The metropolis of Eaton had their fireworks display tonight, so I decided to grab my gear and try it out. I was surprised how easy this was and with the results.
Thanks for all the great comments, everyone. I love 1 and 4, but played with the hue/saturation a little more on 5 and am happy!
Paul D. - All of these were left open (with remote shutter release set on bulb) at either f/11 or f/16. I think I would like to try this at f/8 - f/11 next time.
Process:
-Activate shutter with remote
-I held a piece of cardboard over the lens until I heard a shot go up in the air
-Removed the cardboard from the lens, waited for firework explosion
-Quickly replaced cardboard so the embers did not scatter through the shot
-Repeated the process to get a few bursts in the same shot.
Looking back now, it would have been easy to take a bunch of single shots and layer them however you like in PS...but that would be cheating!
If you test your technique on the first few and just do a preview on your LCD you can see what you like and don't like for your makeshift cardboard shutter. I did have a few REALLY cool ones that were clipped because I was zoomed in too far (lesson learned). Also, when the first burst went off, I was ready to set my auto focus. Once focused, I just set it to manual and activated the shutter by remote.
Posted by Dan Baumbach on July 14, 2010 at 7:58 AM
Discussion
21 replies#1
OK, I'll be the first one to ask... shutter speed used??
These are just about as good as it gets. Thanks for sharing them here.
Paul D. - All of these were left open (with remote shutter release set on bulb) at either f/11 or f/16. I think I would like to try this at f/8 - f/11 next time.
Process:
-Activate shutter with remote
-I held a piece of cardboard over the lens until I heard a shot go up in the air
-Removed the cardboard from the lens, waited for firework explosion
-Quickly replaced cardboard so the embers did not scatter through the shot
-Repeated the process to get a few bursts in the same shot.
Looking back now, it would have been easy to take a bunch of single shots and layer them however you like in PS...but that would be cheating!
If you test your technique on the first few and just do a preview on your LCD you can see what you like and don't like for your makeshift cardboard shutter. I did have a few REALLY cool ones that were clipped because I was zoomed in too far (lesson learned). Also, when the first burst went off, I was ready to set my auto focus. Once focused, I just set it to manual and activated the shutter by remote.
- Dan .