My Fireworks stunk

Not going to post any because I deleted them all. They were brutal.
Had my ISO at 200 (lowest on the D70), f 11, and bulb. Tripped the shutter the moment I heard the fireworks go off, and held until they dissipated. All I got were little bursts, like the things were starting but no colorful trails....what was I doing wrong? I read the tips that were posted, but somewhere along the line, I either forgot to do something or just blew it big time.
John

Sounds like you and I had our share of troubles. I was all set to shoot fireworks only to notice that the plate where the camera mounts on my tripod was missing!! I ended up having to rest my camera against a tree and hope for the best. I just got home so I'll find out how many of my pics are actually unusable.

By the way, sounds to me like you possibly didn't leave your shutter open long enough. Did you use a tripod and remote shutter release?

Seems like if he held until they dissapated it should have been long enough.

Are you sure you had it set on bulb?

John - I used the same settings on my D50 - got about 30% decent shots - and about 5% (maybe at best) ok shots - and a few great shots

seems hit or miss with them - I did what you did with opening the shutter as I heard them go off - then as they reached their biggest diameter without dissipating yet i closed the shutter - I tried a few 15-20 sec exposures but found that since most of the fireworks were in the same area of the sky i got alot of blown out white areas - so i tried to limit the exposure to 2-3 at a time

here is one that stood out to me so far - there are maybe 2 more that just stand out as decent

http://www.quast-family.com/albums/k...7/DSC_5885.jpg

Well, this is probably the best of my bunch tonight...f/5.6 @ 2 seconds, 100 ISO. Though I held it up against a tree, you can still notice camera shake.

Still have some from last night I have to go through. But last night I had other troubles as well, so I'm not so hopeful about those.

I forgot my cable release for my AE1, but it may have been still enough...I will find out sometime when I get the film developed/printed....of course I still have rolls from a year ago. :lol:

I didnt get anything spectacular, but still had a great time just enjoying the show and the good company.

frog......yes..I held until the sky went black again.
schrackman......yes, I used a tripod. The battery in my remote was dead so I kept the shutter button down.

these were neighborhood fireworks, I might add, but still plenty powerful enough to make for good displays.

John,

If the trails weren't showing up you should have just opened up the aperture a bit more. Those settings were just a starting point, the only thing you did "wrong" was sticking to them. Too bad you deleted the shots, seeing some might have helped us figure out what went wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sebastian

John,

If the trails weren't showing up you should have just opened up the aperture a bit more. Those settings were just a starting point, the only thing you did "wrong" was sticking to them. Too bad you deleted the shots, seeing some might have helped us figure out what went wrong.

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Arrrgh.....why didn't I think of that (slaps forehead)

I just remembered that although they were deleted from the PSE5 catalog, they're still on the hard drive. I'll post them in a bit.

Ok......I'm embarrassed to be putting these up, but how else will I learn...right?

#1
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Fireworks5.jpg
Camera model: NIKON D70
Date/Time: 2007:07:04 23:03:33
Resolution: 400 x 479
Flash used: No
Focal length: 35.0mm (35mm equivalent: 52mm)
Exposure time: 1.700 s
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure bias: 0.33
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Auto bracketing

#2
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Fireworks4.jpg
Camera model: NIKON D70
Date/Time: 2007:07:04 22:39:08
Resolution: 400 x 443
Flash used: No
Focal length: 25.0mm (35mm equivalent: 37mm)
Exposure time: 3.100 s
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure bias: 0.33
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Auto bracketing

#3
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Fireworks3.jpg
Camera model: NIKON D70
Date/Time: 2007:07:04 2241
Resolution: 400 x 491
Flash used: No
Focal length: 70.0mm (35mm equivalent: 105mm)
Exposure time: 1.800 s
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure bias: 0.33
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Auto bracketing

#4
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Fireworks2.jpg
Camera model: NIKON D70
Date/Time: 2007:07:04 22:13:30
Resolution: 481 x 400
Flash used: No
Focal length: 70.0mm (35mm equivalent: 105mm)
Exposure time: 0.769 s
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure bias: 0.33
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Auto bracketing

#5
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Fireworks1.jpg
Camera model: NIKON D70
Date/Time: 2007:07:04 21:50:36
Resolution: 400 x 527
Flash used: No
Focal length: 70.0mm (35mm equivalent: 105mm)
Exposure time: 2.000 s
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure bias: 0.33
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Auto bracketing
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Your remote shutter release has a battery???

In any event, #s 1 and 2 look pretty decent.Not spectacular, but decent. The rest look like the rest of mine turned out, LOL.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by schrackman

Your remote shutter release has a battery???

In any event, #s 1 and 2 look pretty decent.Not spectacular, but decent. The rest look like the rest of mine turned out, LOL.

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Yeah.....a remote commander....although it works much better when the battery is good.:D

I thought my night was going to be shot also,tried a test shot with remote, my batteries were dead also.
My shutter speeds ranged from 6 sec. too 15 sec. used F-6 too F-8.
Jimmy B

Everyone's shots look good! Here are a few some the beaches of Santa Cruz, Ca.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...M1132-Edit.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...M1075-Edit.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...M1056-Edit.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...M0965-Edit.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...M0955-Edit.jpg

Makes me wish for something in my foreground? Next year or opportunity?JB

I think this year opened a lot of our eyes. John, your shots are just fine, IMHO. And the biggest thing is, we're all learning, not only from everyones mistakes this year, but also their successes. It is my considered opinion that every shot we take teaches us something and that to me is as important as whether the shot turned out or not.

Everyone...awesome works!!!!

John, I think your photos look fine. You're being too critical of yourself. I didn't have a remote and had to use my self-timer so I couldn't time them well. I tried to get sense of the rhythm of the show and just blasted away. I think I shot a couple of gigs of photos.

I had focus problems. I think I should haver just focused on infinity. I was miles away from where the fireworks were actually happening. AF was out of the question and my eyes suck. But I tried to focus manually. Bad idea. Poor focusing ability was one of the reasons I switched to auto focus cameras. Live and learn. I get to learn from the mistakes I made this time and do better the next time I have the opportunity to take fireworks photos.

Thanks for your article, Sebastian. It's part of the reason I wanted to take fireworks pictures. It's a great how-to.

Dave,
The Santa Cruz shots rock! Nice work.

Rick

Thanks Rick!

yes Dave your shots are great !!! you posted shots from the same area last year if I recall ?

You guys are being a bit too kind, but all in all it's a learning process, like everything else. Next time I'll take Sebastian's advice, and dial down the f-stop a notch or two. And of course, I'll be reading and researching what everyone else has done.
John

Dave,

I agree with the others: your shots are great. I'm especially jealous because I was up in the hills of Soquel instead of down on the beach. Everything was too far away and we had too much haze to get any good shots. I was tempted to nuke the entire batch as well.

John,

It looks to me like you also had some wobblies going on. Did you use a tripod and remote?

Thanks,

PC

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WsW-WYATT-EARP

yes Dave your shots are great !!! you posted shots from the same area last year if I recall ?

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Great memory! Yup I tried a slightly different vantage point this year a little lower and more offset from the trailhead. I actually liked last years spot better, but what can you do?

I don't think your shots look bad, John. Not spectacular but not bad either. Probably like all events like this you're lucky if you get 10% good ones.

Of course people like Dave make us all a bit jealous with spectacular shots like those.
Number 1 and especially number 2 are just awesome and its all because of the foreground.

John and the rest of you guys,

You all take inherently great shots. It's not that anyone is really better than anyone else on this board, well okay Seb kicks butt at fireworks shots, but it's just some are more experienced than others.

I think that your shots, John, are really good. I think that maybe it's the composition or cropping that makes them lack a little luster. I hope you dont mind but I took your first shot and tweaked it a little to show how I would have put it up. If you mind please let me know and I'll take it down.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...Fireworks5.jpg

Cheers.
Dave

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PrevailingConditions

Dave,

I agree with the others: your shots are great. I'm especially jealous because I was up in the hills of Soquel instead of down on the beach. Everything was too far away and we had too much haze to get any good shots. I was tempted to nuke the entire batch as well.

John,

It looks to me like you also had some wobblies going on. Did you use a tripod and remote?

Thanks,

PC

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PC.........yes. The remote wasn't working ......I forgot to set the camera to remote commander mode:mad2: . I may have jostled the tripod some.

Looks like this is turning into the official fireworks thread, so here are a few of mine. I tried a new location this year. These are taken from the top of our "main" St. I had a pretty clear shot till this jackass parked in front of me. He's not in a parking spot, and blocking half of an intersection. I wanted to drag him out of his truck and beat him with my tripod :mad2: but instead I moved to the other side of the street. Next time I will be sure to use my level, and they are all a little slanted. Live and learn. For the 3rd image, I was zooming with my lens during the exposure.

John,
Go easy on yourself.Ha!
It's hard to look good when you got Santa Cruz Dave pulling out all the stops.
I'm no expert...
It was my first time shooting fireworks, I used F/9, anywhere from 2 seconds up to 8 seconds in all my shots. Although I did get one wicked cool shot at 10 seconds.{ In the viewfinder.}
I used self timer, Auto WB, ISO 320-
Matrix metering,Manual focus and EV comp of -.3

2 lenses did the job the Nikkor 50mm 1.8D, the Sigma 10-20mm.

Rick

John,

Those shots really are fine. You retained color, you had nice bursts. Next time you'll do even better, no big deal. It kinda makes me sad you wanted to delete these. Next time, just let them sit for a while and come back to them, you might just end up liking them after all. Many of my favorite shots are ones I really disliked at first.

Dave P.,

You and that damn beach... you manage to really make something wonderful out of it.