time for this years fireworks thread

[linguine]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guine/2638282168/sizes/m/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guine/2637450923/sizes/m/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guine/2637450945/sizes/m/
Had the thunder storms move out just a little too early tonight to get any shots of fireworks and lightning.

[SilverStag]

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[RcMacStudent]

My first time trying to shoot fireworks, I like them anyways… Does anyone have any tips on avoiding lens flare when shooting fireworks?

http://flickr.com/photos/farkitall/2638733620/

http://flickr.com/photos/farkitall/2637903597/

http://flickr.com/photos/farkitall/2637901677/

[Choc-Ful-A]

Here’s a couple I took in Santa Cruz tonight. I was on the other side of the harbor using a tripod and a telephoto lens (yeah I was “that guy” this year). The exposures were very long, which is why the boats are leaving light trails. Someone in the crowd claimed the object in the sky in the last shot was some form of flare not a typical firework. It was definitely odd. It seemed to hang motionless for awhile then very slowly descend towards the ground.

[jpatten]

Some “flares” have little parachutes to keep them in the air longer.
I have heard of military flares done that way

anyway Here is my favorite fireworks shot from last night

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2640104115_0352ab61fa_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3126/2640144799_7eccabbdf5_b.jpg

[soosh]

I didn’t take any this year on the 4th, but I did notice taking some last winter, that closing down the f-stop to around 8 or 9 or smaller seemed to add to the sharpness of the fireworks.

some of my favorite from the ski area:

[Elsinore]

Beautiful stuff, guys! Here are some of mine from this year:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lady_elsinore/2643136454

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lady_elsinore/2642308191

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lady_elsinore/2643135786

[anneb]

Back in town now- but I had a TERRIBLE time with fireworks this year- I’ve never felt quite so frustrated with the experience! We had thunderstorms plow through a couple hours before the fireworks, but it was incredibly humid- my glasses fogged just by me being outside, and I spent enough time over the course of the evening just wiping them off. By the time the fireworks started, it looked like we were getting a bit of ground fog, too. Another point to consider- this wasn’t the National Mall display downtown, where I’d be taking them from far off– this was the local neighborhood one, so everything was smaller scale, from the fireworks to the altitude to my distance from them.

(The other problem with the humidity is that my D70s gets cranky when it gets humid out. I wasn’t willing to do anything to change that, however.)

End result, my first shots ended up looking more like glowing balls of plasma than fireworks. I started messing around with aperture and shutter speed, to see if I could do anything to salvage the situation. d: If I shortened the exposure, I didn’t get the glowing plasma clouds, but ended up with something that makes you think “Hedgehog” more than “firework” — small, prickly orbs. I did get some, just never more than one or two together.

A couple of my most frustrating examples are here:

http://www.ooblick.com/gallery/v/anneb/Local/BadFireworks-0764.jpg.html
http://www.ooblick.com/gallery/v/anneb/Local/BadFireworks-0699.jpg.html

Now, this is the DC area, and I can expect it to be muggy on July 4th, but it’s never been that bad, and I’ve not had this sort of trouble before. I figure tho I can well expect it’ll eventually do this to me again. Anybody got any good ideas besides “move away from the swampland. Maybe try the desert?”

[gensolo]

Sorry for the late entry guys. But I am new and just signed up so this is my first chance to pos tmy pictures. This is my first time photographing fireworks. I kinda got better as the night went on. I was outside about 3-4 hours doing this. These were the people that live behind me doing them. The whole street behind me puts money together every year has a big party, and buys 100s of fireworks. So enjoy leave some C & C.

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[soosh]

Back in town now- but I had a TERRIBLE time with fireworks this year- I’ve never felt quite so frustrated with the experience! We had thunderstorms plow through a couple hours before the fireworks, but it was incredibly humid- my glasses fogged just by me being outside, and I spent enough time over the course of the evening just wiping them off. By the time the fireworks started, it looked like we were getting a bit of ground fog, too. Another point to consider- this wasn’t the National Mall display downtown, where I’d be taking them from far off– this was the local neighborhood one, so everything was smaller scale, from the fireworks to the altitude to my distance from them.

(The other problem with the humidity is that my D70s gets cranky when it gets humid out. I wasn’t willing to do anything to change that, however.)

End result, my first shots ended up looking more like glowing balls of plasma than fireworks. I started messing around with aperture and shutter speed, to see if I could do anything to salvage the situation. d: If I shortened the exposure, I didn’t get the glowing plasma clouds, but ended up with something that makes you think “Hedgehog” more than “firework” — small, prickly orbs. I did get some, just never more than one or two together.

A couple of my most frustrating examples are here:

http://www.ooblick.com/gallery/v/anneb/Local/BadFireworks-0764.jpg.html
http://www.ooblick.com/gallery/v/anneb/Local/BadFireworks-0699.jpg.html

Now, this is the DC area, and I can expect it to be muggy on July 4th, but it’s never been that bad, and I’ve not had this sort of trouble before. I figure tho I can well expect it’ll eventually do this to me again. Anybody got any good ideas besides “move away from the swampland. Maybe try the desert?”

Anne, you get those plasma ball looks because you’re way over-exposed. Your first linked shot has an ISO of 1000, which you totally don’t want. If you have the camera on auto-exposure, it’s going to try to compensate for the darkness by increasing the length of time the shutter is open or by bumping up the ISO. For anything bright outside at night, you want to use the lowest ISO possible, both for the low color noise and also so that you’re not lettting too much light in to the sensor.

Second, close your shutter down to limit the amount of light getting onto the sensor. If you’re getting white light, you’re over exposing. You were at f/6.3 and f/8, try dropping that to f/11 – f/16.

Fireworks are maddening to shoot. Keep after it.

[SilverStag]

Just a note:

gensolo, please try to limit the size of the photos posted here… it really kills the thread for people on a slower connection.

Thanks.

[gensolo]

oh sorry about that, what size should i bring them down to? or is it okay if i just do links?

[RcMacStudent]

oh sorry about that, what size should i bring them down to? or is it okay if i just do links?

Posting links is fine.

If you save your pictures as a .jpeg and resize them to 600-800 pixels (on the long side) it will be much smaller than the .png’s you’ve been using.

Or you can upload the full size pictures to a web service like Flickr and just post a smaller size in the forums.

[Author]

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