Canon

[Bill H]

I have a rebel xt, tonight i was taking pictures of fireworks, and it took me awhile to figure out how to make it take good pictures when it is dark out. after awhile i got it to take decent picture's but not great ones. i was using the P 'mode'. but depending on how much light there was made it take longer to capture the picture, and as my hand's move alot of my pictures are blurry. I could have used a mono/tri pod but i won't always have one on hand.

Is there a different mode or settings that i can use for night time?


Thanks in advance.
- Bill
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[Tiberius]

For Fireworks (or lightning at night, as it's rather similar) a Tripod is a must, or at the very least some solid surface to rest the camera on. A Remote Control is incredibly useful as it allows you to use Bulb Mode. If you have a Remote (wired or wireless, it doesn't matter) set the camera on the tripod, close the aperture back to f/14 or so, and keep the shutter open until the fireworks pass. That tends to work well. If you don't have a remote, holding the shutter down adds too much vibration in my experience so I reccomend using the longest preset shutter time (30 seconds on my D50), which usually entails opening the aperture back up to f/8 or so.

 

[rmh159]

I took some pics of fireworks last nite and used a 3 second exposure and just rested my elbows on my knees. I'm sure there are different ways to get these types of pics but from my experience with fireworks if there's no solid reference in the pic (no people, buildings, trees, etc.) hand-holding won't kill the pic because if there's a slight blur on the firework it isn't the end of the world. That's just my two cents though and I would also say a tripod is rarerly if ever a bad idea.

Something else you can try with firework pics is load one into Photoshop. Duplicate the background layer and on the duplicate, slightly lighten it, add a good amount of blur (30-ish) and set it to Overly or whatever looks good. It should make the colors pop more.

Ok.. newb question... how do I post images? I clicked the image icon on the top and could only get it to show hypertext.

 

[hot shot]

to post a images copy the url in this case http://www.wheresmymind.net/photopag...=Fireworks.jpg

then click on the image icon and paste the code in there and press enter

 

[rmh159]

to post a images copy the url in this case http://www.wheresmymind.net/photopag...=Fireworks.jpg

then click on the image icon and paste the code in there and press enter

Nevamind... got it. I wasn't right clicking and getting the URL from the picture directly. Anywho... that pic shows how I got the firework effect in Photoshop.