Advise on Fireworks photos

355858

355858

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Ben
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hi guys, I quite new to photography and been doing it for just under a year, but i havent taken photos of fireworks before, could someone point me in the general direction on settings etc to use? i have a Nikon D90 with a 70-300mm VR lens and a 18-105mm VR kit lens, will these be ok?

Also if you have any fireworks photos you have taken could you please upload them?

Cheers Ben
 
Link to my shots here details are on flickr. All mainly shot at :- Exposure: 0.8
Aperture: f/18.0
 
Tripod is pretty much an essential. Shutter speed depends on the density of the display and how many bursts you want to catch in each shot. Aperture depends a bit on how much colour you want to catch and how far away from the display you are - experiment! ISO is again a matter of choice - I tend to stick to 400 or even drop down to 200.

I'm afraid most (if not all) my firework shots are on film and if digitised, on another 'puter so can't post any examples now but if I find any and remember, I'll post a couple (although if they're film ones, I won't be able to remember any settings!).
 
Here's one of a set I took back in September

Fireworks3-1.jpg



I used a cable release and used the Bulb mode and kept the shutter open for as long as I felt was acceptable. Sometimes it is too long - other times just about right. I also use f8 or thereabouts on my firework shots - oh and a tripod and the lens is manually focussed to infinity as trying to auto focus in the dark is difficult for the camera to do.
 
As above use bulb and cover the lens with a piece of black card whilst there's nothing happening, remove the card when something good goes up. That was you can build us several bursts on one frame which looks great
 
should i use a Neutral Density filter to take away some of the brightness? if so what density? so the card will allow nothing else to interfear with the photo when no photos are going off i guess? ive got a shutter release cable and tripod so will have to give it ago, i'm attending a fireworks demo next week so i can give it ago :)
 
JPS, what you said about the manual focus is really helpful, cheers! :D

i love your photo as well. i hopeto be able to get somethigng like that at our home fireworks do
 
355858 said:
should i use a Neutral Density filter to take away some of the brightness? if so what density? so the card will allow nothing else to interfear with the photo when no photos are going off i guess? ive got a shutter release cable and tripod so will have to give it ago, i'm attending a fireworks demo next week so i can give it ago :)
Click to expand...

Using an ND filter will be of no benefit, you'll just be making the scene even darker. Remember, it'll be dark anyway with just the light from the fireworks the light the sky every now and then. An exposure of 5 to 10 seconds should be enough - depending on how may fireworks are going off at once. The more that go up at once - keep the shutter to maybe 5 seconds or your photos will just be a mass of explosions and look a mess. Plus you'll only get a few photos as the average display is what 10 minutes if you're lucky.

Also turn off the noise filter on the camera, otherwise for every 5 second photo you take, the camera will be out of action for another 5 seconds while noise filtering is applied - and you may miss the best shot of the night that way. Also I always keep my ISO low to minimise noise anyway.
 
I'd agree with hairyduck.

Set it to f/8, but it in bulb and cover the lens when nothing is exploding, that way you only get the bangs and not the trails, which nearly always blow to brilliant white in my experience
 
Fireworks photos will depend on where you are If you are like I was out in the country with no ambient light in the sky I was taking them with camera on tripod cable release setting at F11 5sec ISO 100 10mm lens
The think to remember is its like a flash your shutter is not really taking any part of the shot as you are taking a photos of moving lights so it all about how bright the light is.
I did take up to 15sec shots but found I had too many fireworks in each shot and you can all ways put more then one together after.
Hope this help you

4001727926_e72e45a7d3_o.jpg
 
will i find that a bonfire is going to create too much light? if so how can i avoid it?
 
Of course for good firework shots you won't be at the front of the crowd. I stood right at the back for my photos. You'll let the first couple of rockets go up so you know how high and where to point the camera at. The bonfire shouldn't really cause any issue if you are far enough back.
 
here's one taken in France on Bastille day:


AW-09-9794.jpg
 
cheers guys been quite a help, hopefully i'll get some good photos i'll post up the results when ive taken them
 
There was a bonfire at my display but it was at 90deg to my right and not in line of site as long as not in view you should be ok. We get permission to go inside of the cordon rope (some advance talking with the display folk) so nothing between use and the fireworks.
 
Went to southport fireworks show last night after experimenting with focus and settings I strangley ended up with setting it to manual focus just before infinity, f8 and bulb mode controlled by a cable release.

Seems I should have done a little more homework on here first and I might have got a few more savers :D

One little tip is to remember to wipe the lens every now and again as even though I didn't realise it about 20 of my shots show water on the lens. :(

One from the night:

4000025057_336e3ca0c2.jpg
 
 
Nice pics :thumbs: what setings were u using (roughly :P)

Daniel
 
between F7-F10 shutter speed between 2-5 seconds
 
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