Our family is heading out for a few days of R&R beginning the 3rd of July. I will return all phone calls and emails beginning on July 7th. Remember that July 1st my fall schedule opens up. Even though I’ll be out of touch I will be answering emails and phone calls in the order received. So if you want to make sure you get your family on the schedule this fall don’t wait til fall is here because chances are I won’t have any room left.
I hope you all have a safe and very fun Independence Day! I thought I’d do my part and give you a few parting tips on how to get some cool fireworks images. 🙂
If you have a digital SLR that is what you’ll want to use. If you have a point and shoot camera with some manual settings, perhaps a Fireworks mode button that will work as well. USE A TRIPOD. If you don’t own a tripod you can get an inexpensive one at Walmart for between $25-$50 that will do just fine for this.
If you are shooting on manual mode remember you’ll need to use a slow shutter speed of at least a full 2.5 seconds (hence the tripod). If you use the point and shoot Fireworks mode it will adjust for you. The slower the shutter the better the light trails you’ll get.
SLR owners, you’ll notice on your lens there is an infinity symbol that looks like a sideways 8. Line up the arrow to that symbol and leave it there. That will ensure your images will be in focus. If you try to shoot on auto your lens will just keep trying to focus in the dark…which will leave you very frustrated. Point and shoot owners, it should automatically put you on infinity when you use the Fireworks mode.
Set your camera’s ISO to 100. If you don’t know what the ISO is think about film. When you used to buy film you bought it in speed, 100, 400, 800, etc.. If all this is overwhelming just set your ISO to 1oo, shutter to 2.5 seconds and take a test shot. If your image is too dark you’ll want to use a smaller F-stop (aka Aperture) number. If it’s way too much light you need a larger number of say F8.
If anyone uses just their iPhone4 and gets great results let me know! I’m curious to find out. Only thing I’d say about using a phone is turn off the flash on it! Fireworks produce their own light and if you use a flash you’ll lose the fireworks and get all the stuff around you.
Happy shooting! 🙂
