Photgraphing Fireworks

[[Geoff Slocock]]

I googled and found this site <!-- m -->nclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.digital-photography-school.c ... -fireworks<!-- m -->

I have had a quick read through. There are lots of tips and if I am lucky I will get moderately close to achieving successful results.

A low ISO of around 100 is recommended. And bulb shots where you open the exposure at the start and close it at the end of the explosion is recommended. There are lots of high quality example shots to appreciate, too.

Last year I saw lanterns of a Chinese type glide through the sky. I am not sure that I have enough zoom to do these! But I thought they were amazing!

I am about to spend an hour so setting up. I wanted to make this post earlier. But it is the same old story of other stuff getting in the way.

[A. Lo]

I made sure I had on hand (and ready for action) the GE X5 last December 31, wherein, Filipinos traditionally light up all sorts of pyrotechnics on the streets, and just about almost everywhere, in celebration of the coming new year. I guess that this may well be a chance to be able to see how this particular camera would perform in doing this kind of shot.

Holding the camera steady for a few seconds is not the problem, even without a tripod (although its use is highly recommended). Since this is not a staged or programmed event, with the neighbors lighting up fireworks on whim, and in random, the difficult part is being able to point the camera and trip the shutter at the right moment on where the expected 'action' might be.

GE X5 on <SCN> Mode, with Fireworks Setting selected.

150 px wide. Enlarge in [^popup] or [^new tab].

[[Geoff Slocock]]

I have not tried that setting yet on the GE X5. We have had two recent opportunities in the UK. The earlier one was November the fifth which is a celebration of the stopping of the "Gunpowder Plot" to blow up Parliament, several centuries ago. Effigies of the chief plotter are burnt on bonfires and fireworks (pyrotechnics) are loosed off. We celebrate New Year, too.

I made feeble attempts on these two occasions to go out into the surrounding suburbs and capture them with a bulb setting on my Nikon D90 on an ISO of around 100 and by using an infra red remote control unit and a tripod mounting. That I am sure is a lot harder than using the GE X5's fireworks setting. I had to use a torch to check and reset settings... you see I was finding that I was accidentally knocking the command dial, in the dark and losing the bulb setting.

It looks to me as if the GE X5 opens up for around one second, because you have caught the trails nicely. This is a nice type of shot to try and some of our other members got good shots, too.

On New Year's Eve I saw many spectacular lanterns. I had pre-set the focus to near infinity but trying to do quick firing bulb shots was never fast enough. And with the D90 in the dark, of course, I could not change settings back and forth quickly enough.

[A. Lo]

Upon checking with the the GE X5's exposure information (for the above fireworks image), the aperture was at a small f/7.3 while the shutter was opened for 8 seconds. Since I did not have time to take out and use a tripod, I just stood, as steady as I could (acting like a rock), thrusting the camera out against the taut strap around my neck, for added stability.

I was, however, wondering why the exposure information showed an ISO of 64, whilst the GE X5's specifications state a minimum ISO of 80. Could the GE X5 really go as low as ISO 64? And is the GE X5 aperture continuously variable, which, for example, could yield an opening between, let's say, f/5.8 and f/7.3, such as f/6.2?

[[Geoff Slocock]]

Hi Antonio,

I have just exposed my camera using it at that setting. I read out: F/7.3; 1 second, ISO 64.

A low ISO setting is recommended because the fireworks trail are very brightly lit (albeit fast travelling) and details of the less lit parts of the shot will come through clear enough by way of the length of the exposure. (Discussions of using a dslr for this sort of shot indeed involve you in organising a low ISO setting.)

The bracing techniques you used take me back to when cameras did not have stabilisation. Your method is similar to what used to be call the "string tripod" (one foot on a length of string, the other attached to the camera).

As we know this camera has undocumented features galore; and it's being able to muster an undocumented ISO setting does not surprise me that much.

On Auto setting, the ISO will flex up and down. So in manual mode say, the ISO will try to flex for whatever shutter and aperture setting you choose. When I go my Nikon D90, I was amazed at the camera being able to do this. And these state of the art processors will perform in this way.

I think its likely that for Fireworks Mode the aperture is more or less fully opened and the shutter speed will vary. I only got 1 second when I tried it a moment ago in a fully lit room. The 8 seconds you got is certainly not a documented setting but is one which you would expect, if movement of firework trails was being noted by the cameras software.

I had asked myself whether the available Fireworks setting was fully serious. And I must say that I am impressed by what you report.

Cheers


Geoff

[[Geoff Slocock]]

I have now observed ISO 64 appearing in a shutter priority setting (my express train shot). So, at least according to my particular camera, the manual appears not be up to date.