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Fireworks Camera Setttings?
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Hi all!
I’m gonna be shooting some fireworks this Sunday night in Bray and I want to make sure I have my settings right before I go.
I’ll be setting up my Nikon D40 and Nikkor 18-55mm lens on one tripod and my Nikon D80 and Sigma 10-20mm lens on another tripod, both using remote shutter controls of course :wink:
I need help with regards to shutter speed and aperture though, what in your opinion would be good settings to start off with?
Any help would be much appreciated :)
Well first of all let me say I’m no expert, but I had a go myself last weekend so I’ll tell you what I did.
I posted some of the shots of fireworks a few days ago ( https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=31561 )I metered off the sky when there was nothing in it (and I was away from lampposts etc.) and then just set to manual exposure.
I opened the aperture up fully as I figured the fireworks were far enough away to be sharp with infinite focus at fully open aperture.
I thought having a fast shutter speed was most important as movement blurred fireworks might not, in most cases, be so nice.That was my thinking. I shot 1/30 (mostly, #2 would have been 1/15) at f/1.2 with ISO 1600.
Perhaps you could shoot a stop or so less light than your reading, to avoid the fireworks burning out, a dark sky is a dark sky [edit: and your meter will probably try to lighten the sky].
But I was trying to get some detail of people in as well.
This may or may not be good advice, check your histograms when shooting is good advice :) .Good luck,
Martin
Thank You Martin!
I had a look at your photos, very nice, and thanks for the advice. I reckon I might have both my cameras set at fast and slow shutter speeds, maybe a slow shutter might give some different results too? Only one way of finding out anyway . . .
Thanks again
What I would do is set an aperture of around F4 pr 5.6 and use manual exposure, setting it to bulb. Just hold a lens cap over the lens until you hear a firework on the way up, remove it as it explodes and cover again until the next burst. Should give you a sky full of dramatic explosions!
Hi Colin. I don’t think there’s a right way or a wrong way when photographing fireworks. I took some fireworks shots a good few years ago and they came out very well. I think a lot depends on where you are photographing from. I set up my camera on a tripod across the river from where they were being launched (on a barge in Waterford). I waited until the first few fireworks exploded to try & judge what I was going to do. I then set the shutter to about f/16, used the bulb setting and kept the shutter open for about 30 sec to 1 min. A few explosions happened during this time and the resulting prints had nice multi explosions, the city lights and streaked light from passing traffic. I was really pleased with the results, but I think it’s all down to trying to judge how long the exposure is going to be and a lot of luck. :wink: Hope you get the results you want. good luck.
Great Idea!
I’ll have one of my cameras set to bulb, cant wait for it, once again – great idea, thanks!
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