Fireworks Tips

Great job, Michael. How did you do it?

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Originally Posted by masdog

Great job, Michael. How did you do it?

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Thanks. I think what I did was to crop out the burst that I wanted from another image, pasted it into my base image, and used the lighten blending mode in the layers pallet.

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Originally Posted by masdog

Great tips, Sebastian. Maybe we should have this as a tutorial.

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Hmmmmm - maybe we should....

Fireworks Photography Guide >>

:cool: Thanks, Sebastian! :cool:

Thanks PJ, I am happy with the way it turned out. Flair and everything. ;)

Best Thread Ever. :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

My towns fireworks display isn't big enuf to have a bunch of fireworks in a single shot. :)

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LOL... :lol:

Michael, what you have there is such a simple idea, but it's perfect, especially with fireworks. The images blend nicely, and as we know, with photography the ends justify the means...

On bulb, can I open the shutter by pressing the button, then closing by pressing it again? And should I put noise reduction on?

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Originally Posted by Tom_Proctor

On bulb, can I open the shutter by pressing the button, then closing by pressing it again? And should I put noise reduction on?

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The way the bulb setting works is that the shutter stays open for as long as you hold the button. Once you let up, the shutter will close. If you don't have a cable release, or remote of some sort, you are going to have some camera shake issues using the bulb setting. What I would do to get around this is to set my shutter speed to 4 or 5 seconds and see what you get. You may have to go longer, or shorter but I think that's a good place to start.

I don't think I would worry too much about the noise reduction. I'm not sure how your camera works, but if it takes a second "blank" image after your first shot, then uses that to remove the noise, it could really cut into your shooting time. If you take a 5 second exposure of some fireworks, then have to wait for the camera to take another 5 second exposure, you might miss some shots.

Okay well Tonight I went to try to get some fireworks pictures, but the retards who planned the event made it so all the fireworks were behind the trees. I got some pretty nice pictures after running around a bit. I couldn't really get any foreground stuff :rolleyes:

Caught a heart in the middle:
http://www.specradio.com/firework11.jpg

http://www.specradio.com/firework21.jpg

http://www.specradio.com/firework31.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...e/_MG_9208.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...e/_MG_9226.jpg

Thanks for the tips!!!! They worked great!

Oh I really like those with the boats.

Tom, your fireworks must have been planned by the same guy who did mine. Mine were all behind trees as well.

I did take photos, and will download them as soon as I return all my calls. First day back from vacation is not fun.

I don't have a cable thingy, so I set the shutter speed to 10 seconds, f/11, iso 100

We'll try again next year. We think those trees are just going to have to come down so we can see better.

These are from my mom's back yard.

Here's my Fireworks Tip: "don't volunteer to be the firework-holder"

Well I dont have any pix of people holding fireworks :(

But I do have this one....I think it's my favorite of the images I got.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6953.jpg

--Dave

BLS439,

That is an AWESOME shot.

Hi Seb,

Your instructions were so simple I did it with a Holga. :p Actually, that's because it was raining and I didn't want to pull out my D70. My vantage point sucked, so these are cropped...a lot. :D

Paul

Not bad for a Holga Paul. :)

Looks like you could have used this:

http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ight=lightware

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Originally Posted by Sebastian

BLS439,

That is an AWESOME shot.

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Sebastian,

Thanks so much. That means something coming from the author of the fireworks tutorial!

--Dave (Striving to be a pro)

Well, since Seb was so damn nice :blush2: here are a few more that I like :D .

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6959.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6955.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6951.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6950.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6947.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6945.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...9/_MG_6944.jpg

--Dave

This is such an awesome thread!
As you probably already know, we have our fireworks in November over here in the UK and I went to a small display tonight.

Slap my wrist if you like, but, like always with me, I think these things are beyond my capabilities because they are out of my comfort zone, so I only do things half heartedly. Y'know, "they probably won't turn out anyway, so I won't bother taking my tripod. I may even find a post or a tree to steady my hand."

Unfortunately there was no tree to rest on and the fence was being shaken by a bunch of excited kids.

Anyway, here are my very first attempts at fireworks, thanks to sebastian's and everyone else's tips, I thought they turned out pretty well for being handheld. I can imagine how they would have turned out had I used my tripod.

And yes, you guessed it...I used my 50mm 1.8mm MKII lens on these.

Now I am on the look out for some more displays. I'm sure there will be some more :D

I read this last year and thought it was an awesome tutorial then and thought I remembered what was in it...
Until tonight when the track that I shoot for had their fireworks night and I realized that I didn't remember nearly as much as I thought... :-(

Anyway, I thought this might be a helpful time to bump this back to the forefront. I know I am pointing several shooters to this thread as many tracks in our area are having "fireworks nights" over the course of the next 2 weeks. This is still one of the best resources I have ever read on shooting fireworks!

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Originally Posted by steelerdirtfreak

Anyway, I thought this might be a helpful time to bump this back to the forefront.

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Yes, great idea! It's that time of year again. How about posting your shots too - should we keep it all together or start a new thread with this year's shots?

nice job dirtfreak.......I was hoping someone would bump this.

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Originally Posted by Sebastian

Good point about the focus. The fireworks themselves won't really ever be sharp, they're just blurs of light. If you have something in the frame, a building or some trees, you want those to be sharp if they're static. And with the distances we're dealing with here, you're more than likely at infinity no matter what.

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I use a 28mm lens set on f8/f11, focus on infinity, point the lens about where the burst will emerge and shoot. I use mirror lock-up to eliminate the slam of the mirror. Using a remote I can set the shutter to B and lock it open, then use a lens cap or similar to block till the next one goes up. This allows multiple shots on one frame and gives a good effect. after2 or 3 bursts unlock the shutter and mirror and do it all over again.

I had a job once shooting foreworks for an open house of a lodge on the beach. It was fantastic as I got reflections as well as the real burst. It was harder to shoot as where I had to shoot was lit and hard to get correct exposure. With digital it is easier as you can see what you get after the exposure and adjust.

Last year I went to the military base here and had to shoot over a stadium wall. I carried a step stool and used a right angle attachment. That way I could raise the camera very high and use the viewer to see from below. Felt kinda weird for a while. Once I got it all set up, I used the stool for a seat.

Good luck on the 4th!
Michael :)

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Originally Posted by Alison

This is such an awesome thread!
As you probably already know, we have our fireworks in November over here in the UK and I went to a small display tonight.

Slap my wrist if you like, but, like always with me, I think these things are beyond my capabilities because they are out of my comfort zone, so I only do things half heartedly. Y'know, "they probably won't turn out anyway, so I won't bother taking my tripod. I may even find a post or a tree to steady my hand."

Unfortunately there was no tree to rest on and the fence was being shaken by a bunch of excited kids.

Anyway, here are my very first attempts at fireworks, thanks to sebastian's and everyone else's tips, I thought they turned out pretty well for being handheld. I can imagine how they would have turned out had I used my tripod.

And yes, you guessed it...I used my 50mm 1.8mm MKII lens on these.

Now I am on the look out for some more displays. I'm sure there will be some more :D

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Alison, you have to push your comfort zone in order to improve/learn. Take everything you might need so you have no excuse to fail. Just remember that you can do whatever you put your mind to. Be positive and determined. I was 13 when I started photography and no web sites or any schools. I taught me from magazines and books. I don't think I am a genius or anything like that, I was just determined to learn and I learned alot.

Anyone else need help, call Dr. Mike shrink extraordinaire :cool:
Michael :)