Photographing fireworks displays….

[riffraff]

My god there’s a lot of deleting to be done when you get home!
Feller whose advice I took on settings said you need to have summet else in the shot like a steeple or bridge or castle. He’s right. Next year were going up the other end of the park to get the church in the background or down to the south coast for one of their beach bonfire and fireworks displays. If I remember.
Any other advice?

 

[peachy]

F8 at an eighth

 

[Roger]

F8 at an eighth

I have always gone for longer than 1/8th, and with relatively low ISO just using manual shutter and a remote release, but obviously that leads to quite long trails which won't be to everyones taste.

You can certainly use a long shutter speed without worrying about over exposing anything.

A nice wide angle lens also a necessity IMO.

 

[peachy]

I dont remember many things, failing memory etc... but f8 at an 1/8 was the one and only setting I remember from donkey's years ago for fireworks. Goodness knows where it came from, a photography magazine or book I suppose. I had a Canon A1 and that setting seemed to work OK ? Good thing about fireworks is the end result can be quite subjective, bad thing is you might only get a few to practice on before they are gone for another year.

I hope the op listens to you rather than my rather flippant reply. Though he could try it.

 

[Roger]

I hope the op listens to you rather than my rather flippant reply. Though he could try it.

That is one of the good things about digital. So easy to try and instantly review.

f8 at 1/8 might work really well, and I might try it myself!

We used to go to the Southport Musical Fireworks Championships most years and they had 3 long displays in quick sucession whic was excellent. I mainly just set up for video there though.

 

[Lonz]

I prefer to go for a faster speed, usually around 1/125 to capture the “pop”. Not a huge fan of the long shutter for fireworks because I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeing when they go off. Personal taste, of course.

 

[HitchBerg]

I like to have shutter speed around 4 or 5 seconds with the aperture and iso adjusted as needs be. During a display you will always have some fireworks that are higher and more vibrant than others, so i set my camera to catch those. Of course ( as in other shots with colour or something spectacular, Aurora, Lightning, sunrises, sunsets, rainbows etc) you need something in the foreground or background like a well known building or landmark. There is a firework display at South Shields sea front this coming Friday (10th Dec) so another chance to try things out if you can get there.

 

[riffraff]

I like to have shutter speed around 4 or 5 seconds with the aperture and iso adjusted as needs be. During a display you will always have some fireworks that are higher and more vibrant than others, so i set my camera to catch those. Of course ( as in other shots with colour or something spectacular, Aurora, Lightning, sunrises, sunsets, rainbows etc) you need something in the foreground or background like a well known building or landmark. There is a firework display at South Shields sea front this coming Friday (10th Dec) so another chance to try things out if you can get there.

I’m dahn sarf marra. It’ll be next Nov before im photographing fireworks again and we’ve a crackin display in the park five mins walk from home with a church type thing on the hill above it. Adjusting my position to the other side of the park from this years will I think bring it within shot. A shot of the firework only isn’t something that’ll be looked at more than once tbh.
The landmark thing seems an essential.