Photographing Safe and Sane Fireworks

[DRGinLBC]

Hi everyone! I figured this forum might be a great place to post this question. We'll be having a small firework show with the kids at our house this year. We live in the state of California so we only have "safe and sane" fireworks. These are the type that are ground fountains (nothing that goes in the air). I was wondering if someone could help me with the proper camera settings for these types of fireworks. Maybe some hints of good camera placement as well. Here is an example of typical safe/sane firework:



I've taken photos of larger fireworks in the past that are a good distance away from me with great results. Tripod, bulb mode, remote release. They turned out great. I'd like to be able to get some great shots or smaller fireworks that are much closer. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Camera:
Canon T2i

Lenses:
EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6
EF 50mm f1.4
EF 55-250mm f4.0-5.6 Telephoto


Thank you in advance!

Devin

 

[Judobreaker]

No need to double post.

My experience with these kinds of fireworks is that you generally need faster shutter speeds than with larger fireworks.
The light is much more packed together so using a shutter speed of various seconds might make the fireworks just appear as a big blob of light.

Take this image for example:

While I do not exactly remember the shutter speed for this (and I don't have an EXIF reader here right now) I'm pretty sure it's well below one second.
This shot is also pretty close up which might give you an idea for a nice angle. You don't always have to get the full fireworks in the frame, sometimes getting up close can give real cool results too.


Another thing: I don't know if you have those sparklers you can carry around, but if you do try some light painting with it... It's seriously fun to do.

https://www.google.nl/search?q=ligh...CIriO7yPgNgJ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=955

 

[Derrel]

Fireworks are tricky...different stages can have a lot more, or a lot less light...my experience is that people often tend to OVER-expose, by using too high an ISO level, or too wide of a lens opening, or too long of a shutter speed, or a combo of two or all three of those things.

The light itself provides...the light...so, think ISO 100, f/10, and then the hard part--the time the shutter is left open...

It's a balancing act...if it's a BRIGHT firework, then ISO 100 and f/10 is going to cause overexposure pretty fast...so, you can also go to a smaller f/stop, like f/16, which will give you more time to allow more variation in the firework to occur.

Things like sparklers, say 10 to 15 seconds at f/13=ish, also at ISO 100. It's just such a wide area...some fireworks have dull periods, when there is not a lot going on. It also depends if there are street lights present, and also on how much of the "people" you want to show; you can use higher ISO values to pick up more "streetlights" or "front porch lighting", or use the lowest possible ISO values and small f/stops to keep the "people" rather dark.

I also think it;s best to use a MANUAL white balance setting of Daylight when shooting fireworks.

One thing though: TURN OFF Long Exposure Noise Reduction in the settings menu when shooting fireworks, or when you want to be SHOOTING the camera will often be locked up, processing by making a long "blank" or noise subtraction exposure that takes as long as the original exposure did...really ruins the experience.