Good exposure settings for handheld fireworks shots

I am going to the White Sox game tonight (leaving at 3:30 PM) and I'm going to try some handheld fireworks shots with my XTi. Bringing a tripod is impractical and I don't have a monopod (yet). Does anyone know of some exposure settings that I could start with so that this is not a waste of time? Thanks in advance

Set the camera to "M" mode. Set the ISO to 100. Set the aperture to f/11.

When you start the shoot, focus at infinity (focus on something several hundred yards away while you still have light) and turn AF (autofocus) OFF at the lens. Don't touch the focus ring on the lens from that time on.

Most exposures of fireworks are several seconds long. If you cannot hold the camera dead steady, you will wind up having all sorts of "squiggles" in the images of the bursts. That may or may not be a problem for you, but I wouldn't want to see that in my shots of fireworks.

I use a tripod, but with the head just loose enough to move the camera. I merely point it in the direction of the burst and hold the camera steady with my hand while holding the shutter release down for the duration of a burst (or series of bursts, depending on the show).

I have shot fireworks before with a tripod and my Rebel but I've never done it handheld before. My shots were very hit and miss (mostly miss) with my HP P&S but my 3rd of July hand held shots with my Rebel were motion blurred beyond repair.

I'm not much for fireworks displays although I get dragged along to see some every year. Looking back over the past couple of years I see that I got best IQ at 35mm using f/2.8, 1/60, ISO 200, HH with AI Servo assigned to the * button. I'd watch the rocket ascend and try to time my shot to capture the burst as it approached its fullness. I do not take many image - just enough to keep my wife happy.

At fireworks distances, f/2.8 @ 35mm gives sufficient DOF and the AF worked well.

pturton wrote in post #3708170
f/2.8, 1/60, ISO 200

Based on my experience, those settings would severely overexpose the fireworks in the sky. You might get halfway decent exposure of what's on the ground, but the burning stuff in the sky would be washed out.

SkipD wrote in post #3708186
Based on my experience, those settings would severely overexpose the fireworks in the sky. You might get halfway decent exposure of what's on the ground, but the burning stuff in the sky would be washed out.

Overexpose or underexpose???? 1/60th will underexpose the shot itself but you'll get the ground stuff decently.

My only handholding issue is that I usually use a 5 second exposure on a tripod and that would be a waste of time without a tripod. I'll probably start shooting at 1/4 sec. and adjust from there.

Probably a moot point, but I just called US Cellular Field and I was told that monopods are not allowed unless you have press credentials. They consider them potental weapons. I'm going to the game as well and thought about taking the 100-400 with the 1.4xTE (not for the fireworks)...I might still although the monopod would have been nice to have.

Considering how diligent the security is at the Cell, I could get one in there anyway.

waylandcool wrote in post #3708602
Overexpose or underexpose???? 1/60th will underexpose the shot itself but you'll get the ground stuff decently.

For exposure, the shutter speed really makes no difference at all for the fireworks themselves except for how much of a burst you capture in one image.

The difference between fireworks (the aerial stuff) and ordinary photo exposures is that the elements in a fireworks burst are sources of light that are moving across the sky and thus across your film or digital sensor. Thus, shutter speed has much less to do with the exposure itself and more to do with how much of the burst the film/sensor can actually see. If you used a 3-second or a 30-second exposure for a single burst, you would probably have just about the same image from the sky. The longer your exposure, the more of the ground stuff you may see, but there won't be much difference from the sky.

Again, my tried and true exposure settings are 100 for the ISO setting (or film selection) and f/11 for the aperture. Some folks like to expose a little more and use f/8 at ISO 100, but I usually find that I get richer colors using f/11.

waylandcool wrote in post #3709136
Considering how diligent the security is at the Cell, I could get one in there anyway.

I hear ya but I don't want to take the chance of losing it. I won't have a car to return it to as we are taking the "L"

SkipD wrote in post #3709209
Again, my tried and true exposure settings are 100 for the ISO setting (or film selection) and f/11 for the aperture. Some folks like to expose a little more and use f/8 at ISO 100, but I usually find that I get richer colors using f/11.

The OP was talking about HandHeld exposures. You are talking about tripod exposures without mentioning your shutter speed.

What works for me obviously will not work for you. HH requires a shutter speed that helps prevent camera shake and for me, 1/60 second with a 35mm lens is about right at the end of a long day. But, I'll conceed, f/4 or smaller will also work at 1/60.

pturton wrote in post #3709630
The OP was talking about HandHeld exposures. You are talking about tripod exposures without mentioning your shutter speed.

What works for me obviously will not work for you. HH requires a shutter speed that helps prevent camera shake and for me, 1/60 second with a 35mm lens is about right at the end of a long day. But, I'll conceed, f/4 or smaller will also work at 1/60.

I think what Skip is trying to point out is that the fireworks are so bright that using a wide aperture will cause the streaks to overexpose giving a bunch of white lines with a little colour on the edges. You'd be better off using f/8 of more at 1/60th, everything will be underexposed except for the fireworks which should be exposed pretty well containing plenty of colour without blowing the highlights. Not great but the best you'll get handheld no doubt.

pturton wrote in post #3709630
The OP was talking about HandHeld exposures. You are talking about tripod exposures without mentioning your shutter speed.

What works for me obviously will not work for you. HH requires a shutter speed that helps prevent camera shake and for me, 1/60 second with a 35mm lens is about right at the end of a long day. But, I'll conceed, f/4 or smaller will also work at 1/60.

Exposure is exposure. There is no such thing as tripod or handheld exposure settings for fireworks. With fireworks (the actual burning part of the fireworks, not considering anything on the ground), it doesn't really matter what shutter speed you choose to use. Only the aperture setting will change the exposure of the burning fireworks.

If you use a shorter shutter speed like 1/60, you will get pretty much the same exposure for the image as with a much longer shutter speed (using the same aperture for both shutter speeds), but you won't see the whole burn of a shell like you would with the longer shutter speed.

f/4 at ISO 100 will guarantee overexposure of the fireworks. You will see an image, but the colors will be quite washed out as compared to setting the aperture at f/8 or f/11 (also at ISO 100, of course). Again, because of the nature of the subject, shutter speed is irrelevant for the exposure.

pturton wrote in post #3708170
I'm not much for fireworks displays although I get dragged along to see some every year. Looking back over the past couple of years I see that I got best IQ at 35mm using f/2.8, 1/60, ISO 200, HH with AI Servo assigned to the * button. I'd watch the rocket ascend and try to time my shot to capture the burst as it approached its fullness. I do not take many image - just enough to keep my wife happy.

At fireworks distances, f/2.8 @ 35mm gives sufficient DOF and the AF worked well.

I would just leave it in MF at infinity.

This is the only semi-decent shot I got
100ISO
f/11
1.6 sec exposure
32mm
after 5 feeble attempts I just gave up and enjoyed the fireworks instead:p

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