Help taking firework pictures

[momof2intx]

I just got a Sony cybershot digital camera and of course I plan on taking tons of pictures on our upcoming trip.

I have always had problems taking pictures of fireworks and the light parade...they always come out blurry and the fireworks never come out good. I have seen some spectacular pics on this board of the fireworks and I need to know....how do you do it??

Should I use a flash or not? What setting should I put on my camera so I can get some good shots? It's not s fancy camera but it does take good pictures.

Any advice you might have would be great!!

 

[aceys_h0ney]

I dont know much about setting but I can tell you we used the flash. My best advice is to take a ton. We took over 100 of one show and got 5-10 great shots. We just kept snapping away. However I realize you probably dont have to try so hard with a nicer camera.

 

[Danauk]

To get decent night time pictures you really need to use a tripod or have your camera resting one something. I also do not use a flash. If you go on the photography board here there is a whole section of tips for taking firework shots.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474329

 

[LovinPooh]

I also have a Sony Cybershot. I love the camera but this is what I got when I tried to take fireworks pics. they all came out like this on the automatic setting.

[/IMG]

sorry for it being so huge. I was thinking next trip trying all the settings until I get one that actually captures it better. So I would also love to know what I should do to avoid this happening again

 

[Robo]

Should I use a flash or not?

Not.

 

[Robo]

To get decent night time pictures you really need to

use a tripod or have your camera resting one something. I also

do not use a flash.

If you go on the photography board here there is a whole section of tips for taking firework shots.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474329

Ditto x3

 

[BigGreen73]

I just got a Sony cybershot digital camera and of course I plan on taking tons of pictures on our upcoming trip.

I have always had problems taking pictures of fireworks and the light parade...they always come out blurry and the fireworks never come out good. I have seen some spectacular pics on this board of the fireworks and I need to know....how do you do it??

Should I use a flash or not? What setting should I put on my camera so I can get some good shots? It's not s fancy camera but it does take good pictures.

Any advice you might have would be great!!

Really, it comes down to the features your camera has and how much effort you want to put into taking the FW's pics. Does your camera have image stabilization for instance? Like the previous poster stated, you would need a tripod or have the camera sitting on something for your best results and even then it's no 100% guarantee.

Since you stated it was a Sony Cybershot, I am assuming it's a pocket size camera. It can be difficult to get good FW's with those, I speak from experience, but if it has image stabilization it makes a HUGE difference. But it can be done. Here is one I took at a spectromagic parade with a sony cybershot, 6mp, auto settings, with flash.

If you do have image stabilization and are like me and don't care to carry around a tripod, put on auto, (no flash for FW's) and shoot a lot of pics.

If you want to see some night pics that I took last Dec at WDW with a digital camera with image stabilization (no tripod etc just hand heald), check out the pics on my myspace page below.

 

[Suellen]

Definately NO flash. I have had horrible luck with point and shoots. My Canon Rebel xti takes great pictures though.

 

[Tomh]

Do NOT use a flash. DO use a tripod, or rest your camera on something to stabilize it. If your camera has a nighttime mode, you might want to give that a try as well. My camera is a DSLR which gives me a degree of control that pocket sized point and shoot cameras don't have, but you can still get some decent shots with the smaller cameras if you stabilize the camera well enough.

 

[Kurby]

flash only works for about 15 - 20 feet - that's it.

get one of those light weight collapsible tripods and play with the shutter speed - somewhere around 1 - 2 seconds is good to capture fireworks without them

if you want to practice - go to one of the bridges over the highway and see if you can make red and white lines with the car lights.

pretty cool effect.

but most definitely you'll need a tripod to get any decent night shots or else they'll either be blurry or too dark.

 

[bytheblood]

No Flash
Use a tripod
Set to a fireworks setting if you have one, if not, use the nighttime setting

 

[momof2intx]

Thank you for all of the great advice! I'm going to try your suggestions (and check out the photography board) and see what happens!

 

[seashoreCM]

Some fireworks, notably some of the blue ones, are dimmer than others. If you overexpose, the colors may change to white. Set the exposure compensation to minus if your camera does not have a night setting.

Some fireworks make trails (individual falling stars) as opposed to continuous streaks (emitting showers of tiny sparks). For a manual camera choose a long shutter open time to record a longer streak or a fast shutter for a shorter streak. A tripod or firm support is a must since otherwise the trails will be crooked and unnatural.

For fireworks that make a continuous streak, the usual fast shutter for a sharp picture is the rule provided that your lens is fast enough.

Automatic exposure is tricky. If there are lots of bursts in the sky at the same time, the camera will darken the overall exposure, and vice versa.

 

[Vexorg]

If your camera has a High ISO setting, you might also need to use that. Also, if you can "half-press" the shutter button to take care of the focusing beforehand, it helps a lot to do that too. I had somewhat limited success with firework pictures on my most recent trip using a Canon SD850IS camera (compact point-and-shoot) but I was able to get a few good ones. It really is a matter of taking a bunch and having a couple of good ones come out. I found Illuminations especially hard to get good photos of, probably due to the lack of a good focal point. The image stabilization seems to help a bit too, especially if you have a long exposure time.

This is probably my favorite fireworks picture from the trip, although it would have been great if it didn't have the balloon in the way.

 

[siobhan1997]

My DH got me the new Sony Cybershot 10.1 MP for Christmas, it is the one with the touchscreen. This camera has a fireworks setting that you can choose on the menu button.

Can't wait to try out the setting in March.

 

[dqpowell]

If your camera has a High ISO setting, you might also need to use that.

In rare circumstances, using high ISO might be useful. But most of the time, you do NOT want to use high ISO for fireworks.

Instead, use ISO 100 or 200 and if your camera allows manual control, set the aperture to something close to the square root of the ISO in use.

So at ISO 100, you'd set the aperture to something around f/10. At ISO 50, you'd set the aperture to something around f/7.

Then you set the shutter speed to bulb or whatever the longest speed is available. If on bulb, leave the shutter open for two or three bursts.

The camera should be tripod-mounted or on a stable surface. A bean bag set on a solid object is stable and should allow you to aim the camera somewhat by shaping the beanbag.

Note that the advice above is a general guideline for shooting fireworks themselves. If you also want to balance the fireworks exposure with exposure for a foreground object, like the castle, you may have to play with the settings a bit.

EDIT: Oh yeah... NO FLASH!

David

 

[Ember]

re flash: A flash is for illuminating something right in front of you and will not reach past a few feet. On top of that, it works by having light bounce off something, say the person in front of the camera, and reflecting the light back. Fireworks are lights, even if your flash could reach them, there's nothing for the flash to bounce off of. It drives my poor DH batty when people flash fireworks. I think it's funny.

 

[Vexorg]

In rare circumstances, using high ISO might be useful. But most of the time, you do NOT want to use high ISO for fireworks.

Instead, use ISO 100 or 200 and if your camera allows manual control, set the aperture to something close to the square root of the ISO in use.

So at ISO 100, you'd set the aperture to something around f/10. At ISO 50, you'd set the aperture to something around f/7.

Then you set the shutter speed to bulb or whatever the longest speed is available. If on bulb, leave the shutter open for two or three bursts.

The camera should be tripod-mounted or on a stable surface. A bean bag set on a solid object is stable and should allow you to aim the camera somewhat by shaping the beanbag.

Note that the advice above is a general guideline for shooting fireworks themselves. If you also want to balance the fireworks exposure with exposure for a foreground object, like the castle, you may have to play with the settings a bit.

EDIT: Oh yeah... NO FLASH!

David

The shots I was taking were mostly going with Auto high-ISO mode (I believe it shot most of the stuff at ISO 800) and no flash. I do have access to some manual settings on the camera though. I can set ISO manually, and there seems to be an Exposure setting that I can't quite figure out which goes from -2 (less light) to +2 (brighter). F-stop seems to have only automatic control available (messing around here in my office, it seems to use mostly 2.8.) How long an exposure are you talking about at those settings?

I found that any time I tried to take fireworks photos in lower ISO modes, they came out far too dim. The fireworks mode on my camera just makes a mess of things (I think it uses a far longer exposure time than I'd like.) Since there don't seem to be any fireworks to mess with here, I'll just have to file this stuff away for later. One of these days I'll get a proper DSLR, but for now I'll just take what I can get with what I have now.

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> lack of a good focal point

Set your camera to infinity lock if you can for fireworks and other distant subjects. This affects focus only and does not cause shenanigans with exposure or brightness.

 

[rsimon]

Low ISO number, camera on Manual if you can put it there with a shutter speed of at least 2 seconds, Aperture number that is about 1/2 closed (this is because each camera/lens has different numbers so take the smallest and largest and cut it in half) as a starting point. Use a TRIPOD or fixed mount and no flash.

A Monopod will not work well because there is still movement. The other problem you have is with the camera movement when you push the button. I use a remote shutter release, but another option would be a very short timer on the shutter release, maybe a second or something small. Then you could push the button and then let go of the camera so it opens the shutter automatically.. No movement at all then because even on a tripod there is some movement when you push the shutter button. Otherwise, the other option is to push the button and hold it.. don't let get so it will stay as steady as possible (turn off continuous shooting).

The other thing is to zoom in if you can. Don't be afraid to fill the frame with the firworks and foreground subject.