My first attempt at photographing fireworks

[fi20100]

Tonight it was the celebration of the Turku Day (Åbodagen) which always ends with fireworks, and I thought I would give it a first try. All of them were shot @ ISO 100 with manual focusing. I used a remote and bulb mode. I shot all of them at f/9. Should I’ve used a higher f number? I have a feeling they all are a bit out of focus.

And yes, the kit lens was used for all of them. Please C&C :)


http://static.flickr.com/91/245731922_847d6cdac6_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaos2/245731922/)

http://static.flickr.com/98/245731912_692e1c5e82_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaos2/245731912/)

http://static.flickr.com/92/245731909_9c26eb17d0_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaos2/245731909/)

http://static.flickr.com/93/245731902_080d859338_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaos2/245731902/)

[Wes]

I think they make fantastic abstracts. I'd hang them on my wall.

Wes

[fi20100]

Thanks :) I might even do that with one of them.

[sinnes]

Wow they seem to be popping out of the screen! I like them a lot. Kinda makes you blink a few times to focus on them. :)

[whiteflyer]

I think they are very nice and much better than my first attempt, well done.

[Soto]

Wow... those pictures are great.

[sswanson]

This 'attempt' at capturing fireworks beats out my attempts to date. Well done!

You said it was at f/9 with ISO 100. What shutter speeds were you using? I'm assuming they were taken on a tripod, right? I'm impressed you were able to get enough light with that ISO.

[SoaringUSAEagle]

Looks a hell of a lot better than my first attempt! Thanks for sharing these are great!

[calicokat]

Great shots :)

[fi20100]

Thank you everyone for all your kind comments :)

I was positioned on a balcony on the sixth floor quite close to where the fireworks show was going on, and the firework was more or less exploding pretty much right above me. The problem was that the altitude of the explosions was pretty much alternating all the time, so it was kind of hard to frame the shots. I would have loved to be able to get some shots in portrait mode, with a horizon, but it was impossible from where I was standing.

I’m posting another shot just to show the problem of the alternating altitude (or maybe it was more about me being too close (shot @ 25mm)), even though I think it turned out quite ok ;)

http://static.flickr.com/93/247384277_f32f12eb5d_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaos2/247384277/)


sswanson: The shutter speeds were varying 2 seconds and 7 seconds. I tried to look for the firework going up in the sky, press and hold the shutter before the explosion, and then let it go after one or two explosions.


-Fi20100