[分享] July 4th Firework 12p

ssal

norman.ho

Very nice work, just the right aperture and exposure, well captured.  Thanks.

orchids

Fantastic  firework photos. 4th July is the National day of USA ?

hippy_123

thanks for the nice pic.

moxfactor

not bad.  black card or single exposure?

ssal

Yes, July 4th is Independence Day, which celebrates the 234th year independence from the British.

Simple technique which was difficult in film's days but relatively easy with digital. Set the shutter to Bulb with a shutter release cable. Set the aperture at f/16 and press the button as the firework goes up. Then you can check your LCD and understand your mistakes and make instant correcfion.

General mistake for firework is aperture too large (over exposed) and the firework turns white without color. Or you hold the button too long letting too many bulbs in one picture. Otherwise, you just shoot a lot and pick out the ones that's good.

Thanks.

ssal

A couple more, from another angle.

norman.ho

I would say set the aperture at f/16 and shutter speed at 1/10 sec. is pretty safe to capture these kind of beautiful fireworks.
Thanks  ssal.

ssal

You can do it with 1/10th of a second. The firework from the start of the explosion to the time it needs to paint the blossom takes at lease 2-3 seconds. You may also want to open the shutter to capture it going up so there is a tail to blossom.

Most of mine opened between 3 to 8 seconds.

Thanks..

norman.ho

Thankyou, will give it a try next time round.

moxfactor

i prefer black card method, especially with a wider lens and multiple points of explosions.

eg.
http://www.pbase.com/moxfactor/image/108665265

Nikon D300 with Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6
f16, 13s (black card off probably only about 2-3s total) in bulb mode, iso 200, ev-1


it's not a great shot, and it's unedited jpg i think.  i would've preferred a less distorted shot, i might edit it later and see if CS5 can fix the distortion...

ssal

Maxfactor,

It is a very nice shot. I am sure you can use the perspective tool in Photoshop to stretch out the top and pushing the bottom in.

I think the black card method was great in the film days. With digital and Photoshop, it is so easy to transpose one explosion (blossom) from one picture to another. You have better control of the number, size and shape of each blossom. I prefer shooting as few blossoms in a single picture as possible because you can always ADD blossoms but it will be close to impossible to remove one.

I've seem Hong Kong firework from the Peak with the harbour and the city as backdrop. Those were gorgeous shots. But the problem with Hong Kong is that, you'll be fighting for a spot with another 2,000 people with tripods and camera.

I shot this series in a parking lot where I parked my car. I pulled the lounge chair and my cooler with beers and set up my tripod. A very relaxing 30-40 minutes. I did have to wait 45 minutes after the firework to get out of the parking lot though.

.

ssal

While I am at it, this set was taken 4-5 years ago, again in July 4th. New York City has the most amazing firework sponsored by Macy, the department store.

moxfactor

12# ssal

very true, i do photo manipulations in some shots when there's an effect i want to achieve, but it's quite tedious when i'm not getting paid for it...  perhaps when the feeling comes~  i very seldomly do collages of multiple-exposures, especially after that whole National Geographic fiasco with the pyramid shot...

btw, that shot above was taken in TST, with easily over 5000 people all around me...  we were forced out of the way by the security guards several times due to one of their lackey's bad judgment in regards to which stairs they want the "VIPs" to use for moving up to the upper level veranda.

ssal

A little Photoshop magic.