Fireworks settings
Jun 30, 2018 12:23:23 #
CrackerMag
Loc: Titusville, FL
Been a while, but the last time I shot fireworks, I used a D7100. f/16, ISO 200, 105mm, bulb, focused at infinity on a tripod. I left the shutter open for as long as 30 seconds and used a piece of black paper to cover the lens between bursts. That gave me one exposure with multiple bursts, since this was a rather small display, one firing at a time. It gave me pretty much what I wanted. No PP on this one. Also, there may be more sophisticated techniques than using black paper, but that's what I had at hand. Oh yeah, manual focus.
Jun 30, 2018 12:24:02 #
I'm going to be doing something different this year. I'll be shooting from the 32nd floor of a condo patio in Honolulu toward Waikiki about four or five miles away as the crow flies, so my plans were to use my new 5D4 with my old 70-200 L 2.8 IS. Anything special I should do besides turning off IS, NR off and a solid tripod? This will be my first nite shots with my new camera, which does not arrive until Monday. I shot fireworks last year with my 5D3 (any one looking for a deal on a 5D3), but from much, much closer and with a 16-35 L 4.0 IS and had great success.
Use my same settings? I need to check my settings from last year, but I know ISO 100, around f8/11 and 8 or so seconds. Am I missing anything? I want to make sure to get in somewhat close to buildings on the Waikiki Beach, as from what I saw from my son in law's photos from last year, the fireworks will be just above the tallest buildings on the beach from the perspective of his inland 32nd floor view.
His lens he used with his Fuji was a 135 and I want to get in a bit closer at 200mm, maybe not quite that close, will just have to set it up a bit closer to the time before the show. Manual focus for sure.
The photo shown here is from last year at the Bokeelia fishing pier at the north tip of Pine Island on the southwest coast of Florida.
TIA.
Use my same settings? I need to check my settings from last year, but I know ISO 100, around f8/11 and 8 or so seconds. Am I missing anything? I want to make sure to get in somewhat close to buildings on the Waikiki Beach, as from what I saw from my son in law's photos from last year, the fireworks will be just above the tallest buildings on the beach from the perspective of his inland 32nd floor view.
His lens he used with his Fuji was a 135 and I want to get in a bit closer at 200mm, maybe not quite that close, will just have to set it up a bit closer to the time before the show. Manual focus for sure.
The photo shown here is from last year at the Bokeelia fishing pier at the north tip of Pine Island on the southwest coast of Florida.
TIA.
Jun 30, 2018 13:14:51 #
I was at Disney World last week and I wanted to capture the awesome fireworks that they have at the end of the day. As you know, fireworks will just keep on going in bursts so I wanted to capture most of those at handheld. There is no time to mess around with tripods and several seconds of exposure and miss a lot of good ones (considering the number of people around you and everything). So I decided to shoot at ISO 20,000, 1/125th, f/4, RAW to assure me of being able to shoot fast, handheld, as the bursts of fireworks kept coming. After doing some post processing and applying noise reduction with Define 2, everything came out great. I use the Sony Alpha 7RII which can take good pictures even at high ISO. So I guess it just depends on what you want and experiment. Hope that helps.
Jun 30, 2018 13:23:52 #
Jun 30, 2018 13:30:09 #
Jun 30, 2018 13:32:36 #
I'm a fan of F11, ISO 100, Manual focus and bulb exposures. Tripod w/remote release. Have fun!
Jun 30, 2018 14:01:07 #
topcat wrote:
What settings do you recommend for fireworks? I know manual, but I was thinking of the noise reduction function, which basically doubles the exposure.
Do you turn it off or leave it on?
Do you turn it off or leave it on?
Turn it off. I take 4 second exposure for fireworks.
Jun 30, 2018 14:23:55 #
jeep_daddy wrote:
Turn it off. I take 4 second exposure for fireworks.
Turn OFF BOTH VR AND AUTO FOCUS. The time you keep the shutter open should NOT be pre-determined, just follow the bursts, perhaps one or two. Too long - all is white, too short - you don't get much. Shoot a lot! Experiment! Every show is different! Best of luck.
Jun 30, 2018 14:26:33 #
Thanks Harry. We miss you at the Photo Guild too.
hjachym wrote:
Having just recently moved to the west side of the State after living my whole life in the Detroit area I miss those fireworks. I have to say during my time in the area I was actively involved in two of the larger camera clubs in the area. I have seen many, many photos of this display from many angles. Yours is among the best I have seen. Well done
Jun 30, 2018 14:38:54 #
Jun 30, 2018 14:41:26 #
I've shot a series a coupla years ago at a local Fourth of July fireworks show.
As follows:
Nikon D7000 - AF-S NIKKOR 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 GII ED lens.
Tripod mount, aimed at the spot where the display was to center.
Exposure = 4.0 seconds @ f22, ISO 125, lens zoomed to 38mm.
I locked the camera down and fired the shutter with a Nikon ML-L3 Remote Shutter release.
Here's a few examples. Note that with two exceptions, these RAW images haven't been tweaked.
As follows:
Nikon D7000 - AF-S NIKKOR 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 GII ED lens.
Tripod mount, aimed at the spot where the display was to center.
Exposure = 4.0 seconds @ f22, ISO 125, lens zoomed to 38mm.
I locked the camera down and fired the shutter with a Nikon ML-L3 Remote Shutter release.
Here's a few examples. Note that with two exceptions, these RAW images haven't been tweaked.
Jun 30, 2018 14:57:48 #
All fireworks done from 2 cameras, 2 different lenses, using 4 sec shutter. Composite image.
Jun 30, 2018 16:33:32 #
topcat wrote:
What settings do you recommend for fireworks? I know manual, but I was thinking of the noise reduction function, which basically doubles the exposure.
Do you turn it off or leave it on?
Do you turn it off or leave it on?
TC, check this out!!!
SS
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-216114-1.html
Jun 30, 2018 20:07:26 #
Just throwing in there, last year I 'filmed' a clip of our local fireworks with an iphone set to slo-motion. It was reaaaaaallllllllyyyy interesting, and I highly recommend it just for a lark. It recorded sound in slo mo too, and it made a lot of people laugh watching it. The explosions sounded like moaning...
Let someone else do that while you work on the serious photography.
Let someone else do that while you work on the serious photography.
Jun 30, 2018 20:58:57 #
mbowman wrote:
I like to use ISO 100, f/16, and Bulb. Use a remote release, tripod and frame the photo as desired. Remember what that frame is as you open and close the shutter. Open. watch what happens in the frame and in your mind imagine what you have just captured. Is that the image you want, then close. Do you want more, leave it open a little longer.
I have only shot fireworks once back in 2014 and I used about the same method as described here.
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