Challenge 165. Event or Festival

[Ian]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

Well done Veg! I think the quality of the entries was actually good but we could have done with more and I must apologise as I have been stretched over the last week or two so have not been able to participate as much as I would have liked.

Looking forward to the next one though

Ian

[Kurt]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

Well done Veg! I think the quality of the entries was actually good but we could have done with more and I must apologise as I have been stretched over the last week or two so have not been able to participate as much as I would have liked.

Looking forward to the next one though

Ian

Yes, no problem with quality, I should have mentioned that.

Kurt

[veggiesosage]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

Thanks for picking me Kurt. Btw, I submitted 2 pics, which one was the winner?

I'll try and think up a new contest asap

[Kurt]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

The Riverside Festival was the winner

[Ian]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

A superb example of how to do fireworks photography well

Ian

[veggiesosage]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

Aw shucks

[patmoore]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

The Riverside Festival was the winner

Kurt - that is a magnificent shot. This evening our town put on a fireworks show and the wife and I each took cameras. While we did get some intriguing results, nothing we did was remotely close to your result. Would you share a bit about how you took this extraordinary photo?

[veggiesosage]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

Should point out it's actually my shot. Kurt kindly picked it as the winner for this comp.

[patmoore]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

Should point out it's actually my shot. Kurt kindly picked it as the winner for this comp.

Careless of me to make that mistake.

I'd still love to hear how you took that remarkable shot.

[veggiesosage]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

The trick here is remembering what I did with the shot...

Let's start with settings

10mm focal length
f/8
4s shutter
200 ISO

Tripod obv...

I would also suggest shooting in RAW because you're dealing with levels of contrast that any camera will struggle with and you need all the help you can get to recover highlights.

A remote helps too.

I've shot this particular display a few times so I know how it tends to go. But I would always advise getting there early, not least to get a good spot but also to get set up in plenty of time. Don't forget to find out where the fireworks are being fired from, it's not always obvious. Also check the wind direction cos it can get well smoky and you don't want it in your face.

Because I like to include the background in my firework shots I always do a few test shots before the fireworks start. You want a shutter speed in the region of 4-6s more or less so set aperture and ISO around this to get a reasonably good exposure of the scene. Keep ISO low. If this results in aperture of much less than f/8 you may have to rethink this as the fireworks themselves may be too bright. There's an element of trial and error/practice makes perfect here, although, in an urban setting the above settings are a good starting point.

As far as framing goes, you probably won't know how high the whizzbangs are going to go so give it your best guess. I generally err on zooming further out and you can adjust once the display starts or crop in editing.

Do all these settings in manual so they stay the same. Also set your focus manually.

So you're all set up and the display starts. Most of the displays I go to are big ones with the action fairly constant so I simply shoot constantly without a break. You will of course end up with some duffers but you can sort through later. If it's a small back garden display you can pick your moments more. Keep an eye on how things are going on the camera's back screen and enjoy the show.

When it comes to editing, as I said earlier the problem is likely to be too much contrast so you'll by pushing shadows and recovering highlights. Even if you shot at the lowest ISO, you might find it useful to have a good noise reduction app handy.

That's pretty much all I can think of really, hope it's not too much teaching me granny to suck eggs. Perhaps others will pitch in with ideas too.

[patmoore]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

I greatly appreciate your taking the time to explain your technique. My wife and I tried to shoot some fireworks in our hometown last week with marginal results. I used an old Canon Rebel DSLR with a monopod and used IOS 100. I was typically holding down the shutter for four seconds. We were pretty far from the fireworks and I didn't have a zoom. This was typical of what I got.



My wife used a Panasonic Lumix (16x optical zoom) on a tripod and used the "Fireworks" Scene setting. This is typical of what she got.




I'm looking forward to the next fireworks display so I can try your suggestions.

Much obliged!

[veggiesosage]

Re: Challenge 165. Event or Festival

A monopod really isn't stable enough for fireworks in my opinion.

I've found 'fireworks' settings on cameras ok, at least for a start.