This is my favorite fireworks shot that I have
taken to date. It is a shot I would have had a hard time getting before the
advent of DSLR's and the LCD review option. I knew I would use f/8 for the
base aperture, but the question was what exposure would give me enough
detail of the shoreline and the people watching the show with me. I fired
off several tests, and based on the LCD review, determined an exposure in
the neighborhood of 10 seconds would do it. I love the interplay of the S
shaped shore and the round bursts of fireworks. I carefully picked this
location to get the S curve in the image... capturing the kids with glow
sticks as well as observers in the water was merely good luck, I suppose, as
they showed up after I picked my spot. I have a 13x19 of this image in my
office - it's fun to lose myself in all the detail and symmetry in this
print. I consider this one of my best images. It's funny, as Sarah does as
well, even though she initially poked fun at me for all the set up time and
equipment I dragged to the beach that day.
Technical Details: 10 sec at f/8 - 18-200mm lens at 46mm -
cloudy white balance +3 - RAW ISO 100
To get great images of fireworks, all
you need is a tripod and a remote/cable release. The rest is easy!
Contrary to popular belief, the length of your exposure has little to do
with the color saturation and exposure of the fireworks themselves - it is
entirely determined by the aperture and ISO settings. I use ISO 100 and f/8
as a base for almost all of my fireworks pictures. I then set up my tripod, prefocus at infinity (autofocus is useless here), and with my camera on bulb
exposure, hold the shutter open for several seconds to capture the trails of
the fireworks. Want more trails and bursts, hold the shutter open
longer...want less, well you get it. If your images are too light or dark,
vary the aperture and/or ISO as needed. Note, turn your long exposure noise
reduction off for fireworks...if you take a 10 sec exposure, you'll have to
wait another 10 seconds before you can take the next picture while you wait
for the camera to capture a reference frame. If you have long exposure
noise problems, you can clean them up in Photoshop later.
