urgent fireworks question

[jonasr_jp]

hi im a dslr beginner and i have a pentax ist ds

i read that "fireworks is: ISO 100, F8, 1.5 seconds and focus at infinity" is the settings i should have, but i know that the ds can only go to iso 200 and what is F8 is that the same as av8? and what is 1.5 seconds, im out of luck since i dont own an english users manual.

im going in a couple of hours and i would really be glad for some help.

 

[ThcGunSmoke]

personally id shoot higher then that!

F8 is ur apture
1.5 sec = shutter speed
iso 200 thats fine! it sould be set at 400+ when shooting at night! just remember the high the iso the more blocky/blury the pxis get


when i was shooting fire works! i had it at
f6.8 apture
50+ sec. shutter
400iso

iso increases the amount of light exposed!

the higher the apture/shutter is the less light the cam will let in!

 

[j_mcquillen]

it sould be set at 400+ when shooting at night!

Not necessarily... As long as you have a tripod or some other solid platform, you're better off shooting at a low ISO, with a longer shutter speed and getting the best image quality (less noise) from your camera.

For fireworks, you should be fine shooting at ISO 200, using f8.

The shutter speed is not really important for fireworks, as long as it's over 1 second or so - they're so bright they'll record as streaks of light against a dark background whatever speed you use. I would recommend varying your shutter speed (anywhere between 1 and 30 seconds) to see which results you prefer, or just use the camera's 'bulb' setting to keep the shutter open for a couple of firework bursts - as your shooting digital, you don't need to worry about wasting film!

 

[Johnboy2978]

Hey there Jonasr, I have the same camera, and am very happy with it. First, if you are in need of a manual, you can find one here:
http://www.pentaximaging.com/customer_care/manuals_literature/show_manual

Now to your question, you MUST have tripod to take nice pic of fireworks as you are going to have a long exposure. I took these with a 50mm prime lens at f/5.6, bulb exposure varying from 1-6+seconds, ISO 200, and a cable release.

You probably will have to take a test shot or so to make sure that you are capturing the whole image in frame. I played with different aperture settings then settled on 5.6 and just left it there. The cable release really helps out with this type of thing as well b/c you aren't bumping the camera to trip the shutter.

These were taken this July 4th, second time I've ever attempted capturing fireworks. My location wasn't the best, but the fireworks themselves came out well I think.

 

[jonasr_jp]

ahh thank you very much for the manual, my kanji reading isn't so good when it comes to photo terms (^_^).

hehe you are really right about the tripod, didn't bring one this time, i would just lose it in the crowd, a couple of million japanese is hard to handle.

next firework display is the PL worlds biggest annual firework display, 120 000 shells, gonna bring my tripod then.

here are some pics without a tripod.