Fireworks - Learning to Photograph - Critique please

[Mike Buckley]

I adjusted the white balance

Marie's adjustment of the white balance eliminated most of the color cast in the sky and water in that image. (That should be done to all of your images.) Her adjustment also saves me the time of working with your images myself.

[JBW]

The last Canada Day fireworks display I saw was in New Brunswick. What has stayed with me is the 3D beauty of the fireworks. I have no idea if that effect is catchable(sic) on film. Coming from me this will sound a little strange but I find the city lights distracting.

[lk1wzhu4aie]

Very cute photo.

[Brownbear]

Marie,
Thank you for taking the time to show me this. Truly appreciated. I will give it a go later today and post.

The WB to use is confusing. IMO there should be a WB for nighttime.

Christina, please forgive me that I played with your image without your permission, but, here goes.



I adjusted the white balance and increased the saturation in the reds.


Marie

[Mike Buckley]

IMO there should be a WB for nighttime.

There is: it's the daylight setting. Any natural light in the scene is sunlight reflected from the moon. Your issue here is that you have many light sources including various color temperatures in the fireworks, office buildings and other city lights. Your best bet is to dial in a color balance that renders the sky black with no color cast. EDIT: See Post #40 for a clarification that corrects the previous sentence.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Mike... The explanation of colourful fireworks on a black piece of velvet is one that I can envision. Albeit I still have to think about the colour cast because would not the red colours of the red fireworks reflect on the sky and also the water. I will work on one or two of the images later today and post.

I've noted Marie's edit and will use that as a guideline to follow.

Thank you.

Nice photos, Marie!

Christina,

For great examples of the punch (or pop) that I was referring to, consider Marie's photos.

You asked about my comment mentioning that your images are flat. When that term is used, it generally means (as in this case) that there is not enough mid-tone contrast. The color cast in the sky is contributing to the lack of contrast because the color cast is introducing mid-tones to what would otherwise be a plain black ski, as in Marie's photos.

As for the color cast in the sky that you're not seeing, try selecting the sky in each photo and strongly raising the black point or using a darkening slider to get the sky to black. Doing so has the effect of providing a perfect background for the colorful fireworks exactly as putting a piece of black velvet behind a really colorful flower. Once you've done that, compare the revised sky to the sky in these posts and I think you'll see the strong color cast. By the way, the color cast evident in the sky is also evident in the water and on the buildings, though in the end it may not be as objectionable there.

I'll work with your photos and get back to you later.

[Brownbear]

Brian... Take a peek at the link to Mike's B&W image... It seems to have the 3D effect. If I try this again it will be at sea festival where the vista is just ocean water.

New Member - Thank you for your comment.

[Mike Buckley]

I have an idea, Christina. Please provide me either publicly or privately a link to your four RAW files. I'd like to determine if Nikon software's auto white balance handles these scenes well. If it does, it will be an effective, free solution for you.

[rtbaum]

Christina- the situation was such that I ended up watching the fireworks from a mall parking lot, surrounded by lights. The camera never left the bag
I do have a few left from the previous shoot

[Brownbear]

Hi Mike,

Thank you. I will upload the raw images and send to you in a PM.

I have an idea, Christina. Please provide me either publicly or privately a link to your four RAW files. I'd like to determine if Nikon software's auto white balance handles these scenes well. If it does, it will be an effective, free solution for you.

[Brownbear]

Randy,

Thank you for sharing.. These are stunningly gorgeous.

Sorry to hear about your viewpoint for July 4th, but you already have at least two perfect fireworks shots.

Christina- the situation was such that I ended up watching the fireworks from a mall parking lot, surrounded by lights. The camera never left the bag
I do have a few left from the previous shoot

[Mike Buckley]

Take a peek at the link to Mike's B&W image... It seems to have the 3D effect.

The reason I like that image so much (remember that it's actually not mine) is that it is the only image I have seen that displays the fireworks as a strong foreground element. When I stand in front of the print, I get the impression that the fireworks are going to fall on me. I can't imagine a better 3D effect.

By the way, I bought the print sight-unseen upon the strong recommendation of a dealer that I highly respect.

[rtbaum]

http://photographylife.com/how-to-photograph-fireworks

This may help

[Brownbear]

Yes, that is the first thing I noticed about the image... Even though it so wee. Maybe I will rent a boat for my next try.

The reason I like that image so much (remember that it's actually not mine) is that it is the only image I have seen that displays the fireworks as a strong foreground element. When I stand in front of the print, I get the impression that the fireworks are going to fall on me. I can't imagine a better 3D effect.

By the way, I bought the print sight-unseen upon the strong recommendation of a dealer that I highly respect.

[Brownbear]

http://photographylife.com/how-to-photograph-fireworks

This may help

Thank you Randy. Truly appreciated.

[Mike Buckley]

Christina,

Now that I have opened your four RAW files in Nikon software, I see the issue: you captured them using Auto1 white balance which is perfect in each image. You introduced the color cast when you post-processed them using a different white balance. EDIT: Post #40 corrects the previous sentence.

You asked about the colors of the fireworks reflecting in the sky (I assume you mean the smoke and clouds) and water. Don't confuse those colors with color cast. A color cast affects the entire image. To make the fireworks and city lights pop, you want a color cast that is as neutral as possible. (We typically describe that as no color cast.) That renders the sky in this case as a neutral black tone, which is the ideal background for making the other colors pop.

Interestingly, in these four images the most neutral black tones are rendered on my profiled and calibrated monitor when using the Auto1 white balance that you set in your camera. Even when using Nikon software that reads the proprietary information embedded in the RAW files to automatically calculate the white balance, the results aren't quite as good as using the auto white balance calculated by the camera. EDIT: This entire paragraph is also inaccurate information corrected in Post #40.

[allenlennon]

Chrstina, great job on these, really! I want to try fireworks, but alas i dont have the oppertunities come as often.

[Marie Hass]

Thanks, Christina for taking such wonderful pictures, and thank you, again, Mike for taking the time to explain everything. I will be taking my fireworks pictures tomorrow and you can bet I will take advantage of everything posted here.

Marie

[Mike Buckley]

I post-processed the image shown below using Christina's RAW file. My adjustments are shown in the order shown below:

1. Changed her in-camera Nikon Neutral profile to the Nikon Standard profile and eliminated any sharpening she might have included in her capture (I didn't check to see if she included any.)
2. Her in-camera exposure was ideal so I then adjusted the curve to my liking. (Nothing extreme or unusual was required.)
3. Increased the saturation of all tones
4. Applied my usual capture sharpening (Christina's sensor is the same as mine) to everything except the sky
5. Brightened everything except the sky only as a concession to Christina's preference for detail in those areas. Otherwise, I would have left it as is. I didn't spend the time required to create an ideal mask.
6. Selected the blown area of the lowest splash of fireworks and added just a hint of color using one of the adjacent colors at 17% opacity
7. Fine-tuned the white point (Now that the previous adjustment had been made, that became necessary.)
8. Cropped

Compare this version to her Photo #2. Notice that the biggest single difference is the warm color cast that she introduced to the entire image. She should intentionally do that if she likes that style, but only if she likes it. The other main difference is that her post-processing emphasizes the reflection in the water; in my version, those reflections were less interesting (probably due to using no additional warmth), so I cropped at the bottom.

It took far longer for me to write this post than to do the post-processing. As an example, my software allowed me to make the first three adjustments in one quick edit step. If it was my image, I also would have taken the time to eliminate the smoke that is evident above the buildings but I think Christina would choose not to eliminate it.

[Mike Buckley]

Christina,

I just now discovered something very important. You probably did not introduce the color cast to the black area of the sky when you changed the white balance (more about that below); you probably introduced it in some other adjustment that you made. I come to that conclusion because when I use Nikon software to change the white balance and display only the top left black area of the image, nothing in that area changes when I change the white balance. I can't know for sure because I don't use the software that you use to adjust white balance, but if the Nikon software doesn't change the black area of the sky at all I seriously doubt that your software changes it so much merely by changing the white balance.

I was also wrong when I stated that the camera's Auto1 white balance renders the sky more neutral than the Nikon software's automatic calculation; as mentioned above, changing the white balance doesn't affect the black area of the sky. It was an optical illusion that caused me to think the sky was changing when I viewed the entire image. It was only when I viewed only one part of the sky (to isolate it) that I realized that in fact it was not changing.