Overlooked Firework Photography Technique?

[lukas_jenkins]

So tonight I am going to be shooting some fireworks with my D2X. I will be bringing two batteries,

12-24mm, 50mm, 70-200mm, tripod, flashlight, 4GB CF card, 2GB CF card, and 4 1GB CF cards. If I shot

in raw this would give me about 490 exposures in Raw given about 49 per GB for 10GB. So I do not see

myself needing to shoot in JPG. I will be shooting at ISO 100 at f/8-11 with a shutter speed around 5-10

seconds. I will set the WB to 5600K. So I pretty much know all the settings and everything I need to do.

The one thing I do not have is a shutter release cable. So I basically would do the 2-second timer deal with

exposure delay. I will also turn the long exposure NR (noise reduction) on.

 

Here is my new theory. Why not set up the interval timer to just fire off an exposure of 5 seconds in 10-

second intervals. That is 6 per minute, 120 per hour. It is essentially the same idea of using the 2-second

self-timer just automated. So I would get there set up my composition get the exposure right where I want

it then just let the camera shoot with the interval timer and I can just enjoy the show. I know this is not as

precise as doing it by yourself but since this is not an assignment if others think it is a great idea I will

give this a whirl!

 

Let me know what you think,

 

Lukas

[ky2]

Interval is nice, but you'll miss out on timing, and perhaps waste space for nothing.

[ShunCheung]

We have touched on this issue in another thread about the difference between lightning photography and firework photography.

 

At least what I would like to shoot is to start from the firework going up, explode, and then coming down, that whole cycle in one frame. You need a person to control when the exposure begins and ends while watching the firework.

 

If you use some fixed time intervals, you may catch the tail end of the previous round plus the beginning of the next, or some sort of random cut off. Your firework will look "disjoint" in the final image. In other words, the light streak going up will not be connected to what is coming down. At least that is not what I am after.

[lukas_jenkins]

Honestly I never have shot fireworks in the past so this could explain why my idea was

shot out of the sky. I guess for lightning photography the interval timer would probably

work since there is no "signal" like with fireworks so timing is just a matter of luck really.

Well thanks for your help obviously if I didn't ask I probably would had tried it and not

been happy with the results! Well in all seriousness I don't think we'll be going to the

fireworks now because there is a chance of thunderstorms until 11PM so maybe I will get

to use the interval timer... It has been beautiful all day and now the clouds are moving in.

 

Lukas

[Jerry_]

...for what it is worth next time. Opening the shutter with your finger on the button is OK for fireworks. If the camera is on a tripod, the initial image is pretty much 'black' until the streak of light goes up and the burst is recorded [you should have no more shakes by this time.]<div></div>

[stephen hazelton]

Lukas, give it a try.

 

My reasoning is this: No matter how well you photograph those fireworks, you're not going to have anything that looks very original or new. So it's not like you achieve some great art by shooting them just so. Secondly, it's hard to get fireworks shots that look bad. Especially if you shoot a whole gob of shots like that, you're going to have some pretty nice ones in the bunch. Thirdly, if it's not fine art, and not a money-maker for you, you might as well have fun with it, and only you can decide what fun is. If it's setting it on a tripod and firing away, why not? Enjoy the show.

 

A friend of mine had a new digital Rebel and didn't have a tripod. He tried hand-held shots of several seconds. Guess what? It works pretty well. Yes, they look different, but they still look cool.

 

In what little fireworks shooting I've done, the biggest problem is not so much timing as it is composition. The different fireworks explode in different parts of the sky. If you use too wide of a setting, you get a lot of little fireworks in a big empty frame. Get too tight, and you crop out half of the bigger nicer shots.

[mark u]

With noise reduction on and 10 second exposures off a 2 second delay, each exposure will take at least 22 seconds. Do you really expect the show to last 3-4 hours (probably more, since the file size will likely be a lot smaller than daytime subjects)?? (BTW 6 shots/min is 360 shots/hr).

 

I think you would have done best to get yourself a remote release, aiming to shoot in bulb mode, and shoot your own dark frames rather than have the camera tied up half the time shooting its own.

[ShunCheung]

Lukas, please don't feel that your idea was shot out of the sky. Actually I have only shot fireworks a couple of times myself. We are merely exchanging ideas here, and there are always new and non-traditional ways to achieve new results. I was a bit worried that my point was a bit hard to describe in words; apparently it came across ok.

 

It is relatively easy to get good results shooting fireworks. Digital simply makes it easier for us to fine tune our strategy on the fly. I would suggest using a wider lens to cover a bit more area and then, if necessary, crop on the computer.

[paul levin]

I just shot a fireworks show last night. I agree with a privious post, you'd miss a lot of

shots with your method. As it is you'll miss alot waiting for the NR to release the

camera back to your control. Here's a shot from last night.<div></div>

[Ed_Ingold]

Good composition with firewords is a combination of timing with a good measure of luck. If there is a 2 second delay, timing goes out the window.

 

You would like to capture the entire burst, without fragments of the previous burst in the image. That's not entirely under your control.

 

I wait for the previous burst to dissipate, while listening for the "whump" of the next mortar. You need to press the shutter within 1/2 second of the "whump" to catch the burst. I hold the shutter for 10-15 seconds, or long enough for 2-3 bursts, and trust to luck for the composition.

 

If you don't have a shutter release cable, you can damp the camera motion with one hand and press the shutter with the other, Moose Peterson style (qv http://moosepeterson.com for long-lens technique), as I did in this example.<div></div>