Help with fire work setting

[OCHW]

Hi guys going to the firework champions at weston park in a week or so what would be the best camera setting's and the best lens i have prime 24 1.4, may be 35mm 1.4 , 50mm 1.2, 135mm 1.8

 

[Wayne Els]

I'm by no means an expert but in general shoot as if it's daylight not night but with a longer exposure to get the streaks. This is because the fireworks are bright and you usually want the sky to stay dark so there's no need for high ISO and wide open aperture. I found 2.5-4 secs seems to work pretty well. As for focal length that really depends on where you are in relation to the display and how you want to frame it but the other settings remain pretty much the same.

The example below was ISO125, F11 2.5 secs at around 100mm

Purple Haze

 

[Nostromo]

As above with settings. There is also another technique that can give a nice effect, that is to set the camera on a tripod and set a long exposure, say 30 seconds, cover the lens with a black (or dark) cloth or a hat, then as the fireworks start, press the shutter button, remove the cover from the lens and then recover after a few seconds. You can do this 2 or 3 times to capture more fireworks in the same exposure. It also works for lightning storms.