I don't come by these boards often and I just came across these "how to" threads started by Mark. What a great idea.
If you are still reading these threads, thank you Mark for providing a great service to those of us trying to learn.
Here is a shot of Wishes that I took last year.
I have only shot Wishes this one time with my DSLR and I am by no means an expert but I can explain the gory details of
how I went about shooting. I apologize in advance if this is too much detail.
1. Location
First of all I staked out a spot well in advance. I was there on a night where Spectro preceded Wishes so I was looking for a
spot on Main street long before Wishes started. Spectro started at 8PM and Wishes at 9PM and I had a spot at about 1 hour and
15 min before Spectro. I chose a spot on the right hand side of Main Street and planted myself right next to a trashcan (which
I planned to use for Wishes but not Spectro). The one unavoidable problem is that you never know who is going to come in front of
you when the show starts and how much blocking of the view will be done. Another issue with a trashcan is that people use it for
trash (the nerve). So it will get jostled sometimes and when you are shooting long exposures it means a trashed picture from the trash can.
Nothing you can do about that but realize that it will happen and don't get frustrated.
2. Set up
After Spectro finished (at about 8:30PM) I set up my gorillapod with ballhead and my camera and lens on top of the trashcan. I can
say I was not extremely confident with the stability of the gorillapod. I have the sturdier SLR Zoom model of gorillapod but it is
not as stable as a tripod (it did work out ok though for the most part). I think that a tripod would be better though and some
day perhaps I will look into a smallish portable tripod that I wouldn't mind lugging around and won't cost me and arm and a leg.
The gorillapod serves its purpose fairly well though. One other important part of my set up is the remote I have to trigger the shutter.
I have a wireless remote for my camera and it helps to prevent additional vibration when taking the shot.
3. Composition
Before the show starts I wanted to get an initial composition set. I tried to set the bottom of the frame low enough to get a
decent amount of the castle but high enough to avoid too much in the way of people. Being a novice at shooting fireworks at the
castle I had no idea how much sky to include so I winged it. In retrospect it is probably is best err on the side of a larger
field of view. Then at least you can crop later if you want vs. not capturing the entire shot. I also did not know enough to go
wide enough to capture the fireworks that appear to be shot off the sides of the castle. So, my composition was good for fireworks
directly behind the castle and not good for wider shots. There is real no right or wrong here it just depends on what you are
trying to capture. Next time I will at least have more knowledge about what to expect. One last thing to be cognizant of is to try
get the castle level. This is also something you can try to correct in post processing but you will lose some of the picture in the
process so it is best to get it level from the start.
4. Exposure
My objective was to get a decent exposure set for the castle before the show started and once I had that set I would keep it there
and hope for the best with capturing a good exposure of the fireworks. I had the following starting objectives ISO = 100,
aperture = f/8 and shutter speed in the 2-4 second range. My strategy was to set the exposure, keep it there and continually
fire off shots and hope I captured some of them well enough to get a good burst and trail. Since I was not knowledgeable enough
to time the bursts I was thinking the 4 second exposure would be best to increase my chances of getting a good shot albeit I was
still nervous of the effects of camera vibrations and people movement with a longer shutter speed. I know some people are a
proponent of using bulb mode but my concern there was not having a very good control on the exposure of the castle.
I wish I could go more often and try different techniques but I am not that fortunate. Anyway, I settled on ISO=100, Aperture=f/8
and Shutter Speed=4 seconds. If needed, I would have probably first adjusted aperture if I wanted to adjust the exposure one way
or the other (up to a certain point) and was not averse to going to ISO 200 if necessary.
Side note...A piece of advice is to have a good feel for your camera controls so that in darkness you can quickly change settings.
A small light source from a cell phone or something similar is useful as well. I usually keep my camera in a "P", "Av" or "Tv"
mode and don't venture off into the scary world of Manual mode that often and it is best to know how to be comfortable changing
the settings in advance rather than fumbling around in semi-darkness. Also a good thing to know in advance is how to turn off
your LCD before the show starts if you don't want to bother others around you with your blinking LCD shot after each shot.
4. Shooting
At some point before shooting it is a good idea to have your focus set on the castle and then switch to Manual Focus.
As mentioned above my strategy was to set my exposure in advance and then keep it there and fire away and this is what I basically did.
I now have read in a previous post here that you can time the shot by waiting to hear the fireworks being launched and then a second later
trip the shutter. I was not really thinking to listen for that so I am not sure if you can hear it but it is something to listen for next time.
I also imagine that if you really know the show well you could time your shots based on the music but that is not something I
would be able to do.
A problem that I did have when shooting was the darned people in front blocking parts of the frame (don't they realize I am
doing something more important than their enjoyment
) So, I did take time during the show adjusting camera angle upwards
more (which also cut off more of the bottom part of the castle). You can also crop in post processing later. If there is simply
no way to get a good shot then my suggestion is to not fret and just try to enjoy the show rather than get frustrated over getting
a picture.
5. Post processing
When you get home you can always adjust with post processing. Cropping is useful for example when people get in the way of the shot.
For example I cropped this one down to remove someone getting in the way.
Also, I am by no means an expert in these techniques but I do have noise filtering s/w and I also will sharpen images as
necessary. I can't recall if I really needed to use Neat image or not (I have stupidly lost my original files so I am not sure
what I did in regards to post processing)
Ok, that's all. Sorry for droning on so much. Hope this is helpful to someone.
Oh, One last note is that there are completely different strategies for Illuminations and Fantasmic. I got a only a few decent shots
from illuminations and almost nothing that good from Fantasmic. I am interested in seeing more experiences from others on those shows.
I guess Fantasmic is not really fireworks but it would be good to see some nice examples from the talented people on this board.
I know I am coming late to this party since this thread has been around for a while but hopefully there is still an interest
and others can post.
