Discussion
Will be at the Cannes Fireworks Festival on Saturday.
My only ever attempts at photographing fireworks was with a P&S on "Auto"
Will have Sony A300 on a tripod with a cable shutter release and planning on using the kit 18-70mm lens.
Not sure about where I will be standing yet, but with the rather tall Hama Star 63 tripod and tilting live-view on the Sony, I should get a good view over other people's heads.
I was planning two types of shots:
1) Bulb mode, keep shutter open when firework is about to burst, release when it starts "dissolving"
2) Bulb mode held open - black card placed in front of lens and uncovered for each bang... This should "stack" several fireworks into the one shot.
Any advice about aperture, focusing, framing, etc?
My only ever attempts at photographing fireworks was with a P&S on "Auto"
Will have Sony A300 on a tripod with a cable shutter release and planning on using the kit 18-70mm lens.
Not sure about where I will be standing yet, but with the rather tall Hama Star 63 tripod and tilting live-view on the Sony, I should get a good view over other people's heads.
I was planning two types of shots:
1) Bulb mode, keep shutter open when firework is about to burst, release when it starts "dissolving"
2) Bulb mode held open - black card placed in front of lens and uncovered for each bang... This should "stack" several fireworks into the one shot.
Any advice about aperture, focusing, framing, etc?
Aperture I would work in the f10-22 sort of range - expecially if you want to do mutliple exposures.
Focus leave it on manual and focus on something near where the fireworks are being set off
Framing you'll have to judge on the night -but they are usually in a reasonably restricted area, the height obviously will vary you'll probably have to use a fairly wide angle to give you coverge.
Here are a couple of my efforts
F14 4 secs 70mm ISO-100
F10 13 secs 28mm ISO-100
Focus leave it on manual and focus on something near where the fireworks are being set off
Framing you'll have to judge on the night -but they are usually in a reasonably restricted area, the height obviously will vary you'll probably have to use a fairly wide angle to give you coverge.
Here are a couple of my efforts
F14 4 secs 70mm ISO-100
F10 13 secs 28mm ISO-100
I use a bit of black card (I just permanent-markered a disc cut from a cornflakes packet!), open the shutter on bulb at about f/11 and place the card in front of the lens when I don't want to capture any light.
That way you can 'build up' a shot of various fireworks.
ETA: Sorry, didn't spot the bit in the OP about the black card.
That way you can 'build up' a shot of various fireworks.
ETA: Sorry, didn't spot the bit in the OP about the black card.
Edited by V8S on Wednesday 12th August 14:07
All of the above responses are good but I thought I'd throw something into the mix.
I used to shoot very long exposures but have recently started getting quicker.
You tend to capture the initial explosion (which tends to be good) or 1 inch long trails in the sky (which is bad).
Shoot on a high speed burst of shots just as the shell reaches the peak of its trajectory. You do end up binning lots and lots though(so take a high capacity memory card).
Also, try b&w every so often.
Some examples:
1/60 second
1 second
1/20 second
And sometimes if you can get far enough away some foreground interest can liven things up.
1/30 second
I used to shoot very long exposures but have recently started getting quicker.
You tend to capture the initial explosion (which tends to be good) or 1 inch long trails in the sky (which is bad).
Shoot on a high speed burst of shots just as the shell reaches the peak of its trajectory. You do end up binning lots and lots though(so take a high capacity memory card).
Also, try b&w every so often.
Some examples:
1/60 second
1 second
1/20 second
And sometimes if you can get far enough away some foreground interest can liven things up.
1/30 second
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