Shooting Fireworks Photos

Well, for those of us in the U.S. Independence Day is on its way as well as the fireworks displays that follow. If your considering getting any pictures of fireworks this year, there are a few things that you can do to make great results. You don’t even necessarily need a Digital SLR to take great fireworks pictures, point-and-shoot cameras work as well, it just takes a few more minutes to get the settings right. Although, Ill start with a few things that aren’t camera specific.

- If you live near the location of the fireworks show, go ahead and drive to it the day of, figure out which way the wind is blowing, find a place where you will set up later that night. Its a little easier to get a feel for your surroundings when you can actually see them! Be sure to try and pick a location that will be upwind of the fireworks show so that any smoke buildup that becomes more noticeable as the show goes on is way to the right or to the left of the actual fireworks themselves, so that you don’t end up with hazy fireworks pictures, and rather clean crisp and vivid fireworks pictures. Sometimes thats just not possible, and you have to settle for a below average location to shoot from, so in that respect, be sure to have your camera set correctly to ensure that you can start shooting and not worry about fidgeting with your camera in the starting minutes of the show. Remember thats really only if you can’t get a good location. The starting minutes of the show are smoke free and usually will be the best shots so the last thing you want to be doing is trying to find buttons on your camera in the dark while the show is rolling.

- TRIPOD, TRIPOD, TRIPOD. This is a must, and don’t think about being able to set it on a car or fence because it wont work. Ive been doing reading online and people have tried it, and it doesn’t work! Pick one up from Ritz Camera, B&H Photo, Adorama, or a good camera store near you - as cliche as that sounds. You can buy cheap ones if your only going to use it for that fireworks show and future fireworks shows. The cheap ones will probably be lighter and less stable, but you can help this situation by hanging your camera bag or something heavy from underneath the tripod. It helps steady it. Keep in mind you will be using shutter speeds of more than 1 second.

- Bring a flashlight. It will make things easier when messing with your camera and taking things out of your bag.

- Bring memory cards! Once your camera is setup properly it will sit in that one place throughout the show most likely and you will be shooting one picture after the other, and possibly finding yourself of clicking away for each burst. You will take LOTS of pictures without really knowing it. So bring memory cards!

- Charge batteries and bring backup batteries. At least fully charge your battery before going out. Point-and-shoots will be more of a problem but DSLRs can probably handle the job. (Digital cameras that use LCD the entire time use more power) But, backup batteries can’t hurt and are recommended.

Now for the camera specific settings. Unfortunately, there are so many point and shoot cameras out there that there isn’t one standardized setting that I can offer. Although, most point-and-shoots have a fireworks or fireworks show setting, and you can obviously use that. One thing to keep in mind is to keep your ISO low (200 or lower) if you have selectable ISO on your camera. If you use the fireworks setting that your camera has, I doubt it will let you change the ISO so just go with the scene mode itself. On DSLRs you want to set your ISO low (200 or lower) and set your aperture between f/8 and f/16. I would recommend setting the shutter speed to B for Bulb, which allows you to open the shutter for as long as you hold the shutter button down for. Basically, I hear the fireworks shoot off and I hold the shutter down, let it explode, and then let off of the shutter button shortly after I get a decent stream. Or, you can wait for it to go halfway up in the air and then hold the shutter button down, and just capture the burst with no light streak leading up to the burst in the sky. It all depends on your aperture setting. If you want just the burst and you will be holding the shutter open for less time, use a higher aperture setting (lower number). If you are holding the shutter open for a long period of time, possibly for multiple bursts (while covering the lens in between bursts) to get an image compiled of multiple bursts that happened at different times, then you want to use a lower aperture setting such as f/16. Thanks to the handy LCD screens on our cameras, we can see how our shots are turning out as we shoot them, and from the first few shots you can make aperture adjustments as you go until you get the correct exposure and look that you want. Another difficult thing to do is focus on the firework, especially while their moving. Manual focus is a must. Wait for the first burst to go up, and while in auto focus (or manual focus), focus on that burst and then switch your camera to manual focus so that it stays there for the whole show. Most of the time the bursts will be at the same depth of field, and since your using lower aperture settings, having entire bursts, and all the bursts in focus after focusing on that first one, shouldn’t be a problem.

If your using a cheapy tripod and you move the camera while using the Bulb setting, try using a few second shutter speed and using the timer feature (2 second or so) so that when the camera takes the picture theres no possibility of it moving. This takes a bit more trial and error to get the exposure right but set the shutter speed first after estimating the average times of the bursts, and then change the aperture accordingly, I find that easier than setting the aperture and trying to find the right shutter speed while still having it long enough to get the burst etc…

If you really want to use bulb mode and not touch the camera, you can purchase a cable release or remote and use that to shoot your shots from a distance. This is also cool because after you have the camera setup and pointed in the right direction, you can watch the majority of the show without looking through the camera.

Well thats the short on shooting fireworks, have a good 4th of July!

Any questions or suggestions please email me thediyphotographer@gmail.com

Choosing A Digital Camera - Information and Other Things to Keep In Mind

Ill start by explaining the three "classes" of digital cameras - point-and-shoot, advanced, and single lens reflex.

Point-and-shoot

These are small cameras that fit in the palm of your hand, probably the most popular type of cameras among the consumer. They have come a very long way and a lot of them take great pictures. The price range for these cameras varies greatly and completely depends on your preferences and budget limitations, but today there are perfectly good point-and-shoots at the 200-300 dollar range. These slick little cameras can pack the features and the megapixels. Please realize that the megapixels do not affect how good the image will turn out. Anything above 5 megapixels is 100% OK. I will have more for you in my upcoming "How to Choose a Point-and-shoot Camera".

Advanced Digital Cameras

These are pretty wholesome cameras, a little bit smaller than DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras but certainly pack a lot of features that enable you to do things that would cost a lot of money to ditto on a DSLR. These types of cameras are for the people who like taking pictures but want to take it to the next level, and be able to change and modify more features and settings on their camera. In other words, they want more control over the image. The price range for this type of camera can go from the equivalent of a point-and-shoot to even higher than some of the DSLR cameras. There are many advanced digital cameras out there today. Again, remember that the image quality does not necessarily increase as you jump from a point-and-shoot to an advanced digital camera; 80% of the quality of the image is determined by the person looking through the camera! For example, a person that knows what their doing can take a better picture with a 300 dollar point-and-shoot than someone who has no photographical knowledge and bought a 500 dollar advanced digital camera just because they could - thinking they were going to get better quality images.

Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras

These cameras have come a long way in the past few years. Nikon has recently come out with an affordable DSLR – the D40 with a retail of about $500. Before I go any further, it may be helpful if I explain exactly what SLR means and what really separates DSLRs from other digital cameras. A digital single reflex camera is a camera that operates virtually like a modern 35mm SLR camera, except that instead of film, a Digital uses a CCD or CMOS sensor that records the image digitally. Aside from an LCD display and other electronic features found in a digital SLR camera, a 35mm SLR and a Digital SLR are much in the same. The other huge difference between a DSLR and the other types of digital cameras is that, with a DSLR, you now have full control over every aspect of your image. I highly recommend going here to read more information about DSLRs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_single-lens_reflex_camera

The DSLR has finally and I should say arguably caught up to the 35mm SLR cameras. There are still those 35mm and Digital SLR guys out there just like there are those Ford and Chevy guys. I think Digital SLRs - that is the lower end ones that the average Joe can afford still have about a year or two to go before it would be safe to say a 35mm SLR and a digital SLR capture images of an equal caliber. Keep in mind, that when I say that I am speaking for the amateur and professional photographers that can point out flaws in images that are created with low end DSLRs and 35mm SLRs. Although, in my opinion, some semi professional and most high end DSLRs like the Nikon D200, D2x, and possibly the D70s, as well as the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark series and the Canon 30D and 5D take pictures that are good enough that it would take a very picky photographer to go through with a magnifying glass and pick out differences between a picture taken with a DSLR and a 35mm SLR. I will be writing about how to choose a DSLR camera which will include why or why not you may want to go digital, or stick with 35mm. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and Ill try to point out a few when I do write that article.

____________________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that we know what our options are, we can narrow our choices down using a few points to keep in mind.

Brand Loyalty – Well, there are Nikon people, Canon people, Fuji people, Olympus people, Sony people, etc… Sometimes their brand loyalty is so strong they won’t consider any other camera brand. I want to stress that brand gets more important as you get closer to SLRs. With point-and-shoots, there are a lot more, perfectly acceptable brands to consider. With advanced digital cameras, there are still a couple, but less than there are with point-and-shoots. It mainly depends on what you need in your camera, and if you’ve had any previous experience with any other brand.

Intentions – What are you going to use your camera for, snapshots of your friends and family, or for shooting wildlife and landscapes on a safari in Africa? Are you going to print large, or are you printing 4x6’s for your photo album? Do you want to control shutter speed and aperture, or do you need the camera to automatically adjust those for you?

Past, Present, Future? – Do you already own a point-and-shoot? – are you happy continuing using a point-and-shoot or did you want something more, do you want to take your photography to the next level? Maybe you should go with an advanced digital camera this time, instead of investing in another point-and-shoot… Depending if you’re a first time buyer or just got into the hobby, you may want to go cheap and try it out, get a feel for it before spending any real money. Or, is it your passion, or your serious about photography and want professional experiences with professional results?

How often will you use your new camera? – Do you take lots of pictures, or just a few here and there whenever you have a family get together, is the amount of use you will be getting out of your camera worth the money?

Those are some broad aspects to keep in the back of your mind when choosing a digital camera. I will be writing articles on how to choose each type of camera. All of those articles should be up within about a month or so. Along with that and knowing more about each type of digital camera, you should be able to make an informed choice one which type will meet your needs the best.

Well, that’s my coverage on the three types of digital cameras and a little bit about on how to choose which type, I hope you found this information handy and useful. Thank you for reading and hope you come back to check out new articles in the future.

- The d.i.y. Photographer

Create Your Own Light Studio for Still Life Photography

I created this instructable after seeing a few still life photos and wanting to be able to shoot still life. Though, after looking around they were not that cheap and the ones that were reasonably priced were so simple that i figured you could do it with poster board. So, click here to learn the fast, easy, and very inexpensive way to create your own "custom" light studio for shooting still life photos.

Link: Light Studio Instructable