where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
I am going into our local town here in France for the Bastille Day celebrations this coming 14th July and want to really nail the photgraphy of the display this year because it may be the last time we see them in France. The setting is in front of the Norman castle and is usually done extremely tastefully done.
I'm thinking not fast shutter speeds - maybe 1-2 secs and small apertures to keep the sky dark? I'll be shooting RAW, but that will not help me much I'm sure.
Tia,
I did this once,
Tripod, lens hood (falling fireworks and dust) nd filter to slow it down and keep all other light at bay.
Long exposure, small aperture and you should be fine, mine came out terrible on the camera but when i got home and put them through the raw processor they came out okay.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2723/4079021156_11b3d4fd1d_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3523/4078261005_8c2be3698b.jpg
Id imagine to capture it, you'd have medium speed iso and have a fast shutter speed wide open aperture. It'd make everything else very underexposed image because you will be exposing for the fireworks that will turn out
White balance? Manual focus? Tripod so VR off. I'd prefer to use ISO 200 to keep the noise low?
KR (I know, I know) has a good post on taking fireworks:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/fireworks.htm
Thanks piobar, there are some good tips there. Kind if obvious when you think about them, but that's what experience does for you eh?
I think the universal consensus is get a tripod, no vr, long manual exposure and no af. Also Bring a lens hood and possibly a black deflector. Stray light will screw up your shots...
Don't have a black deflector Kyoshi - what is that and where do I put it?
I wrote a quick tutorial on fireworks here. Good luck and post your pics!
http://theartoftylerjordan.com/blog/how-to-photograph-fireworks/
Thanks for the link to your tutorial Graphicnatured.
No prob. Hope all this helps.
All in all it's really not too difficult, but I had the same question years ago. Isn't the internet great? You have to love sites like Nikon Rumors.
I would generally agree with the above tutorials. The big things which should be emphasized is that you don't need a high ISO or a fast aperture. To the contrary! Fireworks are extremely bright and even with the recommendations of the above authors you can see some blown highlights. Digital makes it easier to narrow down your exposure settings, but consider things around the following: ISO 100-200, f11-18. Shutter speed will only be affecting the length of the light trails and how many bursts make it into your image. Nothing wrong with a 20 second exposure, that's for sure! But experiment. Don't worry if your shutter is open while there are no fireworks: you'll only have a bunch of pure blackness pouring in! ;) I have some nice images which show essentially all of the brilliant color of the exposions, using ISO 200 and F18 or so. If you see pictures which show the fireworks all sort of a burnt out yellow/white, you can bet those were taken with higher ISO and wider apertures. Don't be afraid to experiment as most fireworks shows go on long enough for you to use the first couple of bursts as practice for framing and exposure. Have fun, everybody! And have a great Independence day. I'll be working... ;(
Curt
"If you see pictures which show the fireworks all sort of a burnt out yellow/white, you can bet those were taken with higher ISO and wider apertures."
That's not necessarily true, Curtis. Burnt-out yellow and white can occur at your settings too. There will always be more at play for any situation, but that's why digital makes things easier. Take for instance, there can be a lot of smoke clouds that accumulate at the point of explosions, or perhaps how close you are to the fireworks will also play heavily on what you end up doing. When an explosion of light happens and there are clouds there, ISO 100 and f11-18 will still not cut it at 20 seconds. You will have to drastically cut down your exposure time, which can effect trails and coverage. The point is, I believe you will always have to deal with a bit of burnt-out highlights depending on your position and situation. This doesn't mean your images are bad.
Happy 5th everyone!
I just did some Fourth of July fireworks and then a batch of pros got together after the show and we put our images on a big HD TV. I usually would do these with D700 and stills. This year I did a few that way and took my D90 with a 18-200VR lens. My D90 video though was most popular mixed with stills. The stills were not that galvanizing. The sound and the photo video quality were outstanding. I used regular auto color balance and shot on P mode with plus/minus exposure set on -4.0. WHen I shot photos though of how the fireworks were being shot off (people) I had to switch to -1.0 exposure bias and use flash. I set the ISO on 800 as that is what I have found works well on this D90 almost all the time. As to noise degradation the fireworks displays just mask any of that totally. Stills of fireworks are rarely all that effective. I have done them on 8x10 view camera prefocused on the place the fireworks would explode. Those shots weren't done on anything like ISO 800. With the D90 I left the focus grid in the center and would focus out in the bay on boats so my D90 would be ready for about that distance. The voices and excitement of a number of camps along the lake were quite strikingly exciting and added much to the presentation. The slide sound show was run on iPhoto on Apple extended desktop. The extended desktop was a Samsung LED HD TV connected to the computer with an HDMI cable. The SOUND had to be put in from the D90 using two Logitech external speakers that attached to the audio jack on the Apple. I have never seen a playback of fireworks that equalled that and I was at the Winter olympics in Lake Placid when the USA team beat the Russian team and the fireworks were the best I have ever seen anywhere and the fireworks were photographed and played back on big screen but without motion and live sound, it was not as good. Owning a batch of video cameras I was impressed that the modest D90 blew the other cameras away. iPhoto by the way kicks from regular iPhoto to Quick Time Player to do the short AVI clips. i also did a video indoors of a birthday party scene and that was NOT very impressive.
Nikon D90 on -4.0 exposure bias and ISO 800 were done handheld as I was very close to the fireworks mortars and there was a significant hazard for my cameras. Usually handheld video on D90 is shaking and I try to get the camera pretty locked down. For this use I just handheld it and when I played back the video on the D90 after the first few i knew it was going to work. I then ditched my bigger Nikon DSLR and continued the rest of the fireworks with the D90. I also did a campfire late that night and it was done again with stills and video and the D90 WAS ALL I USED BY THEN. The sky in these scenes was just they way I saw it. I did get one series of explosions where I had lost the proper focus and although it looks artsy mixed in with the other photos, not what I wanted. Therefore I feel focusing on something before the video Live View is engaged is very critical. I focused on boats out in the water. Without ISO 800 the blasts and dramatic flash of some of the fireworks exiting the mortar tubes wouldn't have been there. That could not be done that close to the fireworks crew at your upcoming at the Norman Castle on Bastille Day on the 14th of July. But if I was there I know how I'd do them now!!
That is all very interesting indeed. I can see I am going to have to go out in the garden when the new remote cord arrives to do a lot of testing so I have less to do when the fireworks are actually going off.
Thanks chaps.
I would try to test your gear in advance of any important shoot. Pretty tough as fireworks displays don't happen every night!
Fortunately for me they do. Come to SD. All through the summer, night after night.
Davey J, 800 is just as good as your D700 on a D90? Or am I reading your para wrong? I can't imagine closeup ISO 800 on a D90 better that D700, so please inform me. I have a D300 and am anxious to learn.
Shutterbug Magazine tested a lot of DSLRs at various ISOs and uses. I concluded from my search there and elsewhere that on D90 800 ISO was OK for almost everything. That is on a good representative model. I have helped about a dozen fairly close friends to set up their D90s and they all are using just about that setting. A D700 in my experience is one of the best pro DSLRs and maybe one of the best cameras I have ever used. I set my D300 and D700 on 1000 ISO after very extensive tests. I use my D300 almost exclusively with my 70-300VR which is my favorite go to lens. Fireworks now I would do on D90 video on 18-200VR at ISO 800 and minus 4.0 exposure bias in P Mode. I have tested 1000 ISO and 1600 on my D90 and switched it back to ISO 800. I photograph too much high speed stuff to use ISO 200 anymore but have tested it. I am from the Kodachrome 25 and 64 ISO era and DO NOT WANT to do that anymore. My wildlife work convinces me that higher speeds are required. The only wildlife shots I ever saw done on extreme shallow depth of field were done in zoos or the like and the shallow depth of field was a tool to mask signs of habitation. Back to D90 versus D700.....I have found that I PREFER my D300 and D700 on higher ISO than my D90. When I referred to D90 with 70-300VR I was saying I prefer to shoot some things as close as the 70-300VR permits like butterflies. They are not very big. When I am photographing Brown Bears in the field in a few days I will use both a D90 with a 18-200VR and the D300 with 70-300VR and there hope that I am not so close that it is dangerous or too close to properly frame my subject. Again I do NOT use teleconverters.
Reread Graphicnatured's question to me and see i did not address his real question! I meant to say that D700 fireworks still did not look that awesome compared to the D90 which I used for both still and video. The D90 video just plain blew the doors off all the other fireworks photos. NOT that there weren't some nice individual pics taken with still cameras but the video and the sound were surprisingly effective. Again taken on 800 ISO and -4.0 exposure bias on P mode on JPEG fine large for still and then FOCUSING before switching to Live View and engaging the video. I found I needed the proper focus before shooting video to be sure. I have seen effective D90 videos before. But many taken that night of fireworks were very good!! I shot my D700 still on 1000 ISO and they were good, well at least some were good, but simply only added spice to the iPhoto show where agin the AVI video clips switch to Quick Time Player. When we put these on our Final Cut Studio editing they will be as good as they are going to get. All things considered I'd often take the D700 to take photos. Yet it has no video. The video and strangely the on board sound from the D90 was really good in this application.
I see. Thanks so much for explaining. I found this very informative. I can also understand using the DX bodies when shooting bears or anything with a nasty "business end" for that matter.
I want to thank those people who gave me some hints on this topic and am posting one of the 200 images I made that night. Mostly they are better than I hoped for, I'll maybe post a slide show on Flikr when I get that stuff worked out. For those looking for info in the future, here is how I did it:
D5000 in Manual mode, f8, bulb, auto WB, ISO200, manual focus, VR off (tripod), 18-105mm used at about 18-35mm.
All were well exposed, I only deleted the ones where not enough happened during the exposure and it looked lame. I guessed the exposures at 1-4 seconds.
An example (picked at random - it's bed time):
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