settings for fire works

[rickj]

going to a display sat, and for the first ime will try and take some shots of the fire works. so does anyone have some suggestions for settings? thinking of using the 70-200 lens. all suggestions welcome.

cheers Rick

 

[Oli R C]

You may have to rely on luck with a 70-200. A wider lens may serve you better. But anyway, with camera set up and pointing in the right direction, you could use a long shutter time - 10-30 secs (maybe bulb if you wish). Cover the end of the lens with a black card, and when you think some sky action is about to happen, uncover the lens. Then cover when nothing's happening.

Repeat to fade...



EDIT: err, and make sure focus is correct

ANOTHER EDIT: it'll be worth covering the eye piece too

 

[Canon Bob]

Looking at the EXIF from my better attempts last year I'd go with your 28-70L. ISO 100 or 200 at f/2.8 and between 1/8 and 1 second depending what effect you want....frozen or trails

Last year I used the 35-350L on the 5D but most of the shots were at the wide end and nothing over 60mm.

Bob

 

[rickj]

cheers guys will post my atemps

 

[artona]

Hi

If you want to get the people in manually fire a flash as well. When we used to do this for the papers we would fire at about 1 minute at F8 and fire the flash set to f8 with the people in the forground with sparklers - are they still allowed sparklers?

stew

 

[snoop69]

Can anyone post examples with shutter speed details please?

Also interested in seeing the card over lens trick to

 

[Ric Type R]

Taken at 70mm,f8, 4secs, iso100, in manual, with cable release, on tripod of course, Quite effective imho.

 

[EOS_JD]

Think the shutter was open a little too long here.

 

[Nod]

Don't forget to turn off any long exposure noise reduction. (If you leave it on, it'll effectively shut the camera down for the length of the original exposure while it does the dark frame and subtraction...)

(BTW, another vote for tripod and remote release.)

 

[Garry79]

f16 and 1sec ISO400

More here!

 

[33L]

it really depends on the show - if the rockets are all going to hit the same place then a shorter shutter is requred - 2 secs max if its over a wide area then 4-5 secs so that you can get a full frame full of fireworks. Again its all reavant to how far you are from the action will depend on the lens you use. It depends on how frequent the fireworks are.

Last year i shot fireworks i beleive at 4sec interval and 2 sec from this year in menorca.

Personally i found the 2 sec exposure included too much of the initial flash. but both of these were taken from roughly the same distance.