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transcend
1st of March 2005 (Tue), 17:39
I shot these the other night at a small fireworks demonstration at a downtown festival. Any tips on what I can do to improve them would be great. They insisted on pumping out smoke to add atmosphere or something, so it made some of the shots hard to capture.

The Benson and Hedges fireworks festival is held here in Montreal, so it would be great to get this type of shooting down in time for the summer. All tips are appreciated!

17-40mm @ 17mm
f4.0
100 iso
1/3sec
Braced on monopod.

http://www.transcendmagazine.com/fraser/gallery/albums/citylights/CRW_6851.sized.gif

http://www.transcendmagazine.com/fraser/gallery/albums/citylights/CRW_6827.sized.gif
Andy_T
1st of March 2005 (Tue), 17:42
Nice ...

some thoughts ...

- don't let people stand in front of you :p
- use a tripod and longer shutter speeds.

Best regards,
Andy
transcend
1st of March 2005 (Tue), 17:45
Nice ...

some thoughts ...

- don't let people stand in front of you :p
- use a tripod and longer shutter speeds.

Best regards,
Andy

Most of the time i was ona raised platform. I actually waded into the crowd for that top photo. That girl was on her fathers (i assume) shoulders. I wanted to try and give it a little atmosphere.
norcal99
3rd of March 2005 (Thu), 12:38
Dont' get me wrong but wouldn't a longer shutter speed produce more color streaks? Is that the type of image that looks best? I've unsuccessfully tried to shoot fireworks with my p&S S45 and all are either underexposed or overexposed.

transend - nice pics! thanks for sharing
delhi
3rd of March 2005 (Thu), 13:21
Interesting pix. I wonder B&H's symphony of lights will come to Toronto again this year.
Anyways I would actually use a shorter shutter speed to get crisp firework lights. YMMV
sparker1
6th of March 2005 (Sun), 21:37
I think the best fireworks scenes are limited to a dark sky, no people or buildings or lights to blow out the shot...just dark sky and the light from the fireworks. Vary the shutter speed to get different, interesting effects. A slow shutter speed may have multiple bursts with long streaks. A faster speed timed well may get a single burst with little or no streaks. It's all good.
BoySpot
7th of March 2005 (Mon), 13:30
The smoke is often from the fireworks themselves. It is worth checking out the wind direction before the display starts. If you can get upwind, the smoke will drift away from you. If you can't (as I found out the hard way) the smoke will drift towards you and will be illuminated by the explosions. Really ruins the shot if you are unlucky.