Lense recommendation...trying again

[photobuff]

What would be a model # of a lense for dusk to nighttime action? I have posted this topic before but really didnt get the answers I was looking for so I will try again....I have a 300D.
I went to the Royals game and they had a fireworks display afterwards so I took a little tripod in and used the kit lense(18-55mm) with ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE results. Figured it was a waste of time but gave it a chance.I am wanting to get "L" lenses so that isnt an issue...the money part.
I use fireworks as an example, due to it seems like the most difficult "subject" to shoot, IMO. Flash is useless plus, when the firework report starts to explode, there is intense expanding light and any prolonged opening of the shutter and it turns into a glowing ball. I have seen beautiful pics like everyone else has and wondered what they might be using for a lense/editing software.
Anyone have experience with this?

Thanx,
Steve

[DaveG]

What would be a model # of a lense for dusk to nighttime action? I have posted this topic before but really didnt get the answers I was looking for so I will try again....I have a 300D.
I went to the Royals game and they had a fireworks display afterwards so I took a little tripod in and used the kit lense(18-55mm) with ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE results. Figured it was a waste of time but gave it a chance.I am wanting to get "L" lenses so that isnt an issue...the money part.
I use fireworks as an example, due to it seems like the most difficult "subject" to shoot, IMO. Flash is useless plus, when the firework report starts to explode, there is intense expanding light and any prolonged opening of the shutter and it turns into a glowing ball. I have seen beautiful pics like everyone else has and wondered what they might be using for a lense/editing software.
Anyone have experience with this?


Thanx,
Steve

The trick to shooting fireworks is not the speed of the lens but the time of the exposure. Kodak makes (made?) a great publication called the Professional Photo Guide and it has a calculator for giving you exposures for un-meaterable subjects like fireworks.

At ISO 100 you would use f8 and an exposure time of at least four seconds. I use eight seconds to get more fireworks going off at the same time. OF COURSE you need a tripod.

Remember the shutterspeed has almost nothing to do with the look of the fireworks. The fireworks themselves are what provides the "shutterspeed". When they glow their light is being recorded by the camera. When they fade there is no light hitting the sensor, even if the shutter is open. So you just leave the shutter open long enough to record multiple firework pops.

You'll have to turn off your Autofocus and focus manually. The poor AF would just freak out I would think. I also shut off the review LCD. It's so bright sitting in the dark that I'd be afraid that it would fry my night vision.

This approach works wonderfully. If you can't use a tripod then you're out of luck since it's the duration of the exposure that gets you those big round firework images.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Low light requires a larger aperture which will let in more light..

So.. there is no ne lens to recomend.. but rather the idea is to look for lenses with a larger aperture. (ie: a LOWER f/stop ## like f/1.8)

So.. forget about a zoom.. the fasteset available is f/2.8...

One of the lenses recomended here daily is the 50mm f/1.8 @ $75.00.. this lens let's in tons of light for those dark situations.

Alternatively there is the 50mm f/1.4 which adds even more light gathering for about 3 times the price.

There is the 85mm f/1.8 for a slightly longer reach tha your kit zoom..

And then there is a 35mm f/1.8...

[ron chappel]

Dave explained it all very well.With a 300D of course it's pretty easy to find the right aperture by trial and error


Photography can be like this-alot of situations require special knowledge (and little money spent :) )
What other situations are giving you problems?

[aam1234]

DaveG, how would you control the duration of the aperture (300D)

Thanks

[DaveG]

DaveG, how would you control the duration of the aperture (300D)

Thanks

I'm not sure if I understand the question since duration implies time and aperture is an opening.

In any case you use f8 with ISO 100 film. This is right from the Kodak Pro Photo Guide and I assume that they got it after a lot of trial and error. With ISO 200 it'd be one stop more and so forth.

Once again you need to use a long time-exposure starting at four seconds so you capture multiple bursts of fireworks. I have no idea what shutterspeed you'd need to completely capture ONE burst, but I would think that it'd be a second or so. Remember, what you are photographing is the initial explosion and then the next half second as particles from the firework streak out in all directions. So your exposure has to be long enough to capture this being "etched" onto the "film".

It's much better to be safe while shooting fireworks and stay at eight seconds. The firing of the fireworks is inconsistent and that variety works in your favour. I mean you might be saying,"Well I want ONE perfect burst, and not three or four, so I'll use a one second exposure." But during the fireworks if you shoot everything at eight seconds then there will be times where NO fireworks go off and more than a few times where there's only one. If you use shorter than four seconds then there's a good chance that you'll miss a whole bunch of good stuff.

[Andy_T]

There are some threads on fireworks on this forum .... either do a search for the term or look for postings around July 3, 2003 :lol:

Best regards,
Andy

[aam1234]

The trick to shooting fireworks is not the speed of the lens but the time of the exposure

Hi DaveG, i was refering to what you said above.

Thanks

[robertwgross]

I think there is some confusion over terminology here.

When somebody refers to "the speed of the lens," they are not *directly* referring to shutter speed.

By "the speed of the lens," they are actually referring to the maximum aperture (minimum f-number) of the lens, and that *indirectly* equates to the use of a shutter speed that is faster.

So, one person might mention a faster lens (bigger aperture) in order to gather more light, but another person might mention a slower shutter in order to gather more light.

Personally, I've never captured fireworks at anything faster than 2 seconds nor anything slower than about 10 seconds, and 10 seconds was when there were multiple fireworks displays visible over a distance of about forty miles.

I would say that the exact lens is not nearly as important as a bomb-proof tripod and a cable release.

---Bob Gross---

[photobuff]

I think I took more understanding from this thread than the last one....Bob tried to explain it lasttime but it just didnt stick. Very good imformation and I thank you all much :D
Let the debate continue, though....maybe I can extract some more helpful info :wink:


Steve

[Mark Kemp]

I have a 'try it' approach to fireworks since I went digital - i.e use most of the techniques suggested, tripod, manual focus etc. and then guess at an exposure (perhaps 1 second) shoot it and see if I like whats on the LCD, if not change something and try again. Since the brightness of the fireworks and their distance away varies and you can't really predict where they will be in the frame (if they are in it at all!) I reckon that a bit of experimentation should get you some settings that are fairly close to what you want and then you just need some luck :?

[photobuff]

Now that I posted the above comment, I went back over the thread and see all of these 2-10 sec. exposures......that is the problem I am having. Leaving that much time for exposure causes the firework streaks to double thier width and have a major muddled glow to them.....and its not a glow in a cool way. It's a glow in a "this guy doesnt know what he's doing" way... :) .
I saw Ron had asked for a specific so that is a description....I wish I could pass on the history of an example pic for what the settings were but I hit "erase all" out of frustration and deleted the pics I had already downloaded to the comp. I guess that quick decision is something I am working on NOT to do next time....should have researched the info to determine what I needed to do towards the next time.
I have my day pictures up to about an 85% "keep" percentage but nighttime seems to be around a 20% "keep" percentage....thats not good.

steve

[DaveG]

Now that I posted the above comment, I went back over the thread and see all of these 2-10 sec. exposures......that is the problem I am having. Leaving that much time for exposure causes the firework streaks to double thier width and have a major muddled glow to them.....and its not a glow in a cool way. It's a glow in a "this guy doesnt know what he's doing" way... :) .
I saw Ron had asked for a specific so that is a description....I wish I could pass on the history of an example pic for what the settings were but I hit "erase all" out of frustration and deleted the pics I had already downloaded to the comp. I guess that quick decision is something I am working on NOT to do next time....should have researched the info to determine what I needed to do towards the next time.
I have my day pictures up to about an 85% "keep" percentage but nighttime seems to be around a 20% "keep" percentage....thats not good.

steve

Use a tripod. Use a tripod. Use a tripod. Use a tripod.

What do you think that your problem was?

[photobuff]

99% of my night photography is used with a tripod.....I have a VERY heavy duty one. It is a BOGEN, if that means anything to anyone. I opted not to lug it through the stadium so I used a monopod for the dusk shots of the game(which worked quite well) and a lightweight tripod I had lying around, for the actual fireworks portion...like Bob said, this surely played into the problem...I shot in AV mode so the shutter could adjust itself...maybe I used the wrong aperture...but, it was a 5 minute display so I didnt have tons of time to play with the extremes....we will see on Memorial Day. Supposed to be some big displays here in K.C.

Thanx,

Steve

[robertwgross]

....we will see on Memorial Day. Supposed to be some big displays here in K.C.


Fireworks might compete with a typical Midwestern lightning storm!

---Bob Gross---

[photobuff]

No kiddin! I was at work a couple nights ago and it was AMAZING outside...one of the biggest lighting storms I have ever seen....without the thunder. Looked like constant flash bulbs going off. We had to take cover for Torando warnings a couple times but I wanted to get a pic of it :shock:
If I had one choice of something to photograph in my lifetime, it would be of a Tornado. Have had a fascination with them since I was a kid...hope the forecast holds off this weekend. Some of the best nightshots I have done to date were in stormy skies, though. Guess the clouds give a depth to the picture that a clear sky can't. Wonder how that would affect the fireworks? Who knows..I am rambling on... :wink:
Did the trial membership with "Image event" and uploaded some pics to it and they were displaying like complete crap. Wonder what the heck happened? They were nice and clear when sent....yet another rambling...


Steve