How To Photography fireworks Display?

98olds

Ok, I have a Nikon D3000,

Nikon 18-55mm VR
Nikon 55-200mm VR
Nikon 18-105mm VR
and Nikon 70-300mm VR


What setting should I use on the Camera itself and which lens would you reccomend using out of my 3 telephotos???

Thanks

r3t1awr3yd

There are a lot of details you're leaving out here.
How far will you be from the fireworks?
What height will you be in relation to the fireworks?
Are you using a tripod? (yes!)

Now that I think about it, there are a billion variables. Manual mode to the rescue! Chimping to the rescue! lol.

Foques

you have got to use tripod.
your best bet would be to use 18-55, unless you are very far from the fireworks.
shooting using slow shutter speed. You will need to play with the value.
shooting using lowest possible natural ISO
shooting F 7.1-16

at least, that's how I shoot mine.

r3t1awr3yd

http://www.flickr.com/photos/r3t1awr3yd/sets/72157624306324115/show/

Tripod, 50-135mm. Exifs in pictures.

GadgetRick

Shoot in bulb mode. When the firework goes up, hit the shutter button (hopefully remote or be VERY careful about camera shake), when it's bloomed enough, release the shutter. Firework photo done.





You must use a tripod (or something stable to put your camera on). Remote shutter release REALLY helps. This is what may happen if you're pressing the shutter button on the camera:



Remember to shoot wide so you have a better chance of catching what you want in frame. Crop later.

bgarland

IS Off
If your lens has image stabilization be sure to turn it off when shooting off the tripod. I forgot to do that last time I shot fireworks and ended up with this:






Every shot has the consistent frequency squiggles from IS feedback.

Lesson learned. Of course you could leave it on if you want this "special effect".

GadgetRick

Good point on turing off IS. Forgot to mention that.

Manfr3d

The most important thing you need to know is that you control how bright
the fireworks with your aperature alone (set ISO to lowest value!) and the
length of the trails with the exposure time.

So what you do is setup your camera on a tripos in manual mode and
start at f8 or f11 and set exposure time between 5 and 15 seconds.

You will get better results when you use a Cable release and set the
camera to "bulb" mode. This allows you to control the length of an
exposure as you press the shutter release.

You need to shoot and test a bit in the beginning to figure out at which
fstop you get the most color in the fireworks. If you are getting lots of
white it means your aperature is opend to wide and the fireworks is overexposed hiding the color.

Here is a very good read on the technique and approach for fireworks photography

gecko0

It's definitely one of those things that looks/sounds harder than it is, once you get out there and start shooting. I have only tried once so far (looking forward to trying again though) and had decent results. The shots below were with my XSi and the kit lens, so it doesn't take magical equipment, just bulb mode, low ISO, f/8-f/16, a manual pre-focus in the area of the bursts, and you're good to go. The challenging part (at least in the area I live) is to find interesting foregrounds. My shots are just of the bursts, which then looks like the other 347893478930 pictures of fireworks out there.

Numbers Guy

I hadn't shot fireworks in years (more than 15) and was wanting to try during this year's 4th of July weekend. I read a few things on the web and found it's easier than it looks (noted by someone above).

I shot anywhere from f/10 to f/13 at 100 ISO on bulb. I tried not to leave the shutter open for more than 4 or 5 burst so as not to get blown highlights. They were firing off so quickly, that this usually meant about 4-6 seconds. Would have been nice to get 10-15 second exposures to pick up the city more, but I'm happy with the results.

StueveShots

bgarland wrote: »

If your lens has image stabilization be sure to turn it off when shooting off the tripod. I forgot to do that last time I shot fireworks and ended up with this:






Every shot has the consistent frequency squiggles from IS feedback.

Lesson learned. Of course you could leave it on if you want this "special effect".

Wow! Thanks for the information. I was wondering what had caused the wiggles here:



Course it didn't help that this was a spontaneous, hand-held shot!

I'm grateful for the info. Now I'll know what to do next time...

dlscott56

StueveShots wrote: »

Wow! Thanks for the information. I was wondering what had caused the wiggles here:



Course it didn't help that this was a spontaneous, hand-held shot!

I'm grateful for the info. Now I'll know what to do next time...

Beautiful! Hand held, I'm impressed!

StueveShots

Thank you! I was pretty happy too...believe me, I've got lots of shots that didn't work at all because the photographer kept jumping when the fireworks went off!

Martyn

I actually like these.

bgarland wrote: »

If your lens has image stabilization be sure to turn it off when shooting off the tripod. I forgot to do that last time I shot fireworks and ended up with this:






Every shot has the consistent frequency squiggles from IS feedback.

Lesson learned. Of course you could leave it on if you want this "special effect".

Nyarthlopic

When I shot a fireworks display, I set my camera up on a tripod (I agree with what others say, it's a must). ISO was set to 100. Anywhere from f/8 to f/16...let your light meter tell you. If it's early in the evening when there is still some ambient light from the sun, you want the aperture smaller. I made sure that I was at least two steps "underexposed." And for the shutter speed, it depends on how much of the display you want in one shot. My preference was between 2 and 4 seconds; I only wanted a few fireworks in each shot. If I wanted more than that, I would have set my shutter speed for longer. I agree with GadgetRick above when he says to use a remote. I had a couple with the camera shake, didn't turn out too nice. For my lens, I went with 18mm. Make sure to turn off AF; it'll never focus otherwise. "Luckily" none of my lenses have IS, so I can't speak to that.

Happy shooting!

bgarland

Martyn wrote: »

I actually like these.

Although it was not my intention to get squiggly fireworks I thought they turned out pretty interesting too.

If you want to see more the whole set can be seen here:

http://bgarland.smugmug.com/Holidays/4th-Of-July-2010/12810474_7Ukvy#923715122_XxjFx

Still, I think next time I'll turn off IS.