show me your firework photos from Disney

[kgreen]

I have been fascinated by firework photo's for as long as I can remember! I have had my Nikon D-7000 for about 9 months now. But before then I only had a point & shoot to take photographs of fireworks, not much control I just pointed, shot, & hoped for the best. I have been reading up a lot lately on the basics of shooting fireworks, & I am getting really excited to shoot them on our upcoming vacation to wdw in October. Good thing I will get lots of practice at a few local firework displays in July before our trip. Do you have any photo's you could share? I would really enjoy looking at them!


Also a couple of questions, I don't have a remote, or shutter release cable. Would setting the camera to a 2 sec. shutter delay work the same, if I don't end up purchasing a remote?

I have 2 lenses, 18-105mm that came with my camera, & a 35mm 1:1.8 prime. Which one would be the better lens for shooting fireworks? Thanks so much!

 

[nbaresejr]

you need to purchase a shutter release cable. the 2 second timer would work but your going to be behind shooting the bursts all night. I just pressed the release when i heard the fireworks being shot up and left it open for about 5-6 sec depending on other camera settings.

your 18-105 should be just fine for the fireworks. The photo below was taking with my 18-55 kit lens and some photoshop trickery. The castle shot is 1 exposure after the fireworks and the fireworks are another exposure. the 2 images were then blended together. The shot was on a tripod and taken outside of the crystal palace.

Crystal Palace Fireworks by nickbarese, on Flickr

 

[kgreen]

Beautiful shot!!

Thanks for the reccomendation for the shutter release cable. I will have to go check out the prices, I have plenty of time to purchace one & practice in July. Thank you!

With the cable release do you press the button & hold for however long & then release your finger on the button? Does the camera have to be in bulb mode when using the shutter release cable?

 

[nbaresejr]

The cable should be less then $20.

Bulb mode is the way to go. My release cable had the ability to hold down or slide to a position to hold itself. My last trip was the first time using a dslr and shooting fireworks. Read Tom bickers fireworks ebook. It really helped with settings!

 

[NLD]

Just get the remote, it will make life a lot easier. And they are cheap.

 

[Pixel Dust]

I also have a D7000 and there are a few things to note, specific to this camera.
You will need a shutter release remote. No cable needed! The Nikon brand one is ML-L3 and it is wireless. There are a couple other ebay brand knockoffs too. Then set the DRIVE mode to Remote (same wheel that controls 'single shot' or 'continuous fast')

A tripod is a must for any camera set up as this will be a long exposure. Your kit lens would be best if you want to be closer to the castle. 35mm would be better if you are farther away. Focus on the castle first then switch to manual focus. This is to prevent focusing afterwords as it will be too dark to do so.

The general setting would be that you are in MANUAL mode. Set the shutter speed to Bulb and your aperture to about f/11. Your ISO should be set to 100. Fireworks are super bright and to prevent them from being "blown out" the aperture needs to be small and the ISO low.

You are going to need to turn the Long Exposure Noise Reduction OFF. Press Menu > Shooting Menu > Long exp. NR > Select OFF. When this is ON, any exposure over 1 second gets extra processing by the camera to remove noise. This can last about the same time as the exposure to twice as long, beyond the exposure itself. That feature prevents you from taking the next shot quickly. Since your ISO is already at 100, noise should be at a minimum.

The way bulb mode works with the ML-L3 wireless works is that you press the remote once to open the shutter, then one more time to close it. With my recommendations above this can be anywhere from 3 second to 10 seconds. The longer the exposure the longer the streaks become and more bursts are captured.

16mm f/10 5.6 seconds ISO 100

 

[kgreen]

I also have a D7000 and there are a few things to note, specific to this camera.
You will need a shutter release remote. No cable needed! The Nikon brand one is ML-L3 and it is wireless. There are a couple other ebay brand knockoffs too. Then set the DRIVE mode to Remote (same wheel that controls 'single shot' or 'continuous fast')

A tripod is a must for any camera set up as this will be a long exposure. Your kit lens would be best if you want to be closer to the castle. 35mm would be better if you are farther away. Focus on the castle first then switch to manual focus. This is to prevent focusing afterwords as it will be too dark to do so.



The general setting would be that you are in MANUAL mode. Set the shutter speed to Bulb and your aperture to about f/11. Your ISO should be set to 100. Fireworks are super bright and to prevent them from being "blown out" the aperture needs to be small and the ISO low.

You are going to need to turn the Long Exposure Noise Reduction OFF. Press Menu > Shooting Menu > Long exp. NR > Select OFF. When this is ON, any exposure over 1 second gets extra processing by the camera to remove noise. This can last about the same time as the exposure to twice as long, beyond the exposure itself. That feature prevents you from taking the next shot quickly. Since your ISO is already at 100, noise should be at a minimum.

The way bulb mode works with the ML-L3 wireless works is that you press the remote once to open the shutter, then one more time to close it. With my recommendations above this can be anywhere from 3 second to 10 seconds. The longer the exposure the longer the streaks become and more bursts are captured.

16mm f/10 5.6 seconds ISO 100

Nice shot! Wow!! Thank you so very much for the in depth explanation geared towards the d-7000! I'm printing this off & including it in my cheat sheet! I will buy the shutter release remote this weekend!! Thanks so much, I needed this! Do you use your live view?? When I first focus use automatic focus, then switch to manual. I know I will have to focus manually, I have practiced, but when I focus manually I have trouble finding the right spot, (the clearest) I tend to be slightly blurred. I guess it just takes practice.

 

[kgreen]

The cable should be less then $20.

Bulb mode is the way to go. My release cable had the ability to hold down or slide to a position to hold itself. My last trip was the first time using a dslr and shooting fireworks. Read Tom bickers fireworks ebook. It really helped with settings!

Do you have a link, I remember hearing about his ebook a while back.

 

[kgreen]

I found the link for Tom Bricker’s fireworks photography ebook! Spent sometime looking at photo's on his website! Beautiful!!!

 

[Pixel Dust]

Nice shot! Wow!! Thank you so very much for the in depth explanation geared towards the d-7000! I'm printing this off & including it in my cheat sheet! I will buy the shutter release remote this weekend!! Thanks so much, I needed this! Do you use your live view?? When I first focus use automatic focus, then switch to manual. I know I will have to focus manually, I have practiced, but when I focus manually I have trouble finding the right spot, (the clearest) I tend to be slightly blurred. I guess it just takes practice.

Thanks!

I don't use live view at all. I did it once and it took way too long. With live view the mirror is up so you can see the image on your screen. When you want to take a picture, the mirror has to come back down first, then it goes back up for the exposure, down again after the exposure, and up again so you can see a live view. Extremely inefficient, and generally feels laggy. I don't see a need for it since you are on a tripod and already framed everything up. You still get to see a preview of what you just took though, as you normally do. That's all I need to see.

One more thing about the remote. It needs to be set to "Quick-Response". Go into Menu > Shooting Menu > Remote Control Mode > and set to "Quick-Response remote". This is to ensure that there is no delay when you press the remote button. I believe the default was "2 seconds".

As for focusing. I just use the view finder. Choose the focal length you want. I try to go the widest, so it was 16mm for me. Then just focus on the castle. I usually wait for a bright color. Sometimes it may even go white! The D7000 can focus on the castle at night because it's awesome like that. Yeah, I said it.

Also, if you are going to be doing this often you can set all of these setting to the Custom U1 U2 modes. Very handy.

 

[Cafeen]

Question about the remote (not really for me...since I shoot Canon and have a wired one ), but does the fact that it triggers from in front of the camera affect your shooting? It's the main reason I went wired instead of wireless on the Canon side of things, but don't really know if it would have made a difference. May be something for the OP to consider though, but since you have obvious good experience, it may be nothing .

Or is the D7000 designed different and it able to trigger at much wider angles?

 

[Pixel Dust]

Question about the remote (not really for me...since I shoot Canon and have a wired one ), but does the fact that it triggers from in front of the camera affect your shooting? It's the main reason I went wired instead of wireless on the Canon side of things, but don't really know if it would have made a difference. May be something for the OP to consider though, but since you have obvious good experience, it may be nothing .

Or is the D7000 designed different and it able to trigger at much wider angles?

Great question! The D7000 has 2 remote sensors. One in the front AND one in the back. The sensor on the back would be covered with your right thumb if you were to hold your camera normally, near the SD card slots.

 

[kgreen]

Thanks!

I don't use live view at all. I did it once and it took way too long. With live view the mirror is up so you can see the image on your screen. When you want to take a picture, the mirror has to come back down first, then it goes back up for the exposure, down again after the exposure, and up again so you can see a live view. Extremely inefficient, and generally feels laggy. I don't see a need for it since you are on a tripod and already framed everything up. You still get to see a preview of what you just took though, as you normally do. That's all I need to see.

One more thing about the remote. It needs to be set to "Quick-Response". Go into Menu > Shooting Menu > Remote Control Mode > and set to "Quick-Response remote". This is to ensure that there is no delay when you press the remote button. I believe the default was "2 seconds".


As for focusing. I just use the view finder. Choose the focal length you want. I try to go the widest, so it was 16mm for me. Then just focus on the castle. I usually wait for a bright color. Sometimes it may even go white! The D7000 can focus on the castle at night because it's awesome like that. Yeah, I said it.

Also, if you are going to be doing this often you can set all of these setting to the Custom U1 U2 modes. Very handy.

Thank you! I figured the live view would give a bit of a lag, but I thought I would ask just incase. I think I have only used it a couple of times. Thanks so much for all the input, I really appreciate it! I also have an extra battery on my wish list, & another memory card. I love that on the d-7000 you can use 2 cards & set the 2nd one up as overflow.

 

[kgreen]

Question about the remote (not really for me...since I shoot Canon and have a wired one ), but does the fact that it triggers from in front of the camera affect your shooting? It's the main reason I went wired instead of wireless on the Canon side of things, but don't really know if it would have made a difference. May be something for the OP to consider though, but since you have obvious good experience, it may be nothing .

Or is the D7000 designed different and it able to trigger at much wider angles?

Good question! This thought crossed my mind too. Having not used the remote, I thought about this too. I was worried about having to reach towards the front of the camera. I'm glad to find out about the 2 sensors in front & back! You all are awesome! Thank you!

 

[kgreen]

Thanks!


The D7000 can focus on the castle at night because it's awesome like that. Yeah, I said it.

Also, if you are going to be doing this often you can set all of these setting to the Custom U1 U2 modes. Very handy.

That's great! I really love my D-7000! Best investment yet! The camera itself is set up perfect, very easy to use! I haven't set up the user1 user2 modes yet, I think setting one up for firework shots would be great! I like that it gives you 2 spots to store info.

 

[kgreen]

Pixel Dust, Is there any diffrence between the 2? I did a search for ML-L3 & found 2 remotes. The picture shows the same remote for both, I found them on bestbuy.com

Nikon - Wireless Remote for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
Model: ML-L3
SKU: 7191077
$29.99


Nikon - ML-L3 Wireless Infrared Shutter Release Remote with 40.5mm UV Filter
Model: 4730-63230-KIT
SKU: 4234358
$29.95

 

[Pixel Dust]

Pixel Dust, Is there any diffrence between the 2? I did a search for ML-L3 & found 2 remotes. The picture shows the same remote for both, I found them on bestbuy.com

Nikon - Wireless Remote for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
Model: ML-L3
SKU: 7191077
$29.99


Nikon - ML-L3 Wireless Infrared Shutter Release Remote with 40.5mm UV Filter
Model: 4730-63230-KIT
SKU: 4234358
$29.95

It appears to be the exact same remote. The second one is a kit that comes with a filter, cleaning kit, and microfiber cloth. Most likely that filter won't fit on any lens you have. It's a small filter size. Though with the cleaning kit and cloth, it just might be worth it.

 

[gruZ]

The other thing you might want to look in to is a Neutral Density (ND) filter. This allows you to keep the shutter open for a very long time, allowing you to then capture several "bursts" of fireworks on one frame. Here are a few examples that were shot with a 6 (or 8 - can't remember) stop ND filter:

52 second exposure, f10, ISO 400

74 second exposure, f8, ISO 400

B&W makes good ND filters, although they can be a bit pricey. You can go to B&H's website and do a search on ND filters.

 

[kgreen]

The other thing you might want to look in to is a Neutral Density (ND) filter. This allows you to keep the shutter open for a very long time, allowing you to then capture several "bursts" of fireworks on one frame. Here are a few examples that were shot with a 6 (or 8 - can't remember) stop ND filter:

52 second exposure, f10, ISO 400

74 second exposure, f8, ISO 400

B&W makes good ND filters, although they can be a bit pricey. You can go to B&H's website and do a search on ND filters.

Oh wow beautiful! Lot's of nice colors! With the shutter open for so long, I read that people use the hat.. or black foam trick to cover the lens. Did you do that or was it open the whole time? I really like the photo's, nice work! I had also read about the ND filter too, although I haven't priced one yet. I'll have to go check it out. Thank you!

 

[k5jm]

Canon 7D 8mm f8