How to shoot fireworks

[scrapycruiser]

First of all, thanks for all the support and tips !

We leave tomorrow for the Med cruise ( Aug 8 )and I have a xti Rebel Canon.It's my first SLR. I'm mainly using the auto settings until I get comfortable with the camera. However, I'd like to try taking pictures of the fireworks, which settings would you suggest. Also, I have one of those flexible gorilla type portable tripods.Should I use that ? Thanks, Gina

 

[ukcatfan]

First of all, thanks for all the support and tips !

We leave tomorrow for the Med cruise ( Aug 8 )and I have a xti Rebel Canon.It's my first SLR. I'm mainly using the auto settings until I get comfortable with the camera. However, I'd like to try taking pictures of the fireworks, which settings would you suggest. Also, I have one of those flexible gorilla type portable tripods.Should I use that ? Thanks, Gina

This is probably the most asked question around here, so we created an "official" thread. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474329 It and some other useful ones are in the Equpiment sticky. http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1450061

Kevin

 

[Groucho]

If you'll be shooting from a boat, you won't get "normal" results with a long shutter speed, due to the movement of the boat. I took some from my father's boat in some pretty heavy winds, and while they're interesting, they're definitely not "normal"!

 

[LMarge]

I took some from my father's boat in some pretty heavy winds, and while they're interesting, they're definitely not "normal"! [/QUOTE]


No, Groucho, they weren't normal, but they were really the coolest thing to look at!

 

[Groucho]

Thanks Marge!

 

[CapeCAD]

The following shots were taken from Our Polynesian resort balcony in the Hawaii building using the Sony Alpha with the 75-300 Lens across the lake.
Images have been resized only.

I am unsure what to do to enhance the images.

Wishes from our first night:

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F4.5
Diaphragm Value: F4.5
Shutter Speed: 2.5 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F4.5
Diaphragm Value: F4.5
Shutter Speed: 1.3 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F4.5
Diaphragm Value: F4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/3 Seconds

Wishes from our second night:

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F4.5
Diaphragm Value: F4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/4 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F4.5
Diaphragm Value: F4.5
Shutter Speed: 4.0 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F4.5
Diaphragm Value: F4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/50 Seconds

ISO: 320
Lens open F Value: F4.5
Diaphragm Value: F4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/125 Seconds

Castle after the fireworks:

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F5.6
Diaphragm Value: F5.6
Shutter Speed: 3.2 Seconds

 

[CapeCAD]

These were taken from a private viewing area in Epcot of IllumiNations with the 18-70 standard lens:

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F3.5
Diaphragm Value: F3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/13 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F3.5
Diaphragm Value: F3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/4 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F3.5
Diaphragm Value: F3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/6 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F3.5
Diaphragm Value: F3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/2 Seconds

ISO: 400
Lens open F Value: F3.5
Diaphragm Value: F3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/1.7 Seconds

 

[DVC Jen]

Thanks for sharing. Looks like you had a great view from the Poly beach. Makes me wanna try shooting from there sometime.

 

[CapeCAD]

Thanks for sharing. Looks like you had a great view from the Poly beach. Makes me wanna try shooting from there sometime.

Thanks Jen. These were actually taken from the third floor of the Hawaii building, but I'm sure the beach would be an axcellent place to shoot from as well.

You can hear the entire show from the Polynesian beach speakers and you do not have to fight the crowd with your tripod.

 

[Groucho]

The thing that sticks out most glaringly is that the Illuminations photos are really crooked. I have the same problem sometimes, but a little post-processing usually masks it well.

The big thing that might help is some kind of a tripod or similar support system, this'll allow longer exposures. (This obviously won't help your current photos, but can help the next ones. ) Your photos don't have the exif data any more so I can't see the shutter speeds, but I'm guessing these were all handheld?

I did some photos from the beach at the Poly in January, with my tripod stuck in the sand. Here's a few, to show what they can look like with a tripod and a longer shutter speed.

It is a nice place to get some photos from, I agree. If you're shooting from your hotel room, you might be able to get by just resting the camera on the balcony, or perhaps on a folded towel - not ideal, but still better than hand-holding.

The last thing I'd comment on is something that my photos posted above also suffer from - white balance. You'll notice a little bit of a brownish tinge to the photos, this can be corrected by adjusting the white balance in post-processing. I didn't realize it when I first processed these photos, and I'm slowly going through and re-doing all my photos from that trip and improving things like that, so before long, I should have the same photos without the brown tint. This is an adjustment that's a lot easier to do with RAW, but you can probably tweak it to a point with a jpg as well.

 

[CapeCAD]

The thing that sticks out most glaringly is that the Illuminations photos are really crooked. I have the same problem sometimes, but a little post-processing usually masks it well.

The big thing that might help is some kind of a tripod or similar support system, this'll allow longer exposures. (This obviously won't help your current photos, but can help the next ones. ) Your photos don't have the exif data any more so I can't see the shutter speeds, but I'm guessing these were all handheld?

All images were taken on a tripod with a remote shutter, I did not realize they were that bad that you would think they were hand-held.

I will add the settings to each shot, but noticed the longer exposures tend to wash out the castle. most were shot ISO: 100 or 400 and from 1/60-2.5 seconds.

All images were taken in RAW mode, so I was planning on doing some post-processing, I have been noticing the white balance is usually off and have even gotten used to setting the AV to "1" when I shoot which seems to elminate this problem on this camera.



I thank you and appreciate the feedback

 

[Groucho]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to infer that they were bad in any way and hence looked handheld, I assumed they were handheld because they didn't look like they have very long exposures, and the Illuminations photos look like they have inconsistent crookedness - the last two seem more crooked than the first three, but it may be just an illusion after you zoomed in? Anyway, I meant no offense, I promise.

I would lean towards using the lower ISOs (100 or 200), this will allow a longer shutter speed without blowing out the castle as much, and also won't blow out the fireworks too much. (I shot 4th of July fireworks at ISO 400 and I think it was a mistake.) The shots I posted are all ISO 200, with shutter speeds of 2.4 sec, 2.6 sec, and 3.7 sec, at F8. This worked pretty well and I don't think I got any blown-out castle photos from Poly - I did have some when I was right in front of the castle itself inside MK, but that's hard to avoid sometimes.

Also, white balance shouldn't be affected by the exposure compensation. Doing a +1 will brighten everything, which may or may not mask the issue slightly, but it's separate from the exposure.

Did you use bulb mode with shooting the fireworks or have it set to another mode?

 

[CapeCAD]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to infer that they were bad in any way and hence looked handheld, I assumed they were handheld because they didn't look like they have very long exposures, and the Illuminations photos look like they have inconsistent crookedness - the last two seem more crooked than the first three, but it may be just an illusion after you zoomed in? Anyway, I meant no offense, I promise.

I would lean towards using the lower ISOs (100 or 200), this will allow a longer shutter speed without blowing out the castle as much, and also won't blow out the fireworks too much. (I shot 4th of July fireworks at ISO 400 and I think it was a mistake.) The shots I posted are all ISO 200, with shutter speeds of 2.4 sec, 2.6 sec, and 3.7 sec, at F8. This worked pretty well and I don't think I got any blown-out castle photos from Poly - I did have some when I was right in front of the castle itself inside MK, but that's hard to avoid sometimes.

Also, white balance shouldn't be affected by the exposure compensation. Doing a +1 will brighten everything, which may or may not mask the issue slightly, but it's separate from the exposure.

Did you use bulb mode with shooting the fireworks or have it set to another mode?

Thanks, no offense taken, I'm just eager to learn what I'm doing wrong.

Seems my biggest mistake was I shot a few AUTO shots to get an idea of what settings the camera used. They looked great on the small LCD and I then set to bulb mode and mimicked those settings. I did not have my laptop with me this trip so had no real idea until we got home what they looked like.

I have added the seetings for each picture and I was shooting ISO: 400 which I would immediately change to ISO: 100 next time. I also was thinking of shooting F22, but I will try the F8 as well.

I was under the impression that longer shutter speeds would create longer trails of the fireworks and wash out the castle, which is why I was trying shorter times, but I will try more of the >2 second shots the next time.


The IllumiNations shots were very rushed since we got there 2 minutes before the show and my memory card filled up after the first couple of fireworks went off. I see what you mean about the crooked shots and seriously had not even noticed until you mentioned it which is why I'm here .

We have never been able to get ANY fireworks pictures with our other Olympus P&S digital cameras so just seeing some color without blur has me excited about shooting some more.

Thanks again

 

[handicap18]

I would definately use a longer shutter speed. I wouldn't worry about the castle being blown out with a 5 second shutter. I had my camera set wrong when I did my fireworks shots and left the ISO at 800 (would have prefered ISO200) and used shutter speeds of between 4 and 6 seconds and had no issues at all with the castle being overexposed. In fact it looked great.

I would also stay away from f/22 unless you switch to that setting for the finale. f/8-f/11 will do perfectly fine for the vast majority of the fireworks. It will also give a sharper image. Since there is sooooo much light because of all the streaks and bursts going on during the finale, the shots will almost always come out overexposed. Switching to f/22 will help that. How much exactly I'm not 100% sure. I've seen a few pictures of what look to be a finale shot with f/22, but haven't been able to confirm it. I also haven't tried it yet myself. That is one thing I want to do on the next trip.

What did you focus on when taking the pics? The castle looks to be a tad bit out of focus. I will typically focus on the castle, then switch the camera body to Manual focus so the AF wont try and refocus every time.

I really like the 2 shots with the purple fireworks.

 

[SharonLowe]

Lower your iso to 100 (or the lowest your camera will allow). No need to shoot at 400 and you will be able to get longer shutter speeds without blowing out the castle. One of the main problems with fireworks and a lit object is that the lit object tends to blow out easily if you want nice fireworks. You can always take one photo without the fireworks and blend that image into the ones with fireworks. Overall, I think you did a reasonable job - fireworks are hard and Illuminations is one of the harder shows.

Also, try f/8.0 or so - you'll get a sharper image. Make sure you focus ahead of time, then change your focus mode to manual so that it doesn't try to focus while shooting. You might try shooting vertical too so you have less wasted space on the sides.

 

[CapeCAD]

I would definately use a longer shutter speed. I wouldn't worry about the castle being blown out with a 5 second shutter. I had my camera set wrong when I did my fireworks shots and left the ISO at 800 (would have prefered ISO200) and used shutter speeds of between 4 and 6 seconds and had no issues at all with the castle being overexposed. In fact it looked great.

I would also stay away from f/22 unless you switch to that setting for the finale. f/8-f/11 will do perfectly fine for the vast majority of the fireworks. It will also give a sharper image. Since there is sooooo much light because of all the streaks and bursts going on during the finale, the shots will almost always come out overexposed. Switching to f/22 will help that. How much exactly I'm not 100% sure. I've seen a few pictures of what look to be a finale shot with f/22, but haven't been able to confirm it. I also haven't tried it yet myself. That is one thing I want to do on the next trip.

What did you focus on when taking the pics? The castle looks to be a tad bit out of focus. I will typically focus on the castle, then switch the camera body to Manual focus so the AF wont try and refocus every time.

I really like the 2 shots with the purple fireworks.

Thanks, I did focus on the castle and switch to manual, but I had to change my zoom after I saw the area the fireworks took up and probebly did not re-focus.

Lower your iso to 100 (or the lowest your camera will allow). No need to shoot at 400 and you will be able to get longer shutter speeds without blowing out the castle. One of the main problems with fireworks and a lit object is that the lit object tends to blow out easily if you want nice fireworks. You can always take one photo without the fireworks and blend that image into the ones with fireworks. Overall, I think you did a reasonable job - fireworks are hard and Illuminations is one of the harder shows.

Also, try f/8.0 or so - you'll get a sharper image. Make sure you focus ahead of time, then change your focus mode to manual so that it doesn't try to focus while shooting. You might try shooting vertical too so you have less wasted space on the sides.

Thanks, I like it when recommendations all point to the same settings. I will go with the ISO: 100, F/8.0, 5 sec shutter next time.

I also never considered shooting vertical. It has taken some getting used to shooting wider shots with the 10 megapixel camera, then crop. I have to remember to still use the vertical.

Great input everyone, thanks!

 

[Groucho]

I would agree on the focusing issue, I meant to ask but forgot. It's too bad that most new lenses don't have focusing scales on them any more - the best would probably be to set the focus to where infinity is just in focus as your chosen aperture, this will give you the maximum amount of stuff in focus, hopefully including both that castle and the fireworks. (I believe this is the called the hyperfocal distance.)

Don't worry too much about blowing out the castle. This is, I think, pretty near the finale and even with all these, the castle itself is still mostly visible, while the fireworks themselves are mostly blown out. This is a 2-second exposure.

 

[CapeCAD]

I would agree on the focusing issue, I meant to ask but forgot. It's too bad that most new lenses don't have focusing scales on them any more - the best would probably be to set the focus to where infinity is just in focus as your chosen aperture, this will give you the maximum amount of stuff in focus, hopefully including both that castle and the fireworks. (I believe this is the called the hyperfocal distance.)

Don't worry too much about blowing out the castle. This is, I think, pretty near the finale and even with all these, the castle itself is still mostly visible, while the fireworks themselves are mostly blown out. This is a 2-second exposure.

My wife planned another Disney trip in May 2008 as soon as the 2008 rates came out, so I will have to wait until then to try the castle fireworks again. I'm keeping a book of notes to take with me. She booked the lagoon view concierge at the Polynesian again so I'll be able to compare shots between both trips.

Thanks for all the help and examples.

 

[Groucho]

Good luck! Make sure to let us know how they turn out.

 

[JCTurner]

Nice pics everyone !

Nightime photography is my favourite type (see my Flickr in my sig).

Happy to answer any questions !

JC