[tclausen]

May be heading to Walt Disney World in Florida for our 25th Anniversary. Will be taking my Sigma 50mm lens and also my Lensbaby composer with my sweet optic 35 as well. going to experiment to see how this turns out.

Happy anniversary!

I trust that you will post your (safe for work, photographic -- the other kind we don't want to know about) experiments once you are back?

[Allison]

May be heading to Walt Disney World in Florida for our 25th Anniversary. Will be taking my Sigma 50mm lens and also my Lensbaby composer with my sweet optic 35 as well. going to experiment to see how this turns out.

How do you like the sweet 35 optic? I have the double glass optic, but I have been wondering about the sweet 35 and the 85 optics. If you don't have it already, there is an accessory kit with telephoto, super wide angle, and macro attachments. All of these worked well withe the double glass optic to really expand what the lensbaby could do.

[rbefly]

Regarding the focal length needed for shooting fireworks, on this thread alone there have been recommendations ranging from 17mm to 100mm. Quite a variance!
But the answer is "It depends on the distance from your position to the firework display"
I believe the height of the display at maximum is fairly similar, about 400-600 feet above the launch site.
So the actual variable is camera to launch point. If you are close, a wide or ultra-wide lens is needed.
Further away, a 'normal' 35mm to 50mm lens would work.
From a greater distance (say, several city blocks or across a small lake) a short telephoto would help enlarge the image to nearly fill the frame.
If you don't know the distance in advance, bring a wide-to-medium zoom (the kit zoom 18-55mm, would be perfect) and a prime in each of the three main lengths.
At the start, use the zoom to frame the first few displays. Then switch to the prime that most closely matches the correct FL. Be sure to leave a little room in the frame (shoot wide) for off-center launches and larger displays.
I prefer to use manual-focus, auto-aperture ("A" lenses) for the primes, since I'll be manual focusing anyway. Ymmv.
Have fun, enjoy the show, post some photos!
Ron

[mike.hiran]

Last time I shot fireworks, I played around with a technique called "focus push" where you turn the focus ring while the shutter is open. I found shorter shutter speeds gave me the best shots. The following was taken w/ the fa77 for 1.8 seconds @ f5.6



This was 2.1 seconds


I had a fun time doing it, though I think I can improve on my technique next time.

[tclausen]

Last time I shot fireworks, I played around with a technique called "focus push" where you turn the focus ring while the shutter is open. I found shorter shutter speeds gave me the best shots. The following was taken w/ the fa77 for 1.8 seconds @ f5.6

This was 2.1 seconds


I had a fun time doing it, though I think I can improve on my technique next time.

I've tried what you call "focus push", and while one can get some interesting results (as your pictures clearly show very well ), it doesn't yield a "realistic" look.

Also, I've found that any other elements (buildings, people, ..) in the frame don't look "interesting" but "really weird" when using this technique, so something to be attentive of also.

Fireworks is wonderful, so many different photographic opportunities

[Kerrowdown]

cheating to combine several shorts in photoshop

Cheating, no it's a way of life.

But doing it so subtly that no one else notices, now that's an art.

[tclausen]

Cheating, no it's a way of life.

But doing it so subtly that no one else notices, now that's an art.

Cheating in a way that nobody notices is called art??? I thought it was called being an investment banker

[cali92rs]

Last time I shot fireworks, I played around with a technique called "focus push" where you turn the focus ring while the shutter is open. I found shorter shutter speeds gave me the best shots. The following was taken w/ the fa77 for 1.8 seconds @ f5.6



This was 2.1 seconds


I had a fun time doing it, though I think I can improve on my technique next time.

I really like the 1st one, the composition is great

[crewl1]

First Independence Day show around my area this weekend.
Was able to set the Pentax Q with 03 Fisheye about 400 feet from the launch pads with interval shooting mode for unattended operation.
Each shot is result of a couple of frames stacked with Combine ZP.
2 sec (max on Q) ISO 125 (lowest on Q) f5.6 (fixed on the 03)

[JimJohnson]

May be heading to Walt Disney World in Florida for our 25th Anniversary. Will be taking my Sigma 50mm lens and also my Lensbaby composer with my sweet optic 35 as well. going to experiment to see how this turns out.

At Disney World, each park has its own display. Given that they do fireworks nightly, Disney makes sure everyone as a good view. In my opinion, 'normal to slightly wide' is best. You can do some minor cropping afterward. Also, you can more easily point the camera toward the display and still watch the display with your own eyes instead of keeping your eye at the viewfinder and making micro-adjustments.

At Niagara Falls, the fireworks are pretty much centered over the pool at the base of the Falls. Like Disney World, you don't have to do a lot of aiming if you stick to 'normal to slightly wide'.

Have fun everyone and remember to post a couple of your shots!

[Danny Delcambre]

I suggest you set Bulb mode best thab Manuall. If you want mannual, you will miss firework. B mode is very easy when you look firwork go up, you click shutter aNd hold until firework done, you can hold off. Ou don't have miss firework. Smile

[narual]

If you want to let the camera do the work, set the camera to interval shooting, so it will take a shot every 12 seconds for up to 999 exposures.

Thanks so much for that little piece of advice. I took it and it worked great!



(though looking at the filenames, apparently I changed htem to 6 second exposures instead of 10 without realizing it when I first cancelled it to make sure it was getting decent photos. oops!)

I wish I had had a wider lens to work with (I jammed my Nikon mount 10-20mm on there for a bit but I was worried it wasn't getting good shots and switched back to the 50-135), because we were pretty close, but at 50mm they ended up filling (and sometimes expanding beyond) the frame, which made for some pretty pictures. Had I had a wider lens, I probably would have left the nikon camera in the bag and sat back and enjoyed the show... maybe tomorrow night when I go to another one.

Again, thanks much for the excellent tip!

[crewl1]

These with the K-5 and DA18-135.
Settings were lens zoomed out to 18mm and focused manually, M mode, ISO 100, f13, 10 second exposures.
I used interval mode taking a shot every 11 seconds for unattended operation on a tripod.
We are almost right under the fireworks here.

I want to figure out how to include the people watching the fireworks now so will try something else next time.

[crewl1]

Thanks so much for that little piece of advice. I took it and it worked great!

Good work!

[doribeans]

this was also my first year of taking fireworks shots...