How to shoot fireworks

[Mic_n_Min]

Both times I set up in that area I used my standard zoom (18-70 or 18-135mm).

One year I set up at about 34mm and another year I set up around 25mm. Looking at both results I like the slightly tigher shots from around the 34mm range better:

34mm focal length:

26mm focal length:

Both were taken from the exact same trashcan spot. I'd guess there was some movement of the can a few feet. The first one is from June '06 and the 2nd one is from Dec '07.

It looks like my 28-75 will work out just fine then. Thank you for your input- I really appreciate it! I promise to share some of my shots after I get back from each of my trips.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Here are just a couple of shots I took last night at Magic Kingdom. EXTREMELY crowded. By the end of the fireworks, my tripod had lost its footing because of the crowd and the shots reflected it. I couldn't put the tripod full out because of the crowd so I had to stabilize the tripod with my body. Beter than a monopod but not as good as having room to spread out. I should have used my remote but with the crowd (worse than in Anaheim in July when I went), it just wasn't doable. I also had to reposition a few times because people kept shifting and moving into shots. So, while I started with more or less the entire castle in the shot, by the end, it was just the top half of the castle.

It was also a windy night so the fireworks tended to drift toward Liberty Square.

When I get home, I'll have some nice MK and Illuminations shots to post.

These were, btw, shot at iso 200, f-10, 4 seconds.

 

[AmyRF25]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a novice, and I would like to buy a lens that will be good to use for fireworks at Disney - but i'd like it to be good for taking pictures of wildlife too (i don't want a bunch of lenses to carry around)

Would this lens be OK for a novice?

Tamron AF18-250mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD

If you have any other recommedations I appreciate it.

Thanks
Amy

 

[ukcatfan]

It should be fine. You do not want a wide aperture for fireworks, so a prime is not needed.

 

[USCGamecocks]

That should be fine. The Kit lens should even be ok. The main thing is to have a steady surface (Tripod, trashcan, etc) to set the camera on to keep from getting blurry pics.

 

[AmyRF25]

Hi Everyone,

The firework photos in this thread are awesome! I have one of the wishes cruises booked for our December trip and I'm looking for advice on the best way to shoot fireworks from these boats.

What type of tripod should I use? I was thinking those goriall ones, but not sure if there's anything to wrap it around? I don't have a tripod yet.

Also what lens would you recommended. I have a sony alpha 350 just with the kit lens (28-80? something like that) so far, I am going to buy another lens to take to disney. Sometimes I think i'll buy a wide 18-50 but then I thought maybe i would just buy a 18-200.

As you can see I need some suggestions

Thanks in advance

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Hi

The Gorillapod I have also works well as a standard tripod. The head is perhaps not as stable as a rigid, if you are using a weighty slr with big lens, but the flexibility in the legs means you can get it lower than a similar sized rigid so there is always a solution to whatever environment you are shooting in. I am pleased with it so far and look forward to using it at Disney in November.

As for lenses I will leave that to others with greater knowledge

cheers

 

[peacefrogdog]

I'm a relative newbie to digital SLR's. I have a Nikon D80 with a 18-135 lens.

I'd love to be able to take a picture of my kids during the fireworks. But rather than take a pic of the fireworks themselves, I'd like to take it of the kids looking up at them, with hopefully the colored lights of the fireworks shining down on their faces.

I have no idea of how realistic this type of shot would be, or if it is too ambitious for a relative novice photographer.

What settings would you recommend I use for this type of shot? I don't have a tripod.

Rene

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'm a relative newbie to digital SLR's. I have a Nikon D80 with a 18-135 lens.

I'd love to be able to take a picture of my kids during the fireworks. But rather than take a pic of the fireworks themselves, I'd like to take it of the kids looking up at them, with hopefully the colored lights of the fireworks shining down on their faces.

I have no idea of how realistic this type of shot would be, or if it is too ambitious for a relative novice photographer.

What settings would you recommend I use for this type of shot? I don't have a tripod.

Rene

What you are asking about is not easy. Fireworks are very far away, so they don't light much up. Also, good fireworks pictures usually require a relatively long exposure - 2 or more seconds. That's a long time for a kid (or even an adult) to sit perfectly still.

If I were trying to get a shot like that, I'd be tempted to just cheat and do it in Photoshop. If I wanted to get it right in the camera, I'd resort to a bit of chicanery.

First, the fireworks aren't going to illuminate squat. I'd stick the kids someplace really, really dark and light them with flashes. Next, I'd aim a couple of flashes at them, each with a different colored gel. I'd have someone hold the flashes out of frame but in the same general direction as the fireworks.

Because you can't predict the color of the fireworks (at least I can't), I'd just pick gel colors that contrasted and seemed "fireworky" to me. Then, in the real shot, I'd stick the fireworks on their own layer and change their colors to match the filters.

I'd take a 2 to 8 second shot. The flashes would provide the only significant light on the kids, so they wouldn't have to be still. The fireworks would do their thing. It'd be a lot of work, but you could manage it.

 

[YesDear]

Yeah what he said!

He is right. That is a once in a lifetime shot or a very well planned one.

Mark has a great example of what he means if you find his vacation thread and look at the picture he took of his family around the campfire. He did essentially the same thing. And yes he has a great family to let him do that. My crew would be bolting in about 30 seconds.

 

[Frantasmic]

I saw a similar shot that my local newspaper was offering for sale just recently, but I cannot find it again. However, the kids were facing the fireworks. The photographer had crouched down behind them and shot them looking up at the sky from the back. it was a cool shot.

The kids were blurry though because they had to shoot the fireworks with the longer shutter.

I would imagine you could get a similar picture as the one I described, but it would more likely have to occur at EPCOT, where you are closer to the fireworks.

Getting a shot you describe, as Mark indicates, is full of potential difficulties.

 

[markopolo]

I had bought a camera with an underwater housing before our last vacation, and due to a few issues, ended up returning it. But I knew I needed a new camera, and knew if I didn't get a new one right away, I probably wouldnt have the extra money later, so I got a Kodak 'easyshare' (I'll check the model number later..) mainly because of its 10x optical zoom.
So my question... it has a whole bunch of 'pre-settings', for macro, portraits, etc, and one of them is for fireworks. How good are these pre-settings usually? This is the first time I'll be taking this camera on vactaion, and my other camera (Pentax) took very similar quality pictures, but I was never able to take very good fireworks shots with it. So either way, there will be some trial-and-error using this camera to shoot fireworks, and I'm kind of hoping the 'fireworks pre-setings' are good enough, especially since the MNSSHP ones are a bit different, and I'll only get one chance at those.
So... use the pre-settings, or manually adjust to get the best pics? Thanks!

 

[RBennett]

I had bought a camera with an underwater housing before our last vacation, and due to a few issues, ended up returning it. But I knew I needed a new camera, and knew if I didn't get a new one right away, I probably wouldnt have the extra money later, so I got a Kodak 'easyshare' (I'll check the model number later..) mainly because of its 10x optical zoom.
So my question... it has a whole bunch of 'pre-settings', for macro, portraits, etc, and one of them is for fireworks. How good are these pre-settings usually? This is the first time I'll be taking this camera on vactaion, and my other camera (Pentax) took very similar quality pictures, but I was never able to take very good fireworks shots with it. So either way, there will be some trial-and-error using this camera to shoot fireworks, and I'm kind of hoping the 'fireworks pre-setings' are good enough, especially since the MNSSHP ones are a bit different, and I'll only get one chance at those.
So... use the pre-settings, or manually adjust to get the best pics? Thanks!

I don't know about the settings on the Kodak, but I will throw my biggest suggestion in here: get a tripod!!! Or SOMETHING sturdy to have the camera on. For the pictures you probably want, I wouldn't risk hand-holding it.

 

[Dcanoli]

Question for those of you who took your fireworks around Casey's Corner. What lens did you use? Trying to decide which lenses to bring with me next week. My favorite is my Tamron 28-75 2.8, just not sure if it is going to be wide enough.

Thanks for any advice/help you can offer!

I haven't read through the entire thread yet, but I took photos from Casey's Corner on 9/23 for the Hallowishes show.

My boys were eating, and I couldn't leave them, so I just set up in the street!! LOL...

Here is one shot:

I actually let my 8yo help me. I had my Pentax K100D set on a tripod in the street. 50mm prime lens (I know, I'm a Disney nerd; I bought it specifically for this trip.), remote control, ISO 200, and I think it's something like 4.5 seconds, also Manual setting on the camera & F8

We would count the seconds together, and I let him control the remote control.....

 

[Dcanoli]

You know--just looking at the picture makes me a little mad!

That guy, right in the middle--I waited all that time, and there was NO ONE there that night--the Park was virtually empty, and this BIG GUY comes along and stands right in front of me!

I couldn't believe it. I tried to get him to move, but FORGET IT!

So, darn it, he is right in the middle of all my shots!!!!!

 

[pxlbarrel]

You know--just looking at the picture makes me a little mad!

That guy, right in the middle--I waited all that time, and there was NO ONE there that night--the Park was virtually empty, and this BIG GUY comes along and stands right in front of me!

I couldn't believe it. I tried to get him to move, but FORGET IT!

So, darn it, he is right in the middle of all my shots!!!!!

Oh man...I think we all feel your pain and have had that happen. I set up my tripod and I woudl take test shots of the castle before hand to make sure it was in focus. During this time, the guy kept drifting right...right into my field of vision. And then after I took the photo, he'd drift left again...and this kept happening every time I wanted to take a photo. He wasn't doing it on purpose...it's just what happens when people wait a long time...they shift on each foot and end up bobbing about. But I was getting frustrated (I hadn't hauled all that equipment there to get a close up of his head, y'know.) My friend, sensing my frustration and being way more bold than I, tapped him on the shoulder and politely asked him if would try to keep clear of my camera once the fireworks started. He laughed and said sure... and he did.... EXCEPT this other guy from the right of me then jumps in front of my camera after the fireworks start. <sigh> My fireworks photos start off with most of the castle and by the time it's over, it's only the top half! AND it's out of focus now because my once stable tripod was being kicked all over the place.

Moral of the story.... take photos from further back on Main Street and abandon the hub (or grow a foot....since I stopped growing 30 years ago, I'd say Main Street is the better choice.)

 

[Dcanoli]

Oh man...I think we all feel your pain and have had that happen. I set up my tripod and I woudl take test shots of the castle before hand to make sure it was in focus. During this time, the guy kept drifting right...right into my field of vision. And then after I took the photo, he'd drift left again...and this kept happening every time I wanted to take a photo. He wasn't doing it on purpose...it's just what happens when people wait a long time...they shift on each foot and end up bobbing about. But I was getting frustrated (I hadn't hauled all that equipment there to get a close up of his head, y'know.) My friend, sensing my frustration and being way more bold than I, tapped him on the shoulder and politely asked him if would try to keep clear of my camera once the fireworks started. He laughed and said sure... and he did.... EXCEPT this other guy from the right of me then jumps in front of my camera after the fireworks start. <sigh> My fireworks photos start off with most of the castle and by the time it's over, it's only the top half! AND it's out of focus now because my once stable tripod was being kicked all over the place.

Moral of the story.... take photos from further back on Main Street and abandon the hub (or grow a foot....since I stopped growing 30 years ago, I'd say Main Street is the better choice.)

That is a great story, and I truly appreciate you sharing it with me!

This is the first year I've taken everything with me (I just got my DSLR last year), and I was SO EXCITED. A whole year of waiting for Disney fireworks.....

Now, that I've gotten one semi-photography shot under my belt, I can't wait to go back and glean from what I learned this year!

It's so great to know I'm not alone in these-type situations!

 

[psimon]

I just want to make sure I have it right..... From what I gather, the best way to take fireworks and night shots at WDW (I'll be there Halloween) is to use the Sports setting on the S3? Is that the consensus?

Many thanks....

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[GrillMouster]

I imagine that the sports setting sets a fast shutter speed to freeze action. When taking fireworks, you want the exact opposite; you want a slower shutter speed so that you get the entire bloom of the fireworks blast as the colorful sparks radiate outward from the center. If you use a fast shutter speed, you'll be freezing the blast in mid-bloom without the pretty trails that define a fireworks blast. I recommend the following settings in manual mode: low ISO, wide focal length (it's easier to keep things sharp when you zoom out..you can crop later), smallish aperture (f/8 or f/11), manuallly focus on infinity, shutter speed of a few seconds. A tripod is recommended, but you might be able to find a trash can or pole that you can use to stabilize the camera. Additionally, you could use the camera's timer feature to prevent camera shake, but it will be difficult to anticipate the bursts with the additional 2 seconds of timer. Keep trying to time your exposures (anticipate) so that the entire fireworks blast will occur during the few seconds the shutter is open. Don't chase the fireworks, be patient. Be prepared to take lots and lots of exposures, hoping that a few come out well.

 

[bob100]

I imagine that the sports setting sets a fast shutter speed to freeze action. When taking fireworks, you want the exact opposite; you want a slower shutter speed so that you get the entire bloom of the fireworks blast as the colorful sparks radiate outward from the center. If you use a fast shutter speed, you'll be freezing the blast in mid-bloom without the pretty trails that define a fireworks blast. I recommend the following settings in manual mode: low ISO, wide focal length (it's easier to keep things sharp when you zoom out..you can crop later), smallish aperture (f/8 or f/11), manuallly focus on infinity, shutter speed of a few seconds. A tripod is recommended, but you might be able to find a trash can or pole that you can use to stabilize the camera. Additionally, you could use the camera's timer feature to prevent camera shake, but it will be difficult to anticipate the bursts with the additional 2 seconds of timer. Keep trying to time your exposures (anticipate) so that the entire fireworks blast will occur during the few seconds the shutter is open. Don't chase the fireworks, be patient. Be prepared to take lots and lots of exposures, hoping that a few come out well.

good advice. also there is a fireworks scene setting (at least on the S5)
also try searching the S3 forum for fireworks
www.s3users.com/forum