which lens for shooting fireworks? 14mm, 28-75 or 70-200?

[asdf]

Originally Posted by raider

Hi.

Australia Day (26th Jan) is coming real soon and there will be a big display of fireworks here. I would really like to try shooting fireworks for the first time using DSLR.

1 question: which lens is more suitable for the application?

DA14, Tamron 28-75 or Tamron 70-200?

Thanks for the help!

I shot fireworks with my "assistant" who shot them using a camcorder. I was unhappy with the results: overexposing the digital sensor on BOTH, the Canon camcorder--in its "fireworks" mode--and my K200D resulted in very noticeable dark horizontal lines in the photographs and video! I shot in Bulb mode with, as far as I remember, F8, but I guess we were too close. Go for Bulb mode, high F stop, ISO100, use a cable switch and don't stand too close or use even a higher F stop. Since I'd recommend standing farther, I'd go with a more telephoto lens.

When googling about the horizontal lines, I discovered that people get the same funny effect on Canon DSLR's when trying to do astrophotography.

EDIT: I'm not too unhappy since the aforementioned display was pretty crappy anyway.

[Mechan1k]

I used my kit lens .... as that's the widest I had at the time ... and blow me down ... it turned out pretty damn good.

I had mine out to 18mm ... on the tripod ... bulb mode ... f/8. And just shoot.
I was amazed how simple it was ... oh ... turn off NR (it takes the same length black frame immediately after).

My remote shutter allowed me to used Bulb mode ... this made life easier.

Photobucket is blocked here at work ... but here's the link from my OLD post.

First go at fireworks

[raider]

Thanks for all the reply. The BIG day is finally here this coming Monday! Yeh!!

I will try my very best to get good shots. This will be my first time shooting fireworks. Can't wait

[shutterpuppy]

Really enjoying these fireworks pics. I was just wondering if anyone has tried to shoot them "hand held" using a 50mm f 1.4 lens and a higher ISO and then crop?

[Mechan1k]

The thing with fireworks ... the longer the exposure the more dramatic.
So with my shots above ... most were around the 6 second mark ... so handholding was not on the cards for me.

I found 50mm was too tight a crop really ... a wide angle is really needed .... I was lucky that 18mm was wide enough for me as I was in the middle of a paddock (in-laws property) at the time.

[reeftool]

I have used the kit lens for fireworks and most of my shooting is at 18-30 mm range and then I crop. Its hard to anticipate exactly where in the sky the rocket will explode so I try to get as much sky as possible. You can get some decent shots hand held but you'll probably get more keepers with a tripod or monopod.

[Marc Sabatella]

Originally Posted by shutterpuppy

Really enjoying these fireworks pics. I was just wondering if anyone has tried to shoot them "hand held" using a 50mm f 1.4 lens and a higher ISO and then crop?

I've done handheld fireworks shots before, although not with that lens. If I were using that lens, cropping would be the last thing on my mind, though, as it would be too long already if you're anywhere near the fireworks. I suppose if you're standing a mile away you might need to crop.

Anyhow, you don't get the trails you get with long exposures, but they can still look nice. I've tried handholding long exposures, figuring if I'm gong for moption blur, camera shake wouldn't hurt. I was wrong :-). Motion blur looks cool, camera shake looks like camera shake.

Anyhow, here's a sample with the M28/2.8 at 1/20" to avoid camera shake. This one could maybe have benefited from cropping, but I didn't because I thought the surroundings were part of the story. But 50mm would actually have been too long.


K200D, M28/2.8, f/2.8, 1/20", ISO 800

[shutterpuppy]

Originally Posted by Marc Sabatella

I've done handheld fireworks shots before, although not with that lens. If I were using that lens, cropping would be the last thing on my mind, though, as it would be too long already if you're anywhere near the fireworks. I suppose if you're standing a mile away you might need to crop.

Anyhow, you don't get the trails you get with long exposures, but they can still look nice. I've tried handholding long exposures, figuring if I'm gong for moption blur, camera shake wouldn't hurt. I was wrong :-). Motion blur looks cool, camera shake looks like camera shake.

Anyhow, here's a sample with the M28/2.8 at 1/20" to avoid camera shake. This one could maybe have benefited from cropping, but I didn't because I thought the surroundings were part of the story. But 50mm would actually have been too long.


K200D, M28/2.8, f/2.8, 1/20", ISO 800

Marc, nice shot for being hand-held Did you use any of the scene modes on your K200D, "night portrait" came to mind when I first saw it. You got me waiting for the 4th of July already.

Barry

[Marc Sabatella]

Originally Posted by shutterpuppy

Marc, nice shot for being hand-held Did you use any of the scene modes on your K200D, "night portrait" came to mind when I first saw it. You got me waiting for the 4th of July already.

Thanks! No, I use "M" mode pretty much exclusively. There is no magic in Scene modes that can't be easily duplicated in any other mode. I knew I wanted a fast enough shutter speed to handhold, and I know that requires both high ISO and a wdie aperture at night. So I selected a high ISO using the Fn menu and a wide aperture using the aperture ring (it's a fully manual lens). I probably hit the Green button to have the camera select a shutter speed for me - most likely pointing the camera at the sidewalk or the wall to my right. But actually, it probably would have picked an even slower shutter speed that would have rendered things as bright as day and yielded clipping like crazy in the fireworks. So I may have just set it to 1/20" myself after taking some test shots and checking the LCD & histogram.