Part of my body of work in my advanced photography class. I don't like to talk about this one much, I just let it speak for itself.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Fireworks
I finally figured out how to successfully photograph fireworks, and it was much easier than I expected.
Before I even set up my camera, I contacted the people in charge of the event to determine where the launch site was, and the Idaho State Trooper who was stationed there to determine where I could position myself.
Once I had that information, I set myself upwind (so that the smoke didn't make my photos hazy). After making sure there would be no bright lights in my frame, I set up my camera on the tripod.
For this shot, I unfolded the legs of my tripod so they were almost parallel to the ground, allowing me to position my camera at ground level. This permitted me to include both my foreground subject (the truck), and enough of the sky for the fireworks. How much of the sky to include is a guess, based upon how high the show was last year, how close you are, pure luck.
After the camera was set up, I placed it in manual mode at an aperture of f/8 for a decent depth of field. Fireworks are quite bright, so wide apertures really aren't that suitable for this technique. Shutter speed was set to bulb, and I connected my camera's remote cable and configured it to immediately trigger the shutter when pressed.
Once the show starts, exposure is a matter of timing and guesswork. I pressed the remote's button when the explosion started, and held it down until the explosion dissipated (about 7 seconds or so I think). It's important to use a long exposure to include the entire pattern, as a short exposure would freeze only a small portion of the design.
After about ten tries, I started to get about a 90% success rate.
Before I even set up my camera, I contacted the people in charge of the event to determine where the launch site was, and the Idaho State Trooper who was stationed there to determine where I could position myself.
Once I had that information, I set myself upwind (so that the smoke didn't make my photos hazy). After making sure there would be no bright lights in my frame, I set up my camera on the tripod.
For this shot, I unfolded the legs of my tripod so they were almost parallel to the ground, allowing me to position my camera at ground level. This permitted me to include both my foreground subject (the truck), and enough of the sky for the fireworks. How much of the sky to include is a guess, based upon how high the show was last year, how close you are, pure luck.
After the camera was set up, I placed it in manual mode at an aperture of f/8 for a decent depth of field. Fireworks are quite bright, so wide apertures really aren't that suitable for this technique. Shutter speed was set to bulb, and I connected my camera's remote cable and configured it to immediately trigger the shutter when pressed.
Once the show starts, exposure is a matter of timing and guesswork. I pressed the remote's button when the explosion started, and held it down until the explosion dissipated (about 7 seconds or so I think). It's important to use a long exposure to include the entire pattern, as a short exposure would freeze only a small portion of the design.
After about ten tries, I started to get about a 90% success rate.
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