New Year Fireworks

Gaz

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Name
Gary Finn
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Coogee Beach
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Happy New Year.

I took a tripod and A7iv down to the beach to try my luck.
I read that I might like to set ISO 100; Aperture at F11, get back a fair way and shoot wide, crop later.
The same advisor suggested using a shutter speed or around 4s... but review after the first few images and adjust accordingly.

I set up the camera, for manual focus, ISO100, F11, 4s. then got distracted & decided to the view with 30s exposure.

GJF03481.jpeg

It wasn't the best image but I was confident that an SS of 4s would be ok in the dark, with teh settings previously established.

But, after the first couple of images I noted that the fireworks was looking more like a vulcano of fury from the bowels of hell.

GJF03485.jpeg
SS of 4+ seconds above.

I backed the Shutter speed down to 3+ seconds...however by then, there was quite a lot of smoke around reflecting all the light....

GJF03488.jpeg
SS of 3+ Seconds above.

GJF03655.JPG
SS of 2 Seconds above.

Now, I wasn't upset about the exposure, but I had realised that I wasn't back far enough for some of the bigger shots and had to rotate the camera up/down as best I could, explaining the wiggling lines above in the image above, and I knew there was something much bigger on the way...

GJF03644.JPG
SS at 1.x seconds above.


Hopelessly too close, I adjusted the SS down to under a second, to try and avoid some movement and speed up the processing time that long exposures seem to consume...

GJF03770.JPG
SS at 0.8 seconds above.

Ultimately though, I resigned myself to the fact that I had absolutely no chance of capturing what was to come in any planned sort of way.

GJF03790.jpeg
SS at 0.8 seconds.

When I got home I downloaded my goodies like a kid at Christmas, pony then noticing that I had neglected to switch the Aperture back to F11.

So lessons learnt. Program #1 prior to 31 Dec 2023. Still no wiser as to setting some successful settings but I'll be back next year.... a long way back this time.

All suggestions very welcome.

Happy New Year

Gaz
 
Well, it was a darn good first try!

Smoke is just the nature if the beast, not much you can do about it. They may not be exactly what you planned but you ended up with some pretty neat abstract shots!

You should have come to the conclusion that 3 seconds is too long unless you're trying to get a composite of several mortars. The last shot @ 8/10 shows the entire track of the shells, and for most shots that's what you want, at least when you're getting started.

I think of the firework explosion as the flash gun. I really want the camera to see very little or nothing when test shooting the sky. The explosion itself provides the light for the shot. The few times I've tried I let the exposure time (shutter) determine how much of the spread I'd see in the image and used ISO and aperture to control exposure. DOF isn't an issue if shooting wide angle, a 20mm lens at /2.8 is something like 16 meters to infinity. A guy once told me he focuses manually @ infinity and just leaves it.

The biggest problem in learning to shoot fireworks is the lack of available practice! Our fireworks here are mostly centered around the 4th of July, so you'd have to be pretty dedicated and run from show to show over several nights. Not for me. It's kind of like shooting lightning though, so maybe some summertime practice opportunities.

You comment:
But, after the first couple of images I noted that the fireworks was looking more like a vulcano of fury from the bowels of hell.

Deserves a :ROFLMAO: !
 
Great advice. I never thought of it as a reverse flashlight, but somehow now so obvious.
GJF03709.jpeg
Panning down to the crowd with the shutter open.

I did manual focus, but next year I want the water reflection and the back of the admiring crowd properly exposed. Maybe a composite of shots?

GJF03533.jpeg
The included crowd element showed pretty ordinary results trying in one take.

I was happy with a couple of the shots straight out of the camera. Flukes.

GJF03757.jpeg

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GJF03726.jpeg



On the subject of jokes someone told me "right! 0.8 is just right. 0.9 is too big and 0.7 is too small". He has no decorum.


Happy New Year!

Gaz
 

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