Shooting Fireworks
One of the things I've been shooting that I had not expected to be shooting when I started photography but enjoy doing is shooting fireworks.
shot last night at a new Melbourne estate of Woodlea during their Flavour Fest festival. 2.9sec
Timing is everything with fireworks, but it's not too tricky. The key is to be set up before hand and watch the show. Because it is at night, a tripod is a must. Being at night allows you to be very flexible with your shutter speed too. For this reason I set my camera up at ISO100 (low noise), F8 (sharp and depth of field) and shoot in BULB mode using a remote.
With the previously mentioned settings, a typical shot without fireworks would be quite dark. The difference between a 0.5sec exposure and a 4sec exposure is minimal and will still look dark. The key is that the fireworks are a bright source of light in an otherwise dark background. This means that you need shorter exposures when a lot is going on and longer exposures when the firing is slower.
3.6sec
Very short exposures will have less of the typical streaky explosion look about them
1/5sec
And sometimes its just a matter of guessing and hoping. With a lot going on I try and time it so I open the shutter when I hear the firing, then close the shutter about 0.5-1sec after the bang in the sky. The camera can feel a bit sluggish when it's writing the image or trying to show you the preview and you're trying to press it again to capture the next one. And other times my shutter stays down after holding the button for 2sec so I need to release and press it again to stop the exposure and then press again to start a new one. Confused? I get a little like that when there is so much going on too.
With only 7-8min to capture as much as I can, I still have to take a moment to check a preview to make sure the wind isn't blowing the display out of the frame or if I'm exposing correctly. You can plan as much as you want thinking you have a wide enough shot to fit everything and then the wind starts blowing towards you covering you in smoke and having fireworks go off directly above you instead of in front.
the wind was blowing everything to the left of frame, I had to pick my position and angle to get the ground display and the aerials. It doesn't always all fit. This was a different display to the previous shots
And just the set up that I have no idea what things are and how it works...
And a different set up and display
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Watching fireworks at night is always a delight especially when you are with a loved one. Your timing with the camera was perfect. You did a good job capturing the progress on film. The last picture is really a delight!
Thank you very much 😃
I love fireworks great pictures
Hi kieranstone,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate it 😁
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Thank you very much 😃
Fireworks always fascinated me. I would get close to the actual thing but just looking at it from distance is great! I will never understand how this works :) This year, we had a big firework in Switzerland and it ended with a SMILEY! OMG! How did they do it? Anyway..
Your photos are great! It looks like it was an amazing experience. It also looks like you have to have a lot of patience and be quick to capture the moment perfectly. I think you did it very well! Congratulations on the curie vote!
Thanks!
It's great seeing the setup and being involved a little bit in the process too.
They are pretty amazing to watch. Especially up close 😉
aaah so beautiful ! * ___ * i love fireworks, and melbourne's swinging into spring too, so the weather's clearer and perfect for them, too <3
gorgeous shots, @kieranstone !
It was definitely a great night for it!
These photos are so beautiful, they are breathtaking! Now, I want to be really close to those magic views...
I think I may have been too close to these explosions this time 😄
I remember once when we had such colorful X-mas Fireworks I suddenly asked my husband to get his camera and capture them but he looked at me very skeptic and also like yourself explain that you need to prepare before, to set up everything, have tripod and of course the special better camera should be there fore such night photos. I can imagine how it is now and looking at your pictures I am very envious you made real beautiful shots, the fireworks even if the same type but in my opinion every single is different. I love it and of course my favorite time is X-mas and Fireworks one of the reason for that :)
You don't need anything too expensive but something more than a phone camera for sure! And a tripod!
These guys do xmas fireworks too and I've been fortunate to capture those too
Some great shots mate. Glad curie found them.