Fireworks!

Aren't they difficult to photograph?!
I haven't got one useable image form last night. They are either all under exposed, or out of focus. The only ones anywhere near in focus have too much motion blur!!

Still, I suppose it means I don't have to spend all evening processing them!

I had my 18-135 yesterday and had no luck. I have had better pics with the Sigma 10-20 set to infinity and ISO 800 , but still not great

Yes they are. I photograph with a tripod, bulb setting and cable release with manual focus preset, judging exposures rather haphazardly. That way I enjoy the display in the normal way too and worry about the photos later.

Ditch the Pentax DSLR and use a point and shoot or something with a scene mode The best fireworks I ever took were with a 35mm Yashica T4. I pointed and took. Admittedly at the festival of devils and dragons in Barcelona (Like to see the health and safety notes on that one), not the cruddy £15 box set the neighbours laboured over yesterday.

I tell a lie, the neighbours did put on a pretty cat annoyingly good show and I have no idea how much they spent.

Tripod, bulb mode, stopped down aperture to f11. Open as they launch, close as they reach peak. I get a very high keeper rate like that.

It works very well. I don't have any examples available now (on mobile) but can post some tomorrow.

^^^ i took a bunch last night using this technique and was quite pleased with the results (it was my first effort)







had to do a bit of PP (mostly to take the exposures down a bit)

Bit late for this year now, but manual mode, f8, 10 sec exposure and ISO 100 works well on a tripod with remote release. Got some nice shots with this set up on my K5 with the DA*50-135. As it was the first time I'd shot the location (a friends roof), didn't get the focal length right initially and wound it back from 120mm to nearer 70mm by the end. The location was about a mile from the display and perhaps 500 ft higher, with Bath Abbey as a feature in the bottom l/h corner.

Tried my K7 with the DA*60-250 hand held at f8, 1/15 sec and ISO 3200. Nothing worth keeping - shake reduction didn't compensate enough. Probably should have tried f4 and 1/60sec. Hopefully will get a chance to repeat the shoot next year. May need a more study tripod as position's a bit exposed and I'm not sure if my Velbon will take too kindly to a weight being hung from it's centre column config.


Steve

Have to agree here, and one of the best location displays that I have seen was staged near Worcester Cathedral at the end of the Three Choirs. It was possible to view it with the river and bridge in view. I wasn't taking many photographs the last time I was there, and didn't bother with the fireworks, but would be a good location for the future...and yes without the family.
This weekend was my first attempt to capture the fireworks, I did a bit of research on this forum, and went with the Sigma 8-16, using 15mm approx , with apertures between f6.3 and f11 on aperture priority. Iso set to 100, so exposures varied between 8 and 15 sec.
Lens was set to manual and focused just less than infinity.
I framed the area I thought the fireworks would be, then rested the camera at the same angle, on my chest.
I was very pleased with results and had about 80% success.
Nigel
Nigel

Good points and I did do better with the fireworks display over one of the liners which docked at Liverpool.
I didn't let shooting them at the local park ruin my evening, though. I happily snapped away whilst the kids watched

What do you make of this?
[IMG]http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo209/Naim-Khan/NAIM7972.jpg[/IMG]
Shot with K5 and DA 12-24 - handheld.

That's a superb shot

Trickletreat- funny, that viewpoint and the three choirs fireworks display was EXACTLY what I was thinking when I wrote my post! I've never captured it, but always thought what a fabulous shot it would make.

Naim - that's a spectacular shot! The London Eye and lights on the embankment really make the shot.

Here's some from last night. It was all pretty much last minute. Well the last 5 minutes of a 20 minute display.

So for exposure I just left it in aperture priority and adjusted the aperture to give varying shuter speeds. Had to worry about horizons and under/over exposure after the event in Lightroom



Fireworks 1 by Blythman1960, on Flickr



Fireworks 2 by Blythman1960, on Flickr



Fireworks 3 by Blythman1960, on Flickr



Fireworks 4 by Blythman1960, on Flickr

D'you know, Alan...I really hates you I does