launch, pressed the shutter half way down, held it until it looked as if the rocket were about to explode, pushed the shutter the rest of the way, counted to 3 and let go. This made for some interesting shots...made more interesting after cropping. Of course I got "a ton" of pictures of nothing I went through about 300 pictures in the 12 minutes the display lasted. Came up with about 100 pictures that even included something usable and then maybe 10 pictures I would even bother to show anyone.

[goldeyedgirl]

This is a very cool photo.

[goldeyedgirl]

Originally Posted by Bazz

Hi everybody,
I just upgraded my point&shoot to a micro four thirds camera last week and I'm basically shooting all kinds of situations i can get in front of the lens. The annual fireworks festival was a must see of course. I'm wondering what you think of one of my first experiments.

hmmmmm..let's try this again

Bazz,
this is a very cool photo.