Addison Fireworks! 9/03/06

[gardener]

Addison is putting on the remainder of their rained out July 4th fireworks show this Sunday evening (9/03/06). The show is rumored to be spectacular and will take place at the Addison Airport. As I recall, there will be 1000 charges of which approximately half will be in the grand finale. In addition, they're having an afternoon "do" for the kiddies starting much earlier.
Sorry but I forgot to bring in the article from the Dallas Morning News (8/30/06) so don't have more exact time details at present but details are probably available on the Addison website or by calling city hall...

[puttingdog]

thanks for the information...
time to play with the light again...

[Torrey]

Hey guys, first time poster here. I'm curious how one typically goes about shooting fireworks. I'm not shooting with anything special at all, just an Olympus SP-350 that I bought primarily for underwater photography. I'm relatively a beginner, so I'm still learning about shutter speed and aperture and such. Would I want to turn off the flash, set it to shutter mode and keep the shutter open longer? How do you get the trailing lights, like streaming car taillights in city night shots? Any help is appreciated. Oh, and I do have a tripod.

[JamesB]

Torrey, looks like your camera is very capable of taking fire works photos.

it has manual focus and manula settings for shutter and apeture.

you will need a tripod.

Set camera to manual settings, use a shutter speed between 1 and 3 seconds.

set the apeture to f5.6 or f8

iso to 200 or 400

manual focus on a distant object near where the fireworks will go off at, or set to infinity focus if you have that option.

when you see the trail of the fireworks going up wait a second and then click the shutter button to take the shot.

you will have to review and adjust your settings as you go. and you do NOT want to use the zoom, keep it wide angle (unless you are REALLY far away)

James

[babybluetx23]

Ohhhh Hubby JUST asked me if I wanted to go to the fireworks to take pics with the new Cam! YIPPIE! I cant WAIT!

[Torrey]

Thanks for the advice, James. I'll give your figures a shot. Ignorant me, I just realized after playing with it a little more that it has a fireworks setting in the 'scene mode' selections. I'll try both and see which comes out better.

[JamesB]

Originally Posted by Torrey

Thanks for the advice, James. I'll give your figures a shot. Ignorant me, I just realized after playing with it a little more that it has a fireworks setting in the 'scene mode' selections. I'll try both and see which comes out better.

if you can go out tonight and take a few pratice shots of a street light down the road or something, and pratice adjusting the settings in the dark. A small flash light will come in handy

Do not get disappointed if you onyl get a few good shots. My first time shooting fireworks did not turn out well.

Good luck and be sure to post some shots

James

[jhom]

Any suggestions for a good shooting spot for this evenings event?

[Davidtxs]

anywhere along midway there are several spots on both sides of the road empty lots grass lots along the fence of the airport etci plan to get on the northbound side somewhere because onces its over trafffic is a MESS and they dont allow you to change directions if your on the southbound side then you go south all the way to beltline before you can turn around i plan to go down there around 7 or so and get a spot ill leave my cell number so if anyone wants to meet up maybe we can they shoot them on the south end of the runway.
David
214 282 6404

heres a map from google earth they shoot where the red x is lol

[Cerbera LM]

These are my best two, nothing to write home about. Only edits were crop & levels to get the sky black.



2.5 sec
f7.1
iso 200
24mm




2.5 sec
f9.0
iso 200
24mm

30D + Tokina 12-24

[Torrey]

Unfortunately, the wife wasn't feeling well so we stayed home. Oh well, I'm sure there will be some fireworks going off somewhere around new years.

[PaulP]

Very nice. Here are a few of mine with some editing. My first attempt as well.







I think I need more practice.

[savitale]

Originally Posted by PaulP

Very nice. Here are a few of mine with some editing. My first attempt as well.

I think I need more practice.

Paul,

I think you did just fine! You definitely have the idea down, long exposure, no camera shake. Better than my first, that's for sure. Next time, you'll probably position yourself where those buildings and power lines won't be in the photo. It is not easy, since one is often not sure exactly where the bursts will be, and sometimes the viewing options are limited.

I can see a little noise in the background, is there a lower iso setting available for you to use? I find fireworks are still bright using iso 100.

[puttingdog]

here's mine....i don't like this firework, too much smoke...:-<

[PaulP]

Originally Posted by savitale

Paul,

I think you did just fine! You definitely have the idea down, long exposure, no camera shake. Better than my first, that's for sure. Next time, you'll probably position yourself where those buildings and power lines won't be in the photo. It is not easy, since one is often not sure exactly where the bursts will be, and sometimes the viewing options are limited.

I can see a little noise in the background, is there a lower iso setting available for you to use? I find fireworks are still bright using iso 100.

Steven,

Thanks, I thought I had the position right to miss the power lines, then the fireworks started to my right and I was stuck. At least I had a remote release and good tripod.

I did use ISO 400 as I didn't know what to expect. Next time I'll use 100.

I appreciate the advice.

Thanks,

Paul