Fireworks settings on a D300?

[louise1]

Shooting with a D300, a tripod, and a 17-55 mm, what would I be looking at as far as settings on the D300 to get some great fireworks

shots?

 

(side note - i rented the D300 for a week, and am loving it. I can only imagine loving the D700 as much or more. So after reading a bit

more, and once people get the D700 in their hands, I am going to get sell my D200 body, 17-55, 18-200, and trade it up for the D700 and a

24-70mm -- I'm so glad I didn't jump in and buy the D300 or the D3)

[ellis_vener_photography]

manual focus at infinity (but check ahead of time to make sure where thtaactually is on your lens and body

combination) and then tape the focusing ring down

 

exposure; ISO 200 , f/8, bracket exposure times between 4 to 30 seconds.

 

And yes, use a tripod.

[ShunCheung]

At least in the US, we get those questions once a year in early July. The base ISO on the D300 is 200. I'd say use f8

and expose for 15 to 30 seconds on a tripod. Timing is important.

 

The good thing about digital is that you can check the review image and histogram immediately and adjust for the

next shot.

[waltflanagan]

It all depends on what you want to capture. Is there also a skyline with other lights? How many simultaneous bursts are going on? Here's one of mine from last year. ISO 100, f11, 4 seconds.<div></div>

[lilly_w]

Due to the unpredictable combination of timing and simultaneous arcing of two or more mortar rounds, I suggest using a cable release and the bulb shutter-speed setting (tripod, no doubt) so you retain ultimate control over exposures and, therefore, the number of actual rounds per frame. Simply dialing-in a fixed speed of x-seconds ups the miss quotient in hit-or-miss. With a fixed speed you run the risk of clipping the beginning or end of the arcing display and may get too many rounds in one frame. Too many arcing rounds make for a very 'busy' and confusing composition.

 

Timing is everything. Depending on your proximity to launch-area you may be able to hear the initial 'boom' as the mortar is ignited and rockets skyward. Look for the solitary white streak of the engine propellant and depress the shutter to capture it; this can become a nice 'anchor' feature in the image (as seen above). Once you have sufficient arcing without the dregs (the slow and progressive fade of every last bit of 'burn', which potentially becomes distracting in the rendition), close the shutter. From time to time check the perspective through the lens in order to assure proper coverage.

 

ISO 200, f8 or f11, bulb, filterless lens and a flashlight for fiddling.

[cdzombak]

I got some excellent photos last weekend with my D70s. First, to make sure the lens was properly focused (it doesn't have a hard infinity stop). I let the camera AF on a particularly bright firework, which it did without problems. Then I set it to manual focus and didn't touch the focus ring.

 

I set the camera to ISO 200, f/14 or f/16, and used a cable release to hold the shutter open (using the bulb setting) until something interesting happened.

 

I'm not done weeding through and cropping the images yet, but I did get a high percentage of keepers. Some that I've finished are here:

 

Unfortunately, I had to crop them quite heavily; I used a wide-angle lens because I couldn't predict where things would happen. This means I can't get decent-size prints (Adorama goes so far as to refuse anything bigger than 4x6 or 5x7). I wish I had the resolution of a D300.

[diane_madura]

http://www.nyip.com/ezine/holidays/firewksintro.html

[rarmstrong]

Louise, I think it depends on where you are and what you are trying to catch. I took a bunch of shots at Disney this year with my D300 and I had to hand hold it because of the crowd and the situation. So, the following shot was taken at 1/13 sec, f3.5, iso 3200 at 18 mm with the 18-200 VR zoom. I took a lot of shots at various settings and was happy with many of them. Good luck on the 4th!<div></div>

[rarmstrong]

One more example...<div></div>

[louise1]

great stuff, thanks to all

[trunfio]

Even thought it's nice to be wide to normal on a DX body, sometimes it's nice to zoom to 200mm or so to get a portion of

the light.

[trunfio]

Wide shot...<div></div>

[zaakiy_siddiqui]

See <a href="http://www.photo.net/digital-camera-shopping-forum/00CkeO">http://www.photo.net/digital-camera-shopping-forum/00CkeO</a>.<br/><br/>

 

I love the idea of using bulb mode (or slowest shutter speed if your camera doesn't support bulb) with a black card to cover the lens during intervals between the fireworks. One person here also suggests using the lens cap (don't like that idea myself though - prefer the black card - but I suppose it's good as a last resort).<br/><br/>

[Rene11664880918]

One of my favorite subjects! July and August is Summer festival time, we have fireworks in every village, town and city.

My settings are ISO 100 but this year I'll try 220 coz I'll be using a D300. Lens most of the time at infinity, I used bulb and time every

single shot depending on how big,

bright and long every firework is. Tripod and cable release. If there is a bit or a lot of wind location is important, try to locate

yourself on the side the wind is coming from.

A few shots from last year:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=754557 Rene'

[Jerry_]

8 to 12 seconds exposure at F11 should get you into the ballparrk. If you have ISO 200 (or lower) and a tripod, then hope you are in a area that clears the smoke away from the aerial bursts of light.<div></div>

[sandysocks]

Start your exposure at the end of a burst to give yourself time to pick up some ambient light. ISO 200 I assume. Some shots wil need F8, F11, or F16 for a large display-quite a bit of variation. I would probably stick to f11. I might go to f16 for the finale. Could probably even shoot auto. It's easier than you think. Doesn't matter much how long you leave it open. Remember to shut off the auto-focus. Infinity unless you have fore-ground to work with. Look for lights or reflections or silhouettes to make your shots better than the others. Scout your site. Get there early.

[trunfio]

A little off topic, but I really haven't seen any fireworks pictures that have ever interested me... except if there is a nice city

skyline or something like that (like the Magic Kingdom image). Actually I'm going to try to frame my July 4 pictures this

year with a some heads in the foreground as they are watching. And I'm also going to try for some nice tele shots.

Unfortunately I'm not going to any places with skylines. Boston is too crowded.