Shooting fireworks query

Mystery57

Mystery57

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I've been reading up on photographing fireworks and think I understand most of the things to do.

One query concerns holding a piece of black card or similar in front of the lens for some exposures to wait for the next batch of fireworks.

Presumably am I right in thinking that in view of this its best not to have a lens hood fitted ? -- my particular lens hood for the show I want to shoot is of the petal design

Or is there something simpler I can consider
 
Keep the hood on when doing fireworks, you often find that there's others around you using cameras with flash which will give you some flare to the left & right, you want to soak in the light from the fireworks only. There's plenty of guides about and a few members on here have done some amazing work, ISO to 100, f/8 - F/16, focus set to infinity (better with a wide angle) and an exposure length of more than 3 seconds (imo) to get the light trails and bring a tripod! Not quite sure what you mean by a black card though, I always shoot in manual for this type of shot :)
 
Hi Dave - some of the articles I read, referred to placing a piece of black card over the lens, if some of the fireworks are slow in being released, apparently then removing the card when more are ignited allows the exposure to continue.

Was thinking of using my 24-105 lens at the 24mm end

cheers
 
Ah! Now I understand you! Yes it's a good idea in principle, I've never thought of such an idea so it might well be worth a shot, try it in the back garden one evening with a few candles to see how it pans out, might be a long process to understand but who said photography was for the faint hearted? :)
 
Don't bother with the black card. Those articles were written decades ago when there were far fewer fireworks in the air at once.

Modern displays with electronic firing don't need any of that mucking about.
 
I have found the black card trick only useful if you are at a small display/personal fireworks where there may be a gap between fireworks. At big display where they are pretty constant I have always found that you can get more than enough to make a great shot in one simple exposure of 3 or 4 seconds.

Going back to your original question I would think that removing the petal would let you get the card closer to the lens and stop any light leakage getting in and causing any undesired issues, but tbh most fireworks displays are so dark that this wouldn't normally be much of an issue and the black card is just to reduce ambient light or bright spots blowing the highlights, so having it totally next to the lens might not be an completely necessity.
 
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As said above the black card is only really of use on the small, no professional displays at to settings personal I'd recommend shooting in the region of f/8-11 in Bulb so that you can just adjust your exposure dependent on the fireworks (you'll need a trigger/release) and then ISO wise while I used to be an advocate of only shooting at the base ISO I have found that shooting fireworks at a slightly higher ISO to be far better as it allows you capture the details of the surrounding location with the light from the fireworks

See the below example

308/366 (673) (Explored) by mwhcvt, on Flickr

Basic exif: f/9 - 9.6s Exposure - ISO500

If you've not done so already please check out my guide to firework photography in the tutorials section linked in my signature
 
I was going to add, Matthew is one of the guys I would recommend for advice! :D

Cracking shot aswell :)
 
Flightphoto said:
I was going to add, Matthew is one of the guys I would recommend for advice! :D

Cracking shot aswell :)
Click to expand...

Very kind of you to say on both counts :thumbs:

Mystery57 said:
Hi Matthew - thanks for that I had checked your guide first :)

Reckon initially Im going to settle on f9/ f11, iso 500, 6 to 12 seconds variable bulb exposure and see what happens
Click to expand...

I don't think that you'll be far off with those settings :thumbs:
 
Don't jinx it :D

A little rain is fine, wind is the problem with large firework displays - I remember when I was about 10, we went to a renowned show in southampton, the wind that year was soo strong that it became a scene from Baghdad, children were getting struck by fireworks, several pushchairs caught on fire, in a sickening way, I felt it was slightly amusing but that was because of my age I guess!
 
Mystery57 said:
Just hoping it doesn't rain now
Click to expand...

On that front if it does keep a very close eye on your front element as a single water drop will play havoc with your photos ;) it will even make it past the hood :bang:
 
I will put a couple of photos up later - not brilliant because it had been raining all night and about 2 minutes into the show the heavens opened and the most torrential rain storm I have seen in years started - luckily I was near to my car so dived in and photographed the remainder through an open window. Consequence being I could not get all the really high stuff in to a photo, but for a first attempt it was better than expected particularly in view of the heavy rain !
 
I kept the basics simple in view of the appalling weather - (it was impossible to review images) so had F11, and ISO 250 for all shots, with variable shutter times between 5 and 10 seconds - the zoom effect was a 7 second shot.

I then tidied them up PP, very few shots did I reject even though rain was torrential so that was a pleasing first attempt - cant wait for the next opportunity and hopefully better weather so that its not so frantic :)

Thanks for all the support and tips
 
These were 5 secs at f/8, ISO400. Exposure set by experiment, 5 secs seemed to capture decent trails, then aperture and ISO to match.

Camera was set on continuous shooting and when the display got going I just locked it on with cable release so it didn't miss anything.

I messed up the finale though. There were so many fireworks in the sky at once that 5 secs was too long and with one burst overlaying another, the whole thing was way over-exposed. For that, something like 2 secs at ISO100 would have been much better, but I was watching the display and didn't notice until it was too late.





 
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