Nantucket Fireworks

ghinson

Like Thwack, I had the luxury of shooting a display from fairly up close, from a beach, looking out over the harbor, without any distracting backgrounds. First time I have ever tried to seriously photograph fireworks. (By serious, I mean, this is the first time I have brought a tripod and remote shutter release.)
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By the way, before it got dark, we had a day that makes a fireworks display seem boring!

Dogdots

Wow...love that beach area. Beautiful fireworks photos too

Thwack

Nice place to be at for fireworks! Nice captures as well.

Was it windy during the show? Looks like all the bursts are being pushed to the right (cool effect)…

DsrtVW

Nice Work Greg

ghinson

Thanks. We always have wind. I didn't think of it as a windy day, but that means it was probably only a 15-20 mph wind. Funny. Didn't notice it as much with the eyes. But the 2-5 sec exposures really showed it. I'd be curious to know how everyone else shot the fireworks? I used f11 and initially set it up for 4 sec exposures. But I found that I could time things better using bulb and trying to open the shutter right before an explosion, closing it at the end, and averaging 2-5 seconds.

Thwack

ghinson wrote: »

I'd be curious to know how everyone else shot the fireworks? I used f11 and initially set it up for 4 sec exposures. But I found that I could time things better using bulb and trying to open the shutter right before an explosion, closing it at the end, and averaging 2-5 seconds.

I have about 10% of my shots posted on SmugMug here:

Info on them is readily available. I check those shots just now and shutter times range from about 2 1/2 second to 8 1/2. I had the luxury of black sky in the background so the really long shots didn't end up with an over-exposed background.

I used bulb mode and a wired remote shutter release in hopes of not adding any camera shake.

All of mine were shot at f/11 because that was mid-range of the recommendations I read an hour or so before the show started.

My biggest worry was focus but I was close enough to use a wide-angle lens which naturally has a very deep DOF so I got away with it for the most part. I bumped it a couple times (reaching for the zoom) and wasn't sure if I got it back close enough or not - it seemed very forgiving since there was really nothing in the foreground or background to really showcase focal problems (just barely shy of "infinity" worked OK).

I also cranked the ISO as slow as my camera could go (100). My wife shot some with 1s fixed shutter times so we set her ISO to 800. She had some cool shots but I think the 100/bulb/tripod combination was more reliable.

Cdorothy

Shooting fireworks
This was my first year shooting fireworks also. I had lots of fun. I had read a "tips on shooting fireworks" and just went with what it said. I shot at F16 used a tripod with cable release and shot anywhere from 2-9 seconds. I will post my photos separately. I have enjoyed looking at your fireworks shots. Thanks for sharing.
Chris

ghinson

Wind or not wind? I have been thinking about these shots while looking at others. Are fireworks directional? Would a 4-5 sec exposure of an explosion look different depending on where you are watching it from? These were from a barge in front of a popular beach on the island. I found a less crowded beach a little ways upshore (to the left) of the main gathering. Could it be that they all look light they're trailing to the right because they were aimed at the main crowd? We did have about a 20 mph wind too though.

Thwack

ghinson wrote: »

Wind or not wind? I have been thinking about these shots while looking at others. Are fireworks directional? Would a 4-5 sec exposure of an explosion look different depending on where you are watching it from? These were from a barge in front of a popular beach on the island. I found a less crowded beach a little ways upshore (to the left) of the main gathering. Could it be that they all look light they're trailing to the right because they were aimed at the main crowd? We did have about a 20 mph wind too though.

#3 looks like it's aimed pretty much straight up, yet it's clearing being pushed to the right.

#5 shows a change of direction towards the end of each streamer's motion. Since those streamers appear to have been traveling in pretty much a straight line, a change of direction should require some external force (like wind).

So, I'm guessing wind (though no doubt the launch direction has some bearing on it - but the force of the shell bursting likely over-powers the launch momentum so the streamers should show wind effects more than launch effects, at least for non-trivial winds).

My purely amateur two cents.

Elaine

Amazing colors and beautiful shapes! Thanks for sharing!