Fireworks

[ronlane]

It's that time of year again. You guys need to brush up on your settings.

From tonights Fire Departments fireworks show.

Okay, yes these are all composites.

 

[480sparky39 38]

Oooooooooh.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

 

[smoke665]

No sound?

 

[SquarePeg37 8]

Nice! Unfortunately all fireworks shows around here are canceled as they don’t want to do anything that will encourage large crowds of people.

Why composites? What settings did you use? I had some success last year with single exposure shots for fireworks but would love to learn something new.

 

[ronlane]

Oooooooooh.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Thanks.

No sound?

Sorry about that.. BOOM! how's that?

Nice! Unfortunately all fireworks shows around here are canceled as they don’t want to do anything that will encourage large crowds of people.

Why composites? What settings did you use? I had some success last year with single exposure shots for fireworks but would love to learn something new.

Thanks Sharon. For these I was using f/11, 4 seconds at ISO 100. I have a MIOPS trigger that I put in lightening mode, so after getting focus, I can sit back and relax and let the camera work. No having to trigger it and I can enjoy the show too. Using this method, I get a good variety of shots. For me, it is better than bulb mode.

I choose to composite 3-5 images together to give the image a full look. I try not to get it to be too blown out as I almost did on the first and last ones above. To me a single image can be nice but can have a little too much deadspace in the image. This one isn't a great example but here are the 3 images I used to composite #1 above. (Using the exact same processing in both LR and PS)

 

[PJM]

Awesome images!

 

[ronlane]

Awesome images!

Thank you.

 

[tirediron]

Nicely done, sir.

 

[SquarePeg37 8]

Oooooooooh.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Thanks.

No sound?

Sorry about that.. BOOM! how's that?

Nice! Unfortunately all fireworks shows around here are canceled as they don’t want to do anything that will encourage large crowds of people.

Why composites? What settings did you use? I had some success last year with single exposure shots for fireworks but would love to learn something new.

Thanks Sharon. For these I was using f/11, 4 seconds at ISO 100. I have a MIOPS trigger that I put in lightening mode, so after getting focus, I can sit back and relax and let the camera work. No having to trigger it and I can enjoy the show too. Using this method, I get a good variety of shots. For me, it is better than bulb mode.

I choose to composite 3-5 images together to give the image a full look. I try not to get it to be too blown out as I almost did on the first and last ones above. To me a single image can be nice but can have a little too much deadspace in the image. This one isn't a great example but here are the 3 images I used to composite #1 above. (Using the exact same processing in both LR and PS)

View attachment 193616

View attachment 193617

View attachment 193618

Thanks for the info. I like the idea of being able to watch the show without worrying about shooting.

 

[smoke665]

@ronlane I must be doing something wrong. Whenever I go to a longer exposure time, my streaks tend to get fuzzy and bloated. Not like the nice tight lines you have.

 

[ronlane]

@ronlane I must be doing something wrong. Whenever I go to a longer exposure time, my streaks tend to get fuzzy and bloated. Not like the nice tight lines you have.

Try a levels layer and move the blacks to the right a little bit. I am focusing on something in the distance to get to infinity and then leaving it on manual focus.

 

[K9Kirk]

Kinda resembles a peaceful protest.

Real nice set.

 

[RichardProtium]

Beautiful! One subject I have never attempted.

 

[smoke665]

@ronlane I must be doing something wrong. Whenever I go to a longer exposure time, my streaks tend to get fuzzy and bloated. Not like the nice tight lines you have.

Try a levels layer and move the blacks to the right a little bit. I am focusing on something in the distance to get to infinity and then leaving it on manual focus.

Tried similar with curves, but the focus on infinity may be what I was missing.

 

[ronlane]

Kinda resembles a peaceful protest.

Real nice set.

Thank you.

Beautiful! One subject I have never attempted.

Thank you.

@ronlane I must be doing something wrong. Whenever I go to a longer exposure time, my streaks tend to get fuzzy and bloated. Not like the nice tight lines you have.

Try a levels layer and move the blacks to the right a little bit. I am focusing on something in the distance to get to infinity and then leaving it on manual focus.

Tried similar with curves, but the focus on infinity may be what I was missing.

Maybe so. I just find something way off in the distance to focus on. You could also look of the hyper focal distance of the lens and focal length you are using and do that.