Fire Works
Dec 29, 2018 14:35:20 #
Your camera was rock steady: great. Just look at the lines: even at double download there is not a hint of a wobble. That's step one. Next look at the framing: do you want the whole burst, or zoom in on a part of it? Adjust as required, change lens if necessary. I use a 15-85 mm lens, and it gives me the spread I want. For focus, go to manual focus; before the fireworks start, focus on something the same distance away as the bursts. You may have to lighten your scene a lot to do this - go to manual mode, up the ISO to about 1000 or higher, aperture wide open, and focus on whatever you can see at the right distance. Once focus is set, put ISO back to 100 and aperture to about f8 or f11. For shooting, I like using the bulb setting with a remote shutter release. Having set the focus, ISO and aperture that I want, I can just press and hold the remote for a second or two, and the shot usually comes out fine (it's amazing how well you can do with a guesswork exposure - I just do a mental count - "one elephant, two elephant...") Check the rear screen after the first couple of shots to see if they are too light or too dark, and adjust the exposure time as required. If you are shooting RAW, you have good latitude for adjustments in post-processing too.
Dec 29, 2018 23:21:33 #
Straight Shooter wrote:
Your camera was rock steady: great. Just look at t... (show quote)
Yep, I used a tripod and a shutter release cable with bulb exposure. I wanted to get the whole burst, but I picked the wrong lens -- it was freezing out and I didn't feel like fooling around with changing lenses in the dark. I did have a flashlight. My hardest problem was trying to figure out how to focus on infinity with my lens -- there was no external marking on the lens for infinity. And I forgot my "good" glasses -- so this was a huge learning experience for me! Thanks for the advice!
May 2, 2019 07:18:30 #
tcthome
Loc: NJ
Ava'sPapa wrote:
Yeah, for the next time use a Canon Rebel T6 and an EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM, a tripod, a shutter release cable, a flashlight, ISO 100 @ f/22 and wait until your fingers are really cold. Looks to me like that's a pretty good combination. I think your pictures came out very nicely.
Feb 7, 2020 22:11:25 #
Firstly, try to include some interesting foreground, lake, city lights, etc. Use a lens with an focal length range of 15-85. Usually F-11 to f-16 works well. Use a memory card in your camera that has a fast read speed so you can click away and then weed out the non keepers from the keepers in post processing. It is actually pretty easy to capture fireworks oohs and ahhs moments after you learn the basics.
Feb 7, 2020 22:26:37 #
usnret wrote:
Firstly, try to include some interesting foreground, lake, city lights, etc. Use a lens with an focal length range of 15-85. Usually F-11 to f-16 works well. Use a memory card in your camera that has a fast read speed so you can click away and then weed out the non keepers from the keepers in post processing. It is actually pretty easy to capture fireworks oohs and ahhs moments after you learn the basics.
Thanks for the great tips!
Feb 9, 2021 19:50:57 #
Pysanka Artist wrote:
This was my first time with long exposure photography. I had no idea what I was doing. I have a Canon Rebel T6 and used my EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM lens which was too long. Used a tripod, shutter release cable, flashlight, iso 100, f/22. Fingers froze. Any comments or suggestions for next time?
What a dazzling series of your work
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