Fireworks are the best. But, a lot of the time, when we get home we find that our pictures of them are kinda… eh.
For the New Year’s celebrations tomorrow, I was going to put together a list of stuff to think about when shooting the shooting-star stuff, but our friends at Photojojo have done it for us, much better than I could have hoped to pull off. Their 11 practical tips and creative ideas on how to prepare for and capture the rockets’ red glare—tripod is a must, longish exposures, low ISO—are fairly complete. I especially liked the advice of using the camera’s self-timer, even when using a tripod, to eliminate camera shake. (Most of us don’t have a cabled shutter release on our digicams.) And the creative ideas, like using flash to get some people and context in there, really do work pretty well.
The one thing I would add? While I heartily endorse using a tripod in many conditions, I’ve found that that can limit you to getting fantastic captures of the event, but not necessarily of the mood, or the essence of the night. Experiment with settings, take your camera off it’s mount, and if you’re close enough, go after the less obvious shots (like clarsen, top, and t_squared, above did). After awhile you’ll find you’re expressing yourself in a lot more meaningful ways than just “Oohs” and “Ahhs.”
And be sure to upload your New Year’s fireworks shots to the Fireworks group log!
| Posted By along on December 30, 2006 in Photo tech | Permalink Comments (0) |
