Digital Cam Manual Setting for Fireworks?

[campinggal]

Hi All-

You guys are such a great wealth of knowledge and very helpful, I thought I would give this question a try.

I've recently gone digital with a Canon A80. Love it so far but was curious about others experience with shooting fireworks. What settings have worked for you? I'll be using a tripod but not too sure if I should just go for an programed setting without the flash or setting a manual exposure.

What have been your experiences?

Thanks for the tips!

 

[phanomouse]

I have 4 dig cameras varying in quality, and no matter which one I use they all basically work the same when it comes to snapping night shots. There are two ways that I like to do this for fireworks, moon/stars, etc. Tripod is a must first but you already know that. The first way is to put it on night shot. The problem with doing fireworks this way is it takes more time to process the picture and so you usually get a blurred shot because the fireworks don't want to stand still. So my favorite way is to turn on the rapid fire option (the A80 should have this), turn off the flash and take all you want. I believe the A80 will take 4-6 images in rapid fire mode but I could be wrong, I am sorry didn't have time to do my homework. But even if you don't just leave it on its normal setting and turn the flash off, you'll get some great pictures!!! have fun!

 

[denman007]

Some times you want a long exposure. My times ranged from 200 to 3 seconds. Are any of your cameras SLR's? It's also going to depend on your ISO setting. You don't want to use a flash for fireworks.

He is a sample that I took with a Canon Digital Rebel. (to see more pics check my sig.)

 

[linda_pizzuro]

Wow, that is one of the most wonderful picture I have ever seen of Wishes. Where were you standing for this shot.
Lina

 

[denman007]

Thanks Linda.

I took that picture from my 3rd floor balcony (poly). Since I didn't bring a tripod, I was kneeling with the camera resting on the railing. Was the only way to get the longer exposures to stay somewhat in focus. A tripod would have been better.

 

[campinggal]

Thanks phanomouse and denman!

phanomouse- my A80 does have rapid fire mode so I'll give that a try as well as no flash.

denman- I do have an SLR although I rarely played around with it in Manual mode- wanted to experiment more with the manual settings but am so time poor these days it hasn't happened! LOL!! I've been shooting my digital with a 50 ISO and in some surfing I've come across some other Fireworks shots where they used an 8 second exposure- they seemend pretty good. I love the shot you included below- WOW. I don't have time to check out your others (I'm at work right now) but I will this evening!!

I'll have two different Fireworks viewings when down at WDW in Dec so I can experiment!

Thanks!