Fireworks

Does anyone have any sure fire guaranteed to work tips?

Tripod, IR Remote, a good spot to stand and machine-gun mode!!!

Good timing can be used if you dislike machine-gun mode.

I'd use a 17-70 lens or similar for a large display and a 50-200 for a small display. Also depends on the distance.

I'm going to have an other go with my K10D at the national fireworks competition in Plymouth sometime around April.

Tripod, bulb mode, and remote cable release. Focus on distant nearby object or infinity leave auto focus off. I would not use noise reduction mode, as you'll miss a lot of shots waiting for the dark frame to be calculated.

I generally use f/8, ISO 100 and about 1 to 2 seconds for shutter speed. Really depends what you like for the effect.

Try to follow the trails up and anticipate where the fireball will explode.
Sometimes open the shutter to get the trail and initial explosion. Other times I like to leave a hole in the middle so I don't open the shutter until after the initial explosion.

For roman candles or other repetitive pattern making sets I'll leave the shutter open as much 5 to 10 seconds to capture a bunch of stuff . So really very little on rules.

[edit] wow, too slow on my reply. Was trying to look up some of my examples but the website stripped all the exif info.

Anyway, another good point Tyr brings up with the "machine gun mode" -- lots of memory cards. I shot rather casually the last time I was out and had over 500 photos taken.
I would add, RAW mode helps a lot for handling of noise and finer details in the fireworks where there may be a large range of brightness to be captured.

I took about 750 shots on the old S20Pro a couple of years back. Unfortunately I forgot my tripod and was prone on a wall the whole evening.

/me packs portable hard drive

thanks for the tips gents, I've never had a lot of luck with fireworks but hoping tonight will be the night!

I prefer to use a wider to normal angle lens, and get an interesting foreground to compliment the fireworks. one or three fireworks bursts in the sky loses the magic for me, but having the crowd of people, with some cityscape or scenery places the display into scale and context.

I use an upside down nd filter to prevent the city lights from blowing out on long exposures.

How about using multiple-exposure mode to overlay several fireworks bursts?

we've got two threads goin on fireworks... can we merge them, moderators?

sorry Don, hadn't seen your comment about ME on the other fireworks topic - I'm working my way down the list of Topics!

no need to say sorry....great minds think alike...lol

It's unfortunate, but I have a feeling that if they were merged no-one would know who was replying to what and it might be even more confusing.

I bought "Digital Camera" magasine today which had some tips on firework shooting, and which I'm trying out in about half an hours time!

Use bulb mode, and a piece of black card so that you can get multiple bursts on the same frame. Manually focus beforehand, focussing at infinity will work fine. Have a zoom range so you can get different compositions if you want (although I'm gonna use the 18-55, and crop down afterwards, better chance of success for someone like me!). Use ISO100, and something around F8.

Main thing I'm going for is lots and lots of shots, quick check of the results on the LCD and try fiddling to suit :S Then sort out the JPEG carnage when I got home

I'm certainly leaving the NR function turned off on my 10D, especially as last nights astro session proved that it is quite happy with no NR out to 2 minutes at ISO 800 anyway. The only problem is there seems to be a heat source just off the sensor which starts to cause fun beyond about 1 minute.

Also don't forget you can always do your own dark frame subtraction if you feel you need to, just take a shot with the lens cap on.

the lcd will fool you.....
shots that look good on the lcd (after your eyes have adjusted to the dark) will be wayyyy under exposed.....

good tip, fallen for that one myself several times while shooting the moon.

the Histogram is your friend