 - Rosemary Sampson  Contact Rosemary Sampson Rosemary Sampson's Gallery |
How to shoot fireworks? Since the 4th of July is approaching, any advise on shooting fireworks. This is a first time for me.
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BetterPhoto Member |
I can't offer any first hand advice but I know this site has a great article on shooting fireworks by Jim Miotke (the site's founder) and there's a link to an article from MSN Photos. Click on Articles on the left side of your screen and search through the titles until you see the one on fireworks, it has some great tips. To sum them up it's suggested that you use an ISO 100 film with the aperture set at f/8 and use the "Bulb" setting, leaving the shutter open for the duration of the "explosion" or display. If you don't have a bulb setting but you can shoot in manual try setting the shutter speed to something in the range of 4 seconds or more.
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- Sherry Stricklin Boles Contact Sherry Stricklin Boles Sherry Stricklin Boles's Gallery |
I don't know if it helps any but BP member Susan Vasquez has some great fireworks photos. Here's the link to her gallery: http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/gallery.php?memberID=119042
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Susan L. Vasquez |
Wow, dunno about great but they are the best I've ever taken! I did some research on BP before I left to go shoot last night. First and most important! Have a tripod, and if you have one a cable shutter release (which I don't) I had to be really steady on the trigger to make sure I didn't jiggle the camera. Secondly you won't need flash. ISO 100 for your film. I shot all my shots at f/8 (that's as small as it gets on my camera) and varied my shutter speed anywhere from 4-8 seconds. Oh and set your focus on infinity. Pretty much what Kyle just said worked perfectly for me! I found all the advice here on BP, there are alot of threads regarding this.
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- Rosemary Sampson Contact Rosemary Sampson Rosemary Sampson's Gallery |
Thanks to all for your help. Will check out the sites and the photos. Hopefully I be sending some photos your way soon. Again, thanks!
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Jay Soldner |
I don't know if it's too late to respond here . . . 1-research here on BP Kyle and Susan are correct. You must use a tripod. You want a small aperture (f/8 or f/11), and a slow shutter (preferably 'bulb') and it would help to fire the shutter with some kind of triggering device (cable release or by remote). If you don't have a cable release or remote you can try to be delicate with the shutter, or use the self-timer. One last thing, GREAT fireworks pics often include something else (besides pretty fireworks in the frame) like a famous land mark, or people or whatever. I'll try to find some examples later, I have to go water the lawn. Good luck, sorry this post was so long winded. . . J
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Susan L. Vasquez |
Oh no, Jay went to water the lawn!! I just let it die then I don't have to mow it in 100 degree heat :) hehe /just kiddin' although I wish it would rain. If you come back Jay, take a look at the one's I took last night :) Liberty had their firework show out at Hallmark.
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Susan L. Vasquez |
So after we take all these cool firework pictures, we want to enter them into the contest of course ;) What catagory do they belong in...
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Bob Cammarata |
Maybe BP will "Theme" them this July. All of the advice given was good. I've found that 3-4 second exposure times work well to capture the true color of the bursts.
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Angela K. Wittmer |
I used a Nikon N80 on the BULB mode the film I used was 100 speed no flash, I used tripod & cable release... push in the cable release until you have enough bursts in the frame (cover the lens with a piece of black paper between bursts) & then close the shutter. do this for each exposure. I did some last year & turned out really well. not sure if this will help, but I also think if you search the past questions, you may find some more help there too.. best of luck!
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Andy |
Tips from NYIP: http://www.nyip.com/tips/current/firewksintro.php Hope this helps.
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Debby A. Tabb |
HEY SUSAN, KIND OF OFF THE SUBJECT- BUT VERY COOL SINCE YOU BROUGHT UP TRIGGERS- HERES THE LINK TO THE NEW SONY REMOTE FOR THE CYBERSHOT: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64345&item=7520978664&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V AND I BOUGHT THE WIRELESS ONE FOR THE D-70-WOW, I LOVE THAT THING-GREAT FOR WORKING WITH CHILDREN AND HEY, I CAN BE IN THE SHOT TO!!-NOT REALLY-I COULD BUT YUCK! I LIKE MY SIDE OF THE CAMERA,LOL,LOL MIGHT HELP SOME OF YOU.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
Those are some great fireworks shots Susan & Angela! I'm going to try to get some shots of the fireworks when we go to the beach this weekend. I won't have to worry about power lines or buildings.
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Justin G. |
Maybe I was reading too fast and skimmed over but nobody mentioned what kinds of film to use. I have a 36 exposure roll of Fuji Velvia 50. Will this give me some pretty spectacular colors. I've noticed that in most of my work, the colors aren't as bright as when I saw them. Velvia is an extremely vivid color slide film, correct? Thanks. Good luck to everyone on the upcoming weekend! I'll be at Myrtle Beach with my beautiful wife and my little sister, a wonderful photographer herself. Justin
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Justin G. |
P.S. Might be a stupid question but how do you focus infinity? V/R Justin
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Christopher A. Vedros |
Switch to manual focus and turn the focus ring to the end that focuses on far away objects. I'm not trying to be a smartass, just acknowledging that some cheaper lenses don't have a distance scale on them. If you use a lens that has distance and depth-of-field scales, focus all the way to infinity, then turn back until the infinity symbol lines up with the f-stop number that you are using. This is also known as the hyper-focal distance method.
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Justin G. |
You're not being a smartass. Now that you've mentioned it, I've noticed on other lenses before the distance settings. Neither of my Canon lenses have that that I know of. Maybe I just never noticed. But I did read a thread somewhere that some Canon lenses don't have them. I don't know why but if I had them I wouldn't know how to use them!! But basically just focus the farthest out? Cool I'll do that. Thanks. Justin
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Susan L. Vasquez |
Debby...thanks for the info, I'll check it out! and Chris thank you for your kind comment on my photographs! They turned out so much better than anything I've done in the past. Found all I needed to know right here at BP :)
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