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Shooting Dramatic Fireworks
by Paul W. Faust
One of the many things we all go to see during our national holidays, as well as
at many other special events, are the big fireworks displays put on at night. Even
though it may be pitch black out, there is no real need for special equipment to
shoot fireworks. Besides a good zoom lens in the 35-120mm range, depending on how
far away you are from where they will be going off, all that is needed is a good
sturdy tripod, a cable release, a small 4x5 inch piece of dark matt board, and a
slow speed film of ISO-64, or less to get rolls full of great shots. There
is no need to use special filters or any other piece of custom photo equipment.
In fact everything you will need you should already have.
Probably the #1 factor you should take care of first is scouting the best location
to shoot from. This usually means first knowing from WHERE the fireworks will be
launched. That will dictate where you will have to be to get the best shots of them.
There can be many factors in choosing the right location. Take into consideration
the following; is there water in the area that you could get reflections in? Are
there a lot of trees that might block your view of many of the exploding rockets?
Will you be able to see the rockets from the time they first go off so that you
can also get the trail of flames as they shoot up? How many people might end up
getting in front of you to block your view? Is there any building in the area that
might add to the display as either background or foreground? Can you easily get
from one good location to a second location quickly enough to get good shots at
both? (When you do your first scouting trip don’t just look for one spot and then
go home. Look for several good locations in case the first one does not work out.
You may go back to find that it is now behind a police barricade and you end up
with no place to shoot from.)
Get to your chosen location well before the fireworks begin, set up your camera
on the tripod, attach the cable release and focus the lens for the area that ranges
from the (blast-off) spot to the area needed to get in the largest bursts. Hence
the need for a good zoom lens that goes down to a wide angle. Use the first several
bursts for setting up your framing. They are usually the least impressive anyway.
If you get too much area in a frame you can always crop some out later on, but you
can not add to what is not there if you cut parts out when composing.
Long exposures are the norm for firework displays, but there are tricks to making
them. Exposures can be done in two ways. By setting the speed to "bulb," or by using
multiple exposures if your camera has that ability. For multiple exposures you count
the seconds it takes for one rocket to blast off and fully explode, and then set
your speed for that long, about 4-6 seconds. Set the aperture at about f8. Then
set the exposure count for how many bursts you want on each frame. Too many will
start to wash out the whole image, so stick to about 3-5 exposures per frame. This
again will also depend on how far away you are from them. It also depends on the
color of the explosions. Mostly red ones can allow for more exposures, but if there
are more than a few all white clusters then that frame will start to wash out. I
never allow more than three large white ones per frame, or two if they are real
bright. They will also wash out the other colors as well.
For exposures using the "bulb" setting, which is really the best way to do them,
you need a cable release that will lock your aperture open. For this method you
need the 4x5 dark cardboard. You place the card in front of the lens and when the
fireworks start, trip the shutter and lock it open. An assistant is good to have
here so they can trip the shutter when you say to. The card blocks the light until
you want to expose a burst. Then as the rockets fire off you remove the card and
record the exposure by counting off the seconds. Replace the card back in front
of the lens, (but be sure not to bump it) and wait for the next rocket. When it
is about to explode, remove the card. How often you do this depends on how many
are fired off together. Usually 4-6 bursts of 4-8 seconds each. Then release the
cable to end that exposed frame, and repeat. If you find that most explosions are
of deep colors then you can close down the lens one or two more stops and make even
more exposures per frame. You do have limits to how many you can do or before long,
the entire frame will become nothing but streaks of fire and then nothing will look
good.
The main things to remember are that the brighter the bursts, or the more white
they are, the less number you can expose on one frame. Try these tips the next time
you shoot fireworks and have another helper keep a record of how you expose each
frame, including how many "different" bursts went off, and how many times you removed
the card, and for how long each time. When you get the results back you can see
which ones made the best images, and start from there the next time. You should
also vary the f-stops from f8 to f16 to see which gives the best colors, or the
most bursts. The smaller the f-stop the more bursts you can record. Generally the
best images are the ones with 5-8 second exposures, and 3-5 exposures per frame.
Too many bursts can be just as bad as too few.
One other trick you can use with a zoom lens is to shoot 2 or 3 "multiple exposures"
at a wide angle, and then one zoomed in a bit. This will give you explosions that
look as though one went off real close and the others far off in the background. It takes
practice for that one.
Also, if you have the equipment, set up 2 cameras, one for the bulb, and the other
for the multiple exposure method. You won’t be able to operate them both at the
same time, but you can switch back and forth to get more shots in less time.
GOOD SHOOTING!
Image Note: The fireworks in these three images were all set off from one
bridge over the Tennessee River, and photographed from a second bridge. This location
gives photographers positions to shoot from both sides of the river, and both up
stream and down, (or in the middle in some cases.) These are the largest display
of the year and held over the Labor Day weekend each year.
About the Author
Paul W. Faust is a self-taught Photographer, Writer, Digital Imaging, Photo Restoration,
and Photo Stock Service professional.
His work has been published in American Photographer, Camera 35, Camera and Darkroom,
Popular Photography, Photographic, Photographers Forum, www.apogeephoto.com and
here at TPN. Past assignments have included many cover images, full-page spreads,
and also shooting stills for both Hollywood movie sets, and for star hopefuls including
Bo Derick, Heather Locklear, and Pricilla Barns, among others. Paul's images have
also been used by; NikonNet, Bogen Photo Imaging, East Tennessee Film Commission,
and The Knoxville Zoo, to name a few, including their web sites.
Paul can be reached at
pwf_iol@yahoo.com
If you have any comments regarding the TPN articles, please contact us at:
editor@travelphotographers.net.
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