How to shoot fireworks?

[charles_law]

With Canada Day and July4th coming up, I was wondering if you guys had any good tips for shooting fireworks?

thx in advance :)

[Curtis N]

A search for threads with "fireworks" in the title returns about 135 threads. Some of them I think you will find informative. Hit the search button and then click on advanced search.

[Moppie]

*cough*http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=60756 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=60756*cough*) *cough*

I have no idea what equipement you have, or how familar you are with it, but as a rough guide Iv got some great shots from my A80 a F2.8 and 1/10th-1/60th of a second depending on the fireworks and surounding background light.

You will have to use manual mode, and have steady hands.
The trick Iv found is to find a shutter speed/apature combination that allows the fireworks to expand enough to form a pretty pattern, and cover up any signs of camera shake.
If they don't expand enough, or leave long enough trails the camera shake at low shutter speed will be obvious, and if you let them epxand to far with a longer shutter speed you get ugly looking fireworks.

[Wazza]

It really varies on what you want to capture. Do you want to freeze everything in a shot, and have a relatively fast shutter speed as Moppie has mentioned?

Otherwise, you could set the camera on a tripod, do a 10 second timer, and then shoot away for a few seconds.


You can even play around with Sparklers.

Here's a 5 second shot I did of myself 2 years ago.

http://wazz*****scity.com/temp/fire_sk.jpg

[tim]

Read this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=56672) and what it links too. By read that I did these (http://www.mrwild.co.nz/Featured/TheNight/index.html) on my first attempt.

[d'homme]

1. Take auto focus off
2. Focus on infinity in the area of sky where they're will be busts.
3. Go to manual. If you've a bulb setting use. Experiment with some Fstops.
4. Get a few busts on one frame.

[charles_law]

thanks guys....the links were really helpful :)

i actually did search fireworks..but there were soo many threads and most of them were just pictures i thought i would start a new one since i think a lot of people may want to know this time of the year anywayz :)

i''ll post my pics up ..like many of you will...next week :)

[Hellashot]

I've heard focus to infinity, f4 @ 4 seconds once you hear the "thud" of the launch. Never tried it.

[Longwatcher]

What I vaguely remember from last year was f2.8 at 2 secs, count about 2* from fooump of launch, press remote shutter release to camera on tripod. I am not 100 percent sure on duration, but that is what I seem to remember I start at at least.

* by about 2, if low powered fooump then fire shutter just before 2, if loud fooump then go almost to count of 3 and aim high if not using wide angle lens.

Just my experience and what I remember

[jimsolt]

With Canada Day and July4th coming up, I was wondering if you guys had any good tips for shooting fireworks?

thx in advance :)

I searched for Photography>Fireworks>Exposure. On first page of results all but 1 post had similar suggestions for exposures and tips. That 1 post had only pictures.

ALL said USE TRIPOD! Focus on infinity, though a couple said back off infinity just a little bit. Some said focus on first few bursts and then leave focus at that.

At ISO 100 - f/8 or f/11 for full burst 2 to 6 seconds, for multiple bursts 10 to 30 seconds.

Seems to be general agreement. I'm going to try it.

Jim