Firework photos

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willb1983

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Will
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Hi all,

Just got my first D-SLR and I'm hoping to use it tomorrow night at a firework display.

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on the settings and techniques I should use for getting good, clear shots.

On a steep learning curve here.

Thanks

Will
 
1st thing is a tripod...then you need a remote release cable or wireless remote. Put the camera on bulb shutter setting. When you got these get into a good position at the display with not many people around, some people have trouble seeing tripod legs! Take with you a piece of black card to cover the lens with, use this when there are gaps in the display if you in the middle of taking a pic, it also help with not over exposing.

Most of all have fun and enjoy the learning curve.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I'll see if I can buy a tripod and remote tomorrow. With the black card do I take a shot and hold it and remove the card just as the firework explodes?
 
willb1983 said:
Thanks for the reply.

I'll see if I can buy a tripod and remote tomorrow. With the black card do I take a shot and hold it and remove the card just as the firework explodes?
Click to expand...

Remove the card just before the firework is set off and cover again when there is no action in the sky
 
A :thumbs: for the advice above plus - use ISO 100, around F8 - F11, manual focus set to infinity. As it's going to be windy:

Stay UPWIND of the display for 2 reasons:

1. If you're downwind you'll get lots of drifting smoke
2. If you're cross wind the fireworks will drift through your frame giving you blurred shots.

Enjoy, it's great fun doing fireworks shots

Carl
 
Thanks everyone. I'll report back tomorrow with hopefully at least 1 decent shot!
 
CReid said:
A :thumbs: for the advice above plus - use ISO 100, around F8 - F11, manual focus set to infinity. As it's going to be windy:

Stay UPWIND of the display for 2 reasons:

1. If you're downwind you'll get lots of drifting smoke
2. If you're cross wind the fireworks will drift through your frame giving you blurred shots.

Enjoy, it's great fun doing fireworks shots

Carl
Click to expand...

Never thought of the upwind scenario....:clap:
 
There are lots of ways to do this - here's one I did - hand held - you don't need a tripod: I just got lucky. :)

AW-09-9794.jpg
 
Just got back in from the fireworks. Sadly I couldn't get hold of a tripod or remote, so these are all hand held shots.

The ISO was set to 400 as I didn't work out how to change it, but I figured out how to change the F value. It was set to F8 as I found I got better shots. Bulb mode allowed me to get some crazy light trails.

Here are a few examples. Still lots to learn!

DSC_0046.jpg


DSC_0051.jpg


DSC_0060.jpg


I'm going to another firework do on Thursday so I should have a tripod ready for then.
 
Darn good first attempt M8, I like the 1st one best:thumbs:

If you do get hold of a tripod it should help to straighten out the light trails from the explosions & stop them being a bit wiggly:)

I did my 1st fireworks display last year without a tripod & got similar results.

The exposure seems not far off though, ISO 100 f8 & about 2 secs exposure shouldnt be far off.(as said earlier in this post)

Oh & shoot in RAW if you can, easier for post processing later.

Good luck & have fun :thumbs:
 
Thanks mate :)

I'll take a tripod on Thursday and see if I can improve on Saturday's shots.

What exactly is the ISO setting? The F value is the amount of light allowed to the lens I figured, aperture? I'll set to RAW too.

Thanks for the advice, appreciate it :)

Will
 
Will - the 3 shots I just posted were my first attempt. Just noticed CArls comments about wind - mine are crosswind and you can see what happened. I use tripod with f9, 2 seconds, ISO 200 and manually focused at infinity. Manual exposure. Rain also came on and got a few blobs in some pics. Will know better next time. 5 NOvember not really celebrated here so will have to wait till next display. merv:clap:
 
Hopefully going to try some shots tomorrow night in edinburgh.
Never tried fireworks before,so i have read a lot of the posts about it.
The one thing i am not too clear about is what about the AWB,do i just leave it set on that,any advice tonight would be great as i hopefully will be out tomorrow night.:):thumbs:
 
Shoot RAW and worry about it later. You can get away with almost any WB for fireworks - no-one knows what colour they were! ;)
 
Cheers for that,i do plan to shoot in raw.:):thumbs:
 
i have a plan for tomorrow night , i have seen where they are going to fire the display from , and i know where all the people are going to be stood , along with assorted low life scum that i do not want my gear anywhere near , now my point , i would quite easily be able to get access to the rear of the firing area at a safe distance , is there any issue with trying to photograph the fireworks from the wrong side if you see what i mean :shrug: :lol:
 
willb .. love the first and third, but overall this has encouraged me to go out and find some fireworks to take ...awesome advice as well..
 
Thanks :)

I'm out again tonight with the tripod to hopefully improve upon the last shots. Need to take into account the crosswind this time (I was being tight and didn't pay to go in to the actual display).

Going to shoot in RAW tonight and try to put into practice more of the advice from above. The black bag trick for one.

Good luck to everyone out tonight, post up your results :thumbs:
 
whats this 'pay' thing , never paid in my life , well apart from my council tax to subsidise it of course :thinking: :lol:
 
They were charging £6 to go and watch the fireworks... £6 for a 5-10 minute show! Stood just outside the grounds and looked up :P
 
Good luck to all who are venturing out tonight.:):thumbs:
 
I haver never really taken pictures at night and have never taken any of fireworks.

I am going to be giving it a go tonight for the first time!

Any advice on my settings, which are:

Manual
Bulb (I have a tripod and release cable)
F11
ISO100

I am also not sure whether to use my Sony kit lens or my Tamron 70-300mm

Also how do I set the focus to infinity if I use my kit lens, I understand I should turn the focusing ring to the symbol that looks like a 8 on its side, only problem is I cant see one on the kit lens.

There is one on my Tamron, so again I take I just turn the focusing ring until the line lines up with the little 8 symbol?

Or have I got everything arse about face and completely wrong?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Keith W said:
Also how do I set the focus to infinity if I use my kit lens, I understand I should turn the focusing ring to the symbol that looks like a 8 on its side, only problem is I cant see one on the kit lens.

There is one on my Tamron, so again I take I just turn the focusing ring until the line lines up with the little 8 symbol?

Or have I got everything arse about face and completely wrong?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi Keith
Just focus on something in the distance such as a street light, then turn to manual focus and don't move it:)
 
My D40 only goes down to ISO 100. Anything I should be thinking of changing o the above advice if i'm using ISO 200?
 
Well I had my first try at night time/firework photography tonight.

I came to the conclusion I was stood to close to the action so will bear that in mind the next time I try

Here are some of the pictures I took

4078877038_64c1446df2.jpg


4078935376_404f73810c.jpg


4078939014_9aca2844d4.jpg


4078170585_b74a0b0368.jpg
 
Those are brilliant pictures, I commend that for the first try of firework photography! I need to get hold of a tripod and do some firework shots. Well done, further away, they would look even more complete! :)
 
They look great.

I took some more last night which I'll take off my camera and upload this evening. Not sure how they turned out to be honest. I used a tripod though which hopefully gave me better results.
 
ERU said:
My D40 only goes down to ISO 100. Anything I should be thinking of changing o the above advice if i'm using ISO 200?
Click to expand...

I did a lot of playing around with the ISO settings on my D40 yesterday. Not exactly sure what ISO is but on M I could only set ISO 200 as the lowest and 1600 as the highest. The differences were crazy!
 
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