I appreciate anyone who takes the time and effort to share their knowledge. What stood out on your video from most is that you also share your camera settings and lens size...thank you so much
One trick I found that works really well is to shoot in bulb and use black construction paper to cover the lens. Remove the paper to get the exposure, replace the paper until more fireworks show up in the sky and repeat. You can get creative with this and use it to control the amount of streaking as well as getting multiple fireworks when there is a delay between them. Start around f5.6 ISO 100 and play with it from there.
I, too, wondered why he wasn't shooting in bulb mode so he could control the exact amount of time per shot. I'm going to try the black paper idea.... thanks for sharing that!
even today 2017, you still have the best tutorial on shooting fireworks. couldnt find / see / observe anything else more informative then this video, thanks !
Thank you for sharing. You gave justification for each of your initial decisions, but left room for explained adjustments. The best part is that you made plenty of 'mistakes' to show how to adjust while taking pictures in the field. Great tutorial.
You Australians are blessed to have a warm New years eve...OMG I went to Boston for the fireworks. It was in 20ish F. Cant' even feel my toes and fingers after the show.
I absolutely loved this video. Thank-you for your play-by-play as the display went off. It was so helpful. I learned more watching this than the other videos I’ve seen.
Thanks. I took my first fireworks pics during Christmas and it came out great.My interest in photography is gaining momentum.Thanks again for the help.I appreciate it. HAPPY NEW YEAR.
I've only taken a beginner's course for photography, but this, my friend, is truly amazing! I've learned something new here that's for sure!!! Simply amazing!
Thank you very much for this video. I especially enjoyed you speaking your thoughts as you made changes to your settings looking for something different. Also I commend you for allowing us to see the mistakes and then how you fixed them. That takes courage of character.
Even with the most well planned photo shoots, things go wrong! I loved the way you quickly adjusted on the fly-- you recomposed the shot, adjusted the f# and ISO, and even expertly diagnosed a problem with the cable release-- thanks for posting your true-to-life experience. I think my D810 has a setting to turn off the autofocus when using the timer or cable release, so with certain cameras you wouldn't have to keep switching to manual focus. Great video, thank you!
That's the best fireworks display I have ever seen! Loved the purple ones that after they exploded, decided to go their own way. How does that even work!? lol
Neil, Many thanks for this tutorial, out of all the ones (Fireworks) I have watched on RU-vid, yours is the one that kept my interest and explained things in an easy to understand way. Will check your Udemy courses out. All the best from Liverpool, UK.
This video should be treated as Holy Bible for the firework photography. You showed the every steps in easiest way possible by any professional. Love it. I will try tomorrow. To other viewers, if you watch this video, do not bother to watch other videos on firework. This is the best tutorial on RU-vid so far. Love it every second of it. So helpful. Happy New Year 2021 in advance. Thanks
Perfect kick-start for tonight's Canada Day celebratoon! Thank you for posting this. I like your commentary and style, so I've also subscribed and will check out your other videos.
On the topic of the smoke on a longer fireworks show, I took photos of around a 25 minute show in China. It was a very still night, by the end, you couldn't even see the fireworks a lot of the time. BUT, I got some amazing photos of the fireworks bursting out of the smoke, with the smoke from the fireworks causing spectacular colours to light up the clouds of smoke!!
Thanks for an excellent tutorial, Neil. I must admit to being taken by surprise that you used the 'Daylight' or 'Tungsten' settings for your White Balance. Now I know how to counteract the orange skies I've ended up with in some of my night photography because of light pollution. One additional tip I would include for this kind of photography. Long shutter speeds will often create too much digital noise so if you have the 'Long exposure noise reduction' setting on your camera it might be advisable to have it switched on. You can find it in the Custom Function Menu options on the Canon DSLR cameras.
I prefer bulb, you have more control of what you want in the pictures, unlike with 10" or more, you will have to wait for the camera to finish taking the picture.
Using bulb mode is an excellent alternative, especially if you want to have more creative control over which fireworks appear in your shot. If you are including foreground elements in your shot however, you will need to be aware of the affect that varying your shutter speed will have on those elements, which will likely have the same brightness throughout the display. Short exposures will make them darker, and longer ones may risk blowing out the highlights. Definitely something worth experimenting with!
Bulb with a black card is a great way to go. You can mimic shutter control by using the black card to cover the lens, and only expose for the fireworks you want to keep.
Great looking video and good info too thanks for sharing its bonfire night tonight so i was after a few last minute tips i think i will start at 4-6 second shutter.
Nice tutorial! Love how you've explained it all in great detail! Gave me enough to get fired up about going out there and shooting some fireworks! Unfortunately for me, I decided to look this up after the 4th of July celebrations!:(
Ok, i got a Hero5black and was wondering what these settings is in a very dark place? I am doing it at home and was wondering what settings these are in a gopro. At home there is no light, no buildings etc.. (we dont have f om a gopro) thank you We have protune etc so i need EVERY SETTING!!
I need to know more about aperture and the color of the fireworks. I noticed last weekend that a lot of the fireworks where not showing their color. What the aperture open too much?
This is good ..I love it ...it make me feel like in real time that I am there doing the photographing ...time he miss it I feel it also ..hope know what I mean ..thank you so much for this video
Ok good to know that you can go as high as f/22. I've previsously shot f/11 in bulb mode for fireworks and got some good results, but sometimes with some of the brighter explosions, the shots were a tad blown out. Finding a spot that is a decent distance away from where they are launching the fireworks is also key. I've been too close before, and not great. It takes some experience to really get good at shooting fireworks. Your first time out you may only get 3-4 images that really work, because you often have to experiment and change settings on the fly in such a narrow time window.
The shutter speed will affect how many fireworks appear in the shot, and how brightly static elements in the shot are exposed. What shutter speed you choose depends on the look you want for your final shot. I like to have lots of bursts in my shots so I started with 10 seconds. Thank you!
A 10 sec exposure too much most of the times. Also anything above F10 is also too much, the ideal aperture for fireworks is around F8, at which they will look sharp but not too thin. If the scene is too bright, drop the ISO instead of lowering the aperture!
Hello, first of all I would like to thank you for such a great explanation! What is the cable that you used ? Is it an extra thing that I have to buy? Or is it replaceable with a feature in the camera itself ?
Its something you'd buy as an accessory for your camera. If you dont feel like spending any money you can simply set your camera to a 2 second timer for each shot. The whole point of using a cable release, or timer, is so that the camera doesnt shake when you press the shutter button because that'll show up in your photo
this is great really thankfull noted your all setting i m in dubai and i just came in photography so going to shoot firework i have canon 600d with basic lens 18-55 mm want to know two things how to set camera mm like some time you set 55mm sometime 45mm or some time 99mm how can i set in 18-55 mm lens(like 35mm or 50mm) another thing is this necessary to use the extra cable button to shoot in the night plz advice
