How to capture good fireworks shots?

[theveed]

of course not...

any camera that can accomodate a long shutter speed (3-10 secs will do) will work for this purpose...

check your cam if it has "night landscape" or "fireworks" mode...

 

[Madmax]

wah...nice photo...btw...care to help newbies in taking more firework as national day and the SFF is coming...

saw this photo online...

what kind of setting is used? cause it looks very under exposed

There are articles on taking fireworks. Actually, it is nothing much. I don't use black card technique, though it is a better choice.

 

[Bored Dad]

I know taking fire works, tripod is a must, best is if there is a remote switch also, cause sometime even with tripod, the camera can still have little shake which will blur the picture.

Very nice shots posted here, learned something tonight, thanks for sharing. As you may cane see in my Flicker gallery, my fire work shots are still very newbie and noob.

 

[theveed]

If you don't have a remote switch, setting your cam on timer works just the same unless you're shooting over 30secs.

 

[westwest2]

There are articles on taking fireworks. Actually, it is nothing much. I don't use black card technique, though it is a better choice.

can you help out newbies like us so we can take the upcoming firework...

 

[foxxkat]

between a f/1.4 and f/4.0 lens, which is generally better to take fireworks shot with a person in the foreground?

 

[blazer_workz]

between a f/1.4 and f/4.0 lens, which is generally better to take fireworks shot with a person in the foreground?

lol...photoshop better lahz..set tripod and compose for the person with fireworks..then take a shot of the person before/after fireworks..during fireworks, start shooting ur fireworks w/o the person..merge the shots with photoshop..

 

[foxxkat]

i dont have PS mah.. :sweat:
so between these 2 lenses.. a f/1.4 and f/4.0 (never mind the zoom).. which would be better?

 

[yehosaphat]

i dont have PS mah.. :sweat:
so between these 2 lenses.. a f/1.4 and f/4.0 (never mind the zoom).. which would be better?

To take fireworks you need large DOF in the first place... at least f8. Now you want to put a person in the frame. Think abt how you wanna do this first. Once you settled that I believe you need a much smaller aperture since your subject must be some distance away from the fireworks.

 

[ransoma22]

Location.
Choose a location whereby whether you want to frame the fireworks with some background or with some foreground. You can recce the location, take few pictures of the location. Visualize it in your mind how high the fireworks will go. Will this composition works,etc ?

Camera
Depends on the camera used. For DSLR, it will be easier. For consumer based camera (E.g Canon A95,etc). check that if you are able to choose Aperture & Shutter Speed and I take using Bulb mode.

Aperture/Shutter
My choice of aperture range from F8 - F22 and shutter speed about 1-11 seconds. There no fixed and hard rule to which aperture and shutter. You got to experiment it and also depend on the intensity of the fireworks and how many burst you wish to include by means of using black card.

Wind direction
You can take in consideration this factor as you know fireworks generate alot of smoke and when the it blown toward your direction. You can simply just watch the fireworks and forget abt shooting ...:sweatsm:

Composition
Some pple like to frame it horizontally, some like vertically. it depends much of your liking. Make sure your horizion is straight by doing a long exposure and check if your horizion is tilted.

Tripod
Tripod is a must as it will prevent blurness when you go for long exposure. You don't wish to see your fireworks being fuzzy... :sweat:

Pre-focus
Switch off your auto focus and switch to manual focus. Focus to infinity or you can pre-focus using auto focus and switch to manual focus. You don't want your focus to move front and forth and miss alot of opportunity and also being out of focus as there nothing to focus on when fireworks came on.

During shoot
Be early to get yourself a good location. Setup your tripod, bring some insect repellant, water and some portable chair if you want to sit.
Be careful of kids, inconsiderate fella who come into your line of view...
When the fireworks goes off, if your composition is off, try to realign and shoot accordingly. Avoid being ambitious, like zooming in and out to shoot the firework trying to shoot close up. Stay in your framing....

Background too dark ?
I used to have this problem. It much depend on the location you choose. Usually what I do is that, I exposed the scene before the fireworks start (maybe about 5 mins before it start). This exposure serve as my background exposure when I do DI in photoshop. When fireworks started, I shoot as per normal ..

Post Processing
With the background exposure, I put it together with fireworks layer and select Lighten/Screen. Adjust opacity to taste. Increase Hue/Saturation and adjust levels to taste.

Hope these helps~...

Keep shooting~~

 

[yehosaphat]

Location.
Choose a location whereby whether you want to frame the fireworks with some background or with some foreground. You can recce the location, take few pictures of the location. Visualize it in your mind how high the fireworks will go. Will this composition works,etc ?

Camera
Depends on the camera used. For DSLR, it will be easier. For consumer based camera (E.g Canon A95,etc). check that if you are able to choose Aperture & Shutter Speed and I take using Bulb mode.

Aperture/Shutter
My choice of aperture range from F8 - F22 and shutter speed about 1-11 seconds. There no fixed and hard rule to which aperture and shutter. You got to experiment it and also depend on the intensity of the fireworks and how many burst you wish to include by means of using black card.

Wind direction
You can take in consideration this factor as you know fireworks generate alot of smoke and when the it blown toward your direction. You can simply just watch the fireworks and forget abt shooting ...:sweatsm:

Composition
Some pple like to frame it horizontally, some like vertically. it depends much of your liking. Make sure your horizion is straight by doing a long exposure and check if your horizion is tilted.

Tripod
Tripod is a must as it will prevent blurness when you go for long exposure. You don't wish to see your fireworks being fuzzy... :sweat:

Pre-focus
Switch off your auto focus and switch to manual focus. Focus to infinity or you can pre-focus using auto focus and switch to manual focus. You don't want your focus to move front and forth and miss alot of opportunity and also being out of focus as there nothing to focus on when fireworks came on.

During shoot
Be early to get yourself a good location. Setup your tripod, bring some insect repellant, water and some portable chair if you want to sit.
Be careful of kids, inconsiderate fella who come into your line of view...
When the fireworks goes off, if your composition is off, try to realign and shoot accordingly. Avoid being ambitious, like zooming in and out to shoot the firework trying to shoot close up. Stay in your framing....

Background too dark ?
I used to have this problem. It much depend on the location you choose. Usually what I do is that, I exposed the scene before the fireworks start (maybe about 5 mins before it start). This exposure serve as my background exposure when I do DI in photoshop. When fireworks started, I shoot as per normal ..

Post Processing
With the background exposure, I put it together with fireworks layer and select Lighten/Screen. Adjust opacity to taste. Increase Hue/Saturation and adjust levels to taste.

Hope these helps~...

Keep shooting~~

:thumbsup: Best description I have seen so far!

 

[HippingHippo]

Location.
Choose a location whereby whether you want to frame the fireworks with some background or with some foreground. You can recce the location, take few pictures of the location. Visualize it in your mind how high the fireworks will go. Will this composition works,etc ?

Camera
Depends on the camera used. For DSLR, it will be easier. For consumer based camera (E.g Canon A95,etc). check that if you are able to choose Aperture & Shutter Speed and I take using Bulb mode.

Aperture/Shutter
My choice of aperture range from F8 - F22 and shutter speed about 1-11 seconds. There no fixed and hard rule to which aperture and shutter. You got to experiment it and also depend on the intensity of the fireworks and how many burst you wish to include by means of using black card.

Wind direction
You can take in consideration this factor as you know fireworks generate alot of smoke and when the it blown toward your direction. You can simply just watch the fireworks and forget abt shooting ...:sweatsm:

Composition
Some pple like to frame it horizontally, some like vertically. it depends much of your liking. Make sure your horizion is straight by doing a long exposure and check if your horizion is tilted.

Tripod
Tripod is a must as it will prevent blurness when you go for long exposure. You don't wish to see your fireworks being fuzzy... :sweat:

Pre-focus
Switch off your auto focus and switch to manual focus. Focus to infinity or you can pre-focus using auto focus and switch to manual focus. You don't want your focus to move front and forth and miss alot of opportunity and also being out of focus as there nothing to focus on when fireworks came on.

During shoot
Be early to get yourself a good location. Setup your tripod, bring some insect repellant, water and some portable chair if you want to sit.
Be careful of kids, inconsiderate fella who come into your line of view...
When the fireworks goes off, if your composition is off, try to realign and shoot accordingly. Avoid being ambitious, like zooming in and out to shoot the firework trying to shoot close up. Stay in your framing....

Background too dark ?
I used to have this problem. It much depend on the location you choose. Usually what I do is that, I exposed the scene before the fireworks start (maybe about 5 mins before it start). This exposure serve as my background exposure when I do DI in photoshop. When fireworks started, I shoot as per normal ..

Post Processing
With the background exposure, I put it together with fireworks layer and select Lighten/Screen. Adjust opacity to taste. Increase Hue/Saturation and adjust levels to taste.

Hope these helps~...

Keep shooting~~

:thumbsup: Professional advice. Should make it sticky.

 

[airfins]

:cheergal:The Bible of Firework Taking :cheergal::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[zaxh81]

Wind direction
You can take in consideration this factor as you know fireworks generate alot of smoke and when the it blown toward your direction. You can simply just watch the fireworks and forget abt shooting ...:sweatsm:

i attach one of this to my tripod to check wind direction.

 

[mickie]

Hi ransoma22, what about white balance? Do you use auto?

 

[ransoma22]

i attach one of this to my tripod to check wind direction.

abit extreme sia

 

[ransoma22]

Hi ransoma22, what about white balance? Do you use auto?

I use auto white balance and i shoot in jpeg during the shoot and for the background exposure(backgrd layer), i shoot in raw.

Hope these helps~

 

[mickie]

I use auto white balance and i shoot in jpeg during the shoot and for the background exposure(backgrd layer), i shoot in raw.

Hope these helps~

Ah, I see. Thanks.
What is the difference between using auto WB and using daylight WB?

 

[digisnap]

Actually your WB will depend on the lighting situation that you are in or the effect that you are trying to get. I used to always use auto WB but a friend told me to change to incandescent when there were lots of orange lighting. I tried it out and the background became a lot whiter with a bluish tinge. Try it out and see if you like it. Otherwise, you can always go back to auto WB.

 

[mickie]

Actually your WB will depend on the lighting situation that you are in or the effect that you are trying to get. I used to always use auto WB but a friend told me to change to incandescent when there were lots of orange lighting. I tried it out and the background became a lot whiter with a bluish tinge. Try it out and see if you like it. Otherwise, you can always go back to auto WB.

Ah, alright. Thanks.