Topic: firework photos from beach Help with settings? using Canon40d 400mm lens

[bluntforcetrauma]

I will be shooting with canon 40d

with 400mm 2.8 big daddy lens with tripod

what am i looking at for aperture, shutter speed and ISO

I am looking to capture a kind of landscape shot, because here on the beach there will be several sites that shoot off fireworks and i can get a vantage point from a balcony looking down the coast and trying to get multiple shots

please help

[phanophish]

I've always used wide angle lenses, it's tough to pint a telephoto at the right spot and you loose any sense of place and wind up with just a airburst that could be taken anywhere.  That said, Shutter speed really does not matter the way you might think, kind of like flash photography, it's more a function of aperture and ISO but you'll be surprised as how low a ISO you can get away with.  Those fireworks put out a lot of light.  Last time I remember I was around ISO 200 & f11 or so.  Then just prefocus to your lenses hyperfocal distance ( http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html ) and vary your shutter speed to get the ambient background exposure you want. 

[bluntforcetrauma]

I've always used wide angle lenses, it's tough to pint a telephoto at the right spot and you loose any sense of place and wind up with just a airburst that could be taken anywhere.  That said, Shutter speed really does not matter the way you might think, kind of like flash photography, it's more a function of aperture and ISO but you'll be surprised as how low a ISO you can get away with.  Those fireworks put out a lot of light.  Last time I remember I was around ISO 200 & f11 or so.  Then just prefocus to your lenses hyperfocal distance ( http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html ) and vary your shutter speed to get the ambient background exposure you want. 

thanks so would you soot in Shutter priority mode?  full manual mode? aperture mode?

also i have "L" series wide angle canon glass--it just seems my landscape shots dont have much character.  How do you make sure land, sea, fireworks, buildings get the right proportions?

I have the 16-35L

lmk  thanks

[phanophish]

thanks so would you soot in Shutter priority mode?  full manual mode? aperture mode?

also i have "L" series wide angle canon glass--it just seems my landscape shots dont have much character.  How do you make sure land, sea, fireworks, buildings get the right proportions?

I have the 16-35L

lmk  thanks

I'd go full manual and adjust 1 thing at a time.  Once you get an exposure you are happy with you should not need to change anything other than composition and framing.  I'm not great at landscapes either, but the biggest thing I have learned to to have a subject in both the foreground, middle and background.  So I'd envision something like the people watching the fireworks in the foreground with maybe the city or neighborhood in the "middle" with the fireworks in the background. 

Something like this(Not my Photo)...

Boats Foreground
Bridge Middle
Fireworks Background


Or this(Not my Photo)....
Reflections Foreground
Bird's Nest Middle
Fireworks Background


one other tip, is figure out your ambient exposure for the skyline, or neighborhood or whatever before the fireworks start going off, this gives you a chance to dial it in without worrying about being in a hurry while the fireworks are going crazy.  Notice that Syndney Opera House & the internal lights in the Birdhouse are properly exposed and are NOT lit by the fireworks.

I shot this when at the Phish shows in Hampton, one of the few landscape images I've been happy with.....

Pretty classic rule of thirds composition with the pier used to draw the eye through the image. 

[datbrad]

thanks so would you soot in Shutter priority mode?  full manual mode? aperture mode?

also i have "L" series wide angle canon glass--it just seems my landscape shots dont have much character.  How do you make sure land, sea, fireworks, buildings get the right proportions?

I have the 16-35L

lmk  thanks

I'd go full manual and adjust 1 thing at a time.  Once you get an exposure you are happy with you should not need to change anything other than composition and framing.  I'm not great at landscapes either, but the biggest thing I have learned to to have a subject in both the foreground, middle and background.  So I'd envision something like the people watching the fireworks in the foreground with maybe the city or neighborhood in the "middle" with the fireworks in the background. 

Before I got into using digital cameras that have a "fireworks" scene selection, I used a simple exposure bracketing method with my 35mm film camera using full manual controls. First, using a tripod is a must, along with either a cable release, or employing the delay timer on the shutter to prevent camera shake.

You want to set the aperture as small as possible to ensure a full depth of field and therefore no focusing required from a short distance out to infinity. (For those that don't know, photos where the foreground is blurry and the subject is sharp is due to setting the aperture on the lense as large as possible which shortens the depth of field, where the opposite occurs with a very small aperture).

Then, you will want to try a couple of different things. If your camera has an aperture priority mode, then all you have to do is set the aperture at F16 and after you release the shutter, it will stay open until enough light comes in from a couple of the displays for the meter to consider being enough.

The full manual method is also worth trying. Again, with the lens set to F16, use the cable release with the shutter speed set to "bulb" or "B" where you can hold it open as long as you want. While there are fireworks going off, bracket some exposures. Do some at 10 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, etc. Even out to a minute, you can make some cool photos. The neat thing about this method is some shots will seem to have several bursts happening at the same time all over the frame, but were actually layered on one by one as they went off while the shutter was open.

Night photography in general can be one of the more rewarding and interesting things to practice, IMO.

Good Luck!!!

[phanophish]

Then, you will want to try a couple of different things. If your camera has an aperture priority mode, then all you have to do is set the aperture at F16 and after you release the shutter, it will stay open until enough light comes in from a couple of the displays for the meter to consider being enough.

Aperture priority will likely not yield a correct exposure.  DSLRs typically meter from the light reflected through the prism.  If you release the shutter when fireworks are not going off, the camera will meter for a totally dark scene that exists just before the mirror is raised and you will likely have any statically lit or foreground elements badly overexposed.  The camera will not dynamically adjust to the light emitted by the fireworks since the prism is not exposed to light when the mirror is raised. 

Manual gives you much more control and once you have the exposure dialed in it should not change much at all.  Just remember the shutter speed should be long enough that it is not really influencing the exposure from the actual fireworks.  A 30 second or 10 second for that matter shutter speed does not matter if the fireworks only take 3-5 seconds to explode and fizzle out.  In that case the only things that influence the exposure of the fireworks are aperture and ISO. The shutter just has to be open to allow the light from the explosion to hit the sensor.

[bluntforcetrauma]

love the pics.

I am excited and i hope to get some good shots.

number 1- the weather, lets hope for clear skies.

[marksk]

more good advice

http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,165973/printable.html

[momule]

Seen this one the other day.  Wow

[phanophish]

It's a nice one  ^^^^

Any idea where that is taken?

[datmike]

I use manual setting with a wireless trigger....set ISO at 100-200, around f11 and shutter around 2 seconds.  From there it is a matter of fine tuning for your situation and lighting.

Oh yeah....set White Balance to 'daylight', not Auto.

These were shot with a 70-200mm far away, but I'd use my 16-25L if I were closer...