Taking Fireworks

[quantockphotos]

Hi guys ive been asked to take pictures of a firework display in 2 weeks time. Can any one give me some advice on the best wat to tackle this. Ive done some night photography before but nothing what moves this fast.

thanks

[robski]

Try this link Quantockphotos

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography...fireworks.html

[Joe]

safe to say, neat effects can created when using a long shutter speed and tripod/ steady support. However a further tip....
Since the fireworks light will be 'trailing' across the picture with those long shutter speeds, use the aperture control to vary the brightness of those trails. Looking at other peoples shots gives a very rough idea of exposure times, but the ideal aperture will vary quite a lot depending how far away from the light you are, what type of fireworks and weather conditions etc.
My handheld shots have always been a bit ropy, but remember getting some nice ones on a tripod a while back......so would personally highly recommend using a tripod.

Good luck

[Jonathan Hare]

Please take a look at the pictures I managed to get from the Hartlepool Fireworks display in November.

http://www.jhphotos.co.uk/html/h_poo...orks_2008.html

I found shooting tricky as a very strong North Easterly wind was gusting.

This was the first time I had gone manually with a DSLR taking pictures, the past few years I had been using a bridge camera on auto.

This year I set out with my SLR (Sony A100) lens 18-70mm (I used various lengths with this lens during the display) and a very sturdy tripod. Good point with this display was it was on the beach, so I was able to dig the tripod into the sand for increased stability.

I had read "Outdoor Photography" and they had an article about shooting fireworks.


I shot mainly with ISO 200 (the article said best results ISO100) at F 16 (Article was saying about F16- 22), with exposures between 2 & 20 seconds, also I set my White Balance to sun.

The last picture was taken at F3.5 1sec ISO 400.
http://www.jhphotos.co.uk/html/h_poo...s_2008_17.html

You are best using a wide angle lens, don't zoom in as you may miss what you were wanting. If you are wanting close up shots of the fireworks shoot wide and then crop when editing on the computer.

Hope this is of some help.