photopop44 Loc: Roun Drock, Texas

About two months ago I started a thread discussing the value of SCENE settings. I posted a sunset photo with zero post processing taken using the sunset SCENE setting on my Olympus e-510 and the consensus of comments was that it was well done. However comments didn’t seem to show that respondents saw much value in SCENE settings, although there are many to choose from. The general attitude seemed to be “I don’t know what is being done by the camera in SCENE settings but I can do better myself in MANUAL”.

So today as we get ready to take fireworks pictures I ask, what are you doing in MANUAL other than choosing an exposure with A, S and ISO? Today Olympus let the cat out of their bag and lets Olympus owners know what their cameras do in Fireworks SCENE. So if you want to shoot in P, A, S or M and tweek their tweeks here is what Olympus thinks will help a Fireworks photo:

• Shutter speed is set to four seconds, which helps capture the streaming trails of the fireworks.
• Sets the ISO to 100 and the f-stop to f11.
• Sets the White Balance to 5300K
• Sets the exposure compensation to -1.0 EV. This is a full 1-stop underexposure to keep the firework highlights from burning out.
• Sets the color to Vivid, the Saturation to High and the Contrast to Hard, all of these changes help enhance color.
• Sets the Sharpness to Soft, which uses minimal sharpening in anticipation of post-processing.

You may also consider Night Scene + Portrait while playing with sparklers. What ever you do I hope you have a safe 4th and celebrate our God given freedom.

Goldwinger Loc: Boynton Beach Florida

I went to my pics from last night and the setting you have here are close , I changed from f 11 through f 16 and some shots were 5 plus seconds I used bracketing on some also like for the finale where you cant know how bright it will get .
thanks for your post

DCHigley Loc: Ashtabula, OH originally

My settings from last night were close as well. I was in manual just because I wanted the control over things, not because I am a manual fanatic. I tend to shoot in "A" priority, but with fireworks I figured that I needed a bit more control over shutter speed, so I took over...

My settings were ISO 200, f/11 and bulb. The place I was shot them off at so many different speeds and intervals I can't image what I would have gotten if I was using something that controlled the shutter "automatically".

This is one of those times that I took everything off automatic so that I could control how long the shutter was open.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

I don't have an Olympus or even a DSLR. I have a Nikon P500 and I used the fireworks scene last night. The fireworks scene setting on my camera allows a great rage of shutter speed than I can manually control. When I set it to fireworks scene it shot pictures at f/8, 4", with an ISO of 160. The only thing I can get on my camera to be those settings is f/8 when I set things manually. Normally I can only get to 2" as my slowest shutter speed when I am taking pics. You can say what you want, and if I had more control over my camera I would probably set it myself, but I think I got some pretty good pics using the fireworks scene for my camera.

LouEllen

This is good info. I shot in manual for the fireworks this year. I like some of the photos, but not quite happy. Will keep trying.

Lou Ellen

About two months ago I started a thread discussing the value of SCENE settings. I posted a sunset photo with zero post processing taken using the sunset SCENE setting on my Olympus e-510 and the consensus of comments was that it was well done. However comments didn’t seem to show that respondents saw much value in SCENE settings, although there are many to choose from. The general attitude seemed to be “I don’t know what is being done by the camera in SCENE settings but I can do better myself in MANUAL”.

So today as we get ready to take fireworks pictures I ask, what are you doing in MANUAL other than choosing an exposure with A, S and ISO? Today Olympus let the cat out of their bag and lets Olympus owners know what their cameras do in Fireworks SCENE. So if you want to shoot in P, A, S or M and tweek their tweeks here is what Olympus thinks will help a Fireworks photo:

• Shutter speed is set to four seconds, which helps capture the streaming trails of the fireworks.
• Sets the ISO to 100 and the f-stop to f11.
• Sets the White Balance to 5300K
• Sets the exposure compensation to -1.0 EV. This is a full 1-stop underexposure to keep the firework highlights from burning out.
• Sets the color to Vivid, the Saturation to High and the Contrast to Hard, all of these changes help enhance color.
• Sets the Sharpness to Soft, which uses minimal sharpening in anticipation of post-processing.

You may also consider Night Scene + Portrait while playing with sparklers. What ever you do I hope you have a safe 4th and celebrate our God given freedom.[/quote]