7 replies to this topic

[Cjtamu]

For a number of reasons, we ended up not trying our hand at photographing fireworks this weekend. Several thousand of those reasons involved blood-sucking insects the size of hummingbirds and our appalling lack of common sense in not packing bug spray. But, while setting up when we THOUGHT we were going to shoot, a couple of questions popped up.

 

Our preferred spot was on a pier jutting into the bay, so we had shots over the palms and beachfront houses. However, we weren't thinking about the fact that the pier is lit at night. Light poles with what looks like mercury vapor lights. We would have been able to position ourselves so the lights were behind and beside us, not directly overhead. I assume we'd use an eyepiece cover to keep light from bleeding in. Should we also hood the lens to block the light from the sides?

 

Other issue is that we would have been shooting towards and over lights (street lights, lights in houses, some car lights) that would have been in the foreground with my 18-55 mm opened all the way. What do you do about that? Is that something that can be dealt with in post? Or should I go to a longer focal length until the lights are out of the picture? I liked the wide angle and was hoping to catch the palms and houses beneath the fireworks if that's possible. Thanks.

[Merco_61]

You could use a ND grad with the dense part covering the lights in a situation like that. I would use a compendium and Lee 100 mm filters, probably a 6X ND and a Grad ND stacked to get a long exposure and catch more of the fireworks in the same frame. You can composite in more fireworks, but getting it right in-camera is so satisfying. You can do much with a cheaper filter set without the compendium, but my Lee/Lindahl combo is at hand...

[Cjtamu]

Huh. I still have my old Cokin filters, and I can stack in that filter holder. Gonna have to play around with that . Thanks.

[Ron]

There's often nothing wrong with having a little foreground light. In fact, foreground light often tends to add interest to this type of photography. And, by stopping the lens down to f/11 or even f/16 and cranking the ISO up a little those street lights become sunstars.

 

I haven't shot fireworks since moving to digital but my MO when shooting film was to get as close as possible to the action so as to possibly use a wide angle lens... or at the very least a normal lens. Then set the f stop to 16, guesstimate when the next volley was about to go off, open the shutter on bulb with a black card in front of the lens... and then remove the card as the rockets were going up. Totally rube goldberg but it worked fairly well. 

 

Of course things are easier now that we have instant feedback from the monitor on the camera.

 

--Ron

[dcbear78]

I'm another one for foreground interest in fireworks photos. Personally I find random fireworks on a black background very generic. I want to see the surroundings and what makes your fireworks unique.

[cpurves]

I'm  late to this discussion for this year but hopefully for next year. 

 

I agree with have something in the foreground.  It adds interest and shows the size of the bursts.

I took this one some years ago. I set a low tripod the include the audience and the burst of the firework.

 

 

 

I usually set my camera to bulb, f8 or f11, ISO 200 or 400. 

Using a remote release I activate the shutter for 1 - 6 bursts. More bursts does get busy in the photo but sometimes if there is a lot going on over a wide area more bursts are better.

It's best to try different settings and length of shutter.  F8 or 11 saturates the colors more.

We did 17 shows in 16 days for the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George B.C. 

This one was from the 100 days out show.  The shows where fired from the top of a hill in the downtown area.  Perfect venue because the show was visible from all over the main town area.  For this one I shot from the second level of the parkade next to the Civic Center Plaza.  I framed it to get the crowd and buildings at the celebration with the fireworks firing from the top of the hill 

 

 

This one is a composite of three shots.  The foreground and the small bursts in the middle are the  original shot and the two on either side where taken from the same spot but I cut them out and added them to the shot.  

 

 

 

Hope this helps with shooting fireworks.

Cheers

Chris

[Ron]

Very nice. I especially like the third photo in this group.

 

--Ron

[davidlogan]

I'm another one for foreground interest in fireworks photos. Personally I find random fireworks on a black background very generic. I want to see the surroundings and what makes your fireworks unique.

i'm totally agree with you