This is the second fireworks shot I’m posting from this year’s Granny Smith Festival. The portrait shots were definitely better framed than the landscape one.
I love this one! I have no idea why or how the light trails are all bumpy like that, but I’m sure it has nothing to do with camera shake or settings; that particular firework was actually sporadic in the way it sparked. Totally cool!
- Aperture: f/22
- Camera: NIKON D50
- Focal length: 24 mm
- ISO: 400
- Location: 33° 47.32′ 0″ S 151° 4.79′ 0″ E
- Shutter speed: 6 s
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
They look like flowers! How cool! I do like the framing on this one. How did you figure out a good shutter speed? The last one was 3s and this is 6s. Just trial and error or had you planned which settings to try?
Glad you like it Lauren. Me too!
I read somewhere that 2–4s was a good shutter speed for fireworks so I started in that range and then decided to see what happened if I closed the aperture a bit more and decreased shutter speed a bit, and I liked it. So, I had these settings for a bit and then I think I opened back to 4s at the end when there were more going up at once (and when I realised I’d left the ISO at 400 from some shots earlier in the evening I put that back down to 200 for the end of the display as well).
These shots make me want to go light of some fireworks… if you knew me, you’d know that I don’t need much of an excuse, either. Between fireworks and shooting photos, my hobbies are too expensive! :-|
James — Heh, I’m sure lotsa folks would love to set off fireworks. I think it’s illegal to do so privately here, or maybe just illegal to buy them except in the ACT. I love taking photos of them when I can though. I should go through my New Years ones…
Heh, I know what you mean about expensive hobbies, although re:photography, if you can manage to be content with your gear and push your own skills rather than needing new gear it might become cost effective in terms of $$ per hours of entertainment. I’ve gone through long periods of lusting after new cameras and even though I’d still like one, especially with better low-light capabilities, I’m still using my first dSLR. Not sure if that holds with lens investments or not. So far all my lenses have been less than $400, haven’t branched out to the $1000+ ones yet. Wouldn’t mind a fast wide-angle zoom though, they look sweet.
No doubt… I’ve got a couple of entry pieces of glass, both zoom lenses (18-105 & 70-300)… neither of them are fast. My lowest aperture is on the 18-105. I get f 3.5, but only at 18 mm.