I am having a meet n greet in person tutorial for those interested in how to photograph fireworks.
8:45pm July 4th- Pell City Park. I will be there early to set up and pic a sweet spot. 8:00 PM.
You will need :
Camera with creative modes/Manual settings
Tripod
Flash Light
Shutter Release Chord
A Great View
Camera Manual Book
Lens depends on you. I recommend a standard zoom lens between the ranges of 18mm- less than 200mm. Wide angle lets you get the crowd in the shots and will look great on the open water, you want to get some of the fireworks reflecting in the shot.
Set lens to manual focus. Once a few burst have gone off, focus manually the best you can. You don't want to have your lens in auto focus allowing it any room for confusion. You will never get your shutter to open if you hear the motor going back and forth trying to decide!
Set camera to Manual Mode, rotate the jog dial to "bulb" reads in the info screen.
Set ISO to 100, though you are in complete darkness, the fireworks are bright.
Control aperture here as well. I like to set mine to start at F11. As the fireworks begin to burst many, I roll my aperture to a few more stops, F13, especially during the finale. Depending on my focal length, if I'm filling the frame, I may even stop the aperture to F16
When you click the shutter to release it, it will be open for the burst of fireworks till you close it. That is what gives you those awesome trail of lights. I recommend a 3-5 sec exposure. Longer for Finale.
With out a shutter release chord, if you have a timer, use that to get your hands off the camera, but still use a tripod!
I will have a photographer's jacket on setting up equipment- if you see me, shout my name Stacey, or ring my cell phone 205-873-1803 I would love to meet you and work on some firework photography.
Here are a few shots using this bulb technique (Tv mode), as you see it applies to more than just fireworks. Hope to see you there.
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