Enjoy this display of Japanese Fireworks - taken last Saturday in Duesseldorf,
Germany. K10D with Tamron 28-75, f2.8, MF, ISO 1000, 1/30 or 1/40 for the
individual exposures, handheld:

[benjikan]

Wonderful Panoramic!

[philzucker]

Wonderful Panoramic!

Thanks very much for your comment, Benjamin. Much appreciated!

[rhermans]

Great collection, thanks for sharing them - Ronny

[philzucker]

Great collection

Yes - imagine all of them really appearing at once - you wouldn't know where to look first! :-)
But for a still photography I found this combo a feasable way to show the variety of this
colorful event at one glance.

Thanks for your comment!

Phil

[NaClH2O]

Stupendous pano Phil. I dearly love fireworks. Sometimes I think they are the ultimate art form, they have visual beauty, sound, movement and are extremely ephemeral. Also almost universally adored.

NaCl(your pano makes we want to go oooohhh! ...ahhhhhhhh! )H2O

[HelenEdith]

This is great. You've got some wonderfull "balls" with the short exposures.

You've given me a new angle to try instead of long firework trails caught tripod mounted, which has been my usual method of taking fireworks. I will remember this technique when firework season rolls around in November.

[PeterAM]

Very nice. I miss those pictures that you used to post of you and all of your twins. Hope they are all well.

[philzucker]

Stupendous pano Phil. I dearly love fireworks. Sometimes I think they are the ultimate art form, they have visual beauty, sound, movement and are extremely ephemeral. Also almost universally adored.

What a great description of fireworks! Thanks for your kind comment!

Phil

[philzucker]

This is great. You've got some wonderfull "balls" with the short exposures.

You've given me a new angle to try instead of long firework trails caught tripod mounted, which has been my usual method of taking fireworks. I will remember this technique when firework season rolls around in November.

Thanks for your comment!

I do think that SR of the K10D helped a bit here. I experimented with different ISOs and shutter speeds until I thought I was getting something worthwhile and than stayed with choices, only once changing from 1/30s to 1/40s.

I admit that this was the first time I tried this technique - it was more successful than I hoped for. The fast buffer of the K10D also helped - I took over 100 frames without waiting anytime, and could easily select the best looking ones afterwards.

Phil

[philzucker]

Very nice. I miss those pictures that you used to post of you and all of your twins. Hope they are all well.

Thanks, Peter!

And yes, all twins are well, thanks for asking! I'm sure they will have a reunion at least once again this year. But they don't find time to meet too often - that's family, if you know what I mean ...

Phil

[hamidlmt]

I totally love the concept! Fireworks captures are way nifty! Turning them into a panorama is just brilliant! I can almost picture it over <fill in your favorite city skyline here>

Your cut and paste job is a little apparent. There must be a way to continue playing with this so the transitions are more subtle. I'm no Photoshop expert, but maybe someone has a few tips. The effort would be so well worth it, imho.

[philzucker]

I totally love the concept! Fireworks captures are way nifty! Turning them into a panorama is just brilliant! I can almost picture it over <fill in your favorite city skyline here>

Thanks for the praise!

Your cut and paste job is a little apparent. There must be a way to continue playing with this so the transitions are more subtle. I'm no Photoshop expert, but maybe someone has a few tips. The effort would be so well worth it, imho.

Hmm, what do you mean exactly with "is a little apparent" and "more subtle transitions"? I took at least pains to leave no visible seams, using layer masks on which I painted away the edges with a soft brush to create the transitions - allowing for a rather close arrangement of the single pics. Looking at it again now I'd perhaps eliminate one or two of the blue flares on the bottom of single instances, but overall I'm still quite satisfied with the overall look.

I tried closer (overlapping) arrangement, but this looked too busy to my eyes, diminishing the brilliance and individuality of the single fireworks too much. Of course I could take a second look at that.

So what do you suggest?

Phil

[hamidlmt]

On my Powerbook monitor I can see all the seems. It's the black to black transitions that I'm seeing. If I turn the brightness on the monitor down enough, they go away.

I tried a levels adjustment... to make the dark colors darker.... setting the left slider to 10 made the seems go away.

I'll try to illustrate it here.

Here is your original at 100% in Photoshop. On my monitor, I can see the transitions where you've probably used the lasso tool to snag each fireworks burst.



Here, I've sketched the outlines of the rough transitions.



Here, I've adjusted the left levels indicator to 10... it makes the darks darker and pretty much leaves the bright fireworks alone. Now I no longer see the transitions.



And, here is your original with the levels adjusted - resized by flickr... but, you can make the same adjustment yourself. Or, I'd be happy to email you the file.



Hope this helps! This would look so cool printed big up on the wall!

[daacon]

Awsome capture