Fireworks Photography

[bubbawny]

Hi Friends:

I have a question RE: Fireworks photography.

I recently purchased an EF 50mm 1.4, but also have the Kit lens (18-55 f3.5/4) for my EOS 70D.

I read up online for general settings for Fireworks. I used a tripod, mirror lockup, and their recommended settings of ISO 200, F8, Shutter speed 2-4 seconds.

I set my 18-55 to infinity (found it during daylight and marked it with some nail polish since the lens doesn't have a distance scale).

The pics came out ok. Not great.

So here's the question:

Why not use a fast lens? I mean, F8? Why not F1.4?F2?F2.8?

I don't get it.

My shots came out alright. NOthing to write home about. But they were faint. With longer shutter speeds, i got some trails, but little color (started washing out a little).

Is it primarily because those settings would be far too bright, over exposing the images?

I know here in the U.S., the 4th came and went.

But I'm sure there will be more at ball games and such over the summer and I'd like to get better results.

Here's a couple images:





Note: Images were set to camera profile in LR, minor adjustments (white balance), nothing extreme. But I did push vibrance a little more because there was so little color that showed up in the raw image. Histogram was way left (makes sense as most pixels are in the dark).

Again, my main question I guess is why F8 (to F11) seemed to be the recommendation. Would F1.4/1.8/2/2.8 be unwise to use because of DOF? (would they be too shallow?)

Just trying to learn a bit.

stupid me, I just went with the settings recommended and never really tried Wide Open.

[zen]

Hi Bob,

Can't answer your question re larger aperture, but for my money, your images are fine. I don't see a problem with them at all. Thanks for sharing.

Zen

[rpcrowe]

I think your shots are nice captures. My favorite style of fireworks photography, however, also captures some subjects on the ground (people, buildings, statues, etc.) that are lit by the fireworks illumination...

[Shadowman]

Agree with the comments, especially about getting a structure within some of the captures; mix it up and have fun. Usual recommendations, ISO 100 and manual focus, but I'll try additional settings if I have time. If you are near Niagara Falls they have firework displays three times a week.

[Jeff S]

Here's a photograph I made on the 4th. Settings were 1.3 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 800, with a 35mm lens. Not sure the high ISO was a great idea, but my camera handles that pretty well. I don't claim to have any special expertise with night photography generally, or fireworks specifically, but I thought someone might have an observation or two as to what I might have done differently. I chose f/5.6 to make sure the foreground was decent. I would have liked to go to f/11, but didn't want to push the ISO any further and I was okay with 1.3 seconds.

[Shadowman]

Here's a photograph I made on the 4th. Settings were 1.3 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 800, with a 35mm lens. Not sure the high ISO was a great idea, but my camera handles that pretty well. I don't claim to have any special expertise with night photography generally, or fireworks specifically, but I thought someone might have an observation or two as to what I might have done differently. I chose f/5.6 to make sure the foreground was decent. I would have liked to go to f/11, but didn't want to push the ISO any further and I was okay with 1.3 seconds.

Looks good, which WB did you use?

[Rent]

All I can suggest is use a tripod try all the settings on the camera as well as manual In other words play with it
I don't think anyone can say use this aperture or that shutter speed or iso There are too many variables Incidentally What don't you like about your images ?
Roy

[pnodrog]

Unless you are including parts of the scene as John has above the exposure is almost independent of shutter speed. The shutter speed say from a 1/10 to 1 second is set by the time taken for the spread/arc/repetitions of the burst(s) you want to capture. The f stop and ISO settings will depend on how bright the fireworks are and to a lesser extent the distance. No magic formula but if the fireworks are faint you need to increase exposure and if to bright and colour washed out you probably need to decrease exposure. I have used apertures between f4 and f8 with ISO from 400 to 1600. As you can review the shots it is far less crossing your fingers than it was with film.

P.S. Invariably I use both manual focus and manual exposure settings on a tripod or supported by a fence or post when in a crowd.

[rpcrowe]

Here's a photograph I made on the 4th. Settings were 1.3 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 800, with a 35mm lens. Not sure the high ISO was a great idea, but my camera handles that pretty well. I don't claim to have any special expertise with night photography generally, or fireworks specifically, but I thought someone might have an observation or two as to what I might have done differently. I chose f/5.6 to make sure the foreground was decent. I would have liked to go to f/11, but didn't want to push the ISO any further and I was okay with 1.3 seconds.

I really like this shot. Originally, I looked at the burst then down to the foreground. The person shooting the fireworks with a cell phone, brought my eye back up to the burst. Good job all around!

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Those shots beat the heck out of my hastily taken shots.
Hand held w/14mm lens, probably f2.8 to get the speed up there.

[Jeff S]

Looks good, which WB did you use?

As I recall, I used the WB tool in LR Basic Module. Sometimes I wait until getting into PS, but I don't think I used PS this time.

[Jeff S]

All I can suggest is use a tripod try all the settings on the camera as well as manual In other words play with it
I don't think anyone can say use this aperture or that shutter speed or iso There are too many variables Incidentally What don't you like about your images ?
Roy

In hindsight I wish I had experimented a bit more with a slower shutter speed to let the bursts develop a bit more. I probably would have moved toward f/8 - f/11.

As for what I don't like about my images: I have a tendency to over sharpen or, worse, sharpen on a large version of the photograph that I intend to print so that when I make a subsequent 72 dpi version it looks crunchy to me. I've been working on this, lately, so I am improving. Also, my B&W work has never been outstanding. Recently I have learned how to use luminosity masks as well as making conversions using a gradient layer over the B&W conversion tool in PS, both of which are giving me much more flexibility.

[Shadowman]

As I recall, I used the WB tool in LR Basic Module. Sometimes I wait until getting into PS, but I don't think I used PS this time.

I was wondering because of the color cast on the foreground figures, however on another monitor looked reasonable. However, this is a mixed lighting shot so WB can be tricky.

[ccphoto]

ISO 100, 6 seconds, Auto WB 1, f/8



ISO 64, 10 seconds, AB1, f/11

[Jeff S]

I was wondering because of the color cast on the foreground figures, however on another monitor looked reasonable. However, this is a mixed lighting shot so WB can be tricky.

In the original image, before any processing, the foreground sidewalk and figures were quite orange-brown because the street lights just off-camera were a strange yellow light source. The sidewalks were bright orange. All of the foreground people and sidewalk got special treatment to tone them down. As I recall, I selectively added a b&w layer and reduced the opacity to something like 20-25 just to darken them down. You are right. The mixed lighting was challenging because the lights in the middle-ground were a bright white.