Last night many local communities put on their fireworks displays to celebrate America's independence and its birth as a nation. I viewed a couple tutorials on shooting fireworks and this year thought I'd try a another approach using different settings and particularly the lowest ISO of 100. This is actually three photos stacked and I think it lost some of its sharpness. Of course it looks much better on black.
If you want to compare here is a link to a solo image. http://365project.org/skipt07/potpourri/2015-07-03
Happy 4th of July, Skip. I like this shot. I tried fireworks a few days ago for the first time. Thinking about going out tonight and taking a few more during the fireworks around the bay.
@thirdjoe - Happy 4th of July Joe! Up until now I followed the suggestions of a photographer that recommended setting your camera to manual and use the settings; f/5.6, ISO 400 and a shutter speed of 1-2 seconds. This year I followed a different photographers suggestions to use; f/11, ISO 100 and a shutter speed of 2-8 seconds. The second photographer said by using an aperture of f/11- f/16 it will make the trails thinner. Using a lower aperture f/5.6 would create thicker trails. Both photographers recommended turning of autofocus, setting your focus to infinity and also turn off stabilization. Of course you'll need a tripod for the long exposures. I hope you have fun and great success! I look forward to seeing your photos!
@skipt07 On my shots from earlier this month. I used F10, ISO 100 and focused on something approximately the same distance that the fireworks were from me. This was an estimation on my part. Then I watched the first couple of fireworks and reoriented where my camera was pointed. I had the camera set on bulb and used a wireless remote. When I saw something that I thought was interesting I would open the shutter and keep it open for approximately 7 - 15 seconds depending on what I was seeing as the fireworks took place. You can see the photos that I put up on 06/25-26/15. I took a lot of shots as you can imagine. Some of them didn't come out as I had imagined. I am going to try again tonight. Wish me luck!
@thirdjoe - It sounds like you are on the right track according to the new way I tried it. I think the answer is take lots of pictures and hopefully you'll get a nice pattern once in a while. The second photographer said that he used 8 seconds to allow for multiple shells to break within your frame. Have fun and good luck!
@joansmor - Don't give up! I have a smart phone and I use the memo app to keep my cheat sheets. I now have one for shooting fireworks and another for shooting the moon. That way I always have them with me.
@thirdjoe -I just thought of something. The lens I used this time has the distance marking on the barrel so that help for setting for infinity. Before I got it when I went to set up for a fireworks show and before it got too dark I'd focus on something like the horizon and then turned off autofocus. Sometimes when a shell breaks there is enough contrast for the camera to focus on that and then turn off autofocus. I had checked out your fireworks shots a few days ago and I think you did a great job! Particularly the the one on the 25th. Very nice clean detail in those lines!
