Dr.FillyBlunt
07-05-2014, 09:58 PM
Before I get started here ,I just want to say that I hope everyone had a fun and safe (contradictory I know) 4th of July.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to afford fireworks this year and I even missed the public displays at both panther creek on July 3rd and the city's July 4th show on the river (The city's show has been getting worse over the years anyway). However, I opted out at home in the neighborhood with my camera in hopes of getting a few decent shots of the fireworks everyone else were shooting.
Just in case anyone is curious, I am using a canon eos rebel t3i DSLR and most (if not all) of these shots were with the 18-55mm kit lens. At one time during the show I switched out to my 50mm 1.8 lens for a few shots but I can't really tell you which shots were with what lens because I'm not currently at the computer where the RAW pictures were that contained the exposure data. All of these pictures however should have been shot at f/8 with 100-200 ISO and BULB exposures (the camera shutter stays open as long as I have the shutter button pressed).
Unfortunately again, these long exposures that allow for nice looking fireworks in the dark make a tripod essential, which is something I don't have access to. So all of these shots are from hand holding (sometimes I may lean on something to help stabilize the camera), you will notice this throughout as many of the star trails in these pictures appear sort of "jagged" which denotes hand/camera shake. What makes it more of a challenge is that shit is being shot up into the sky from all around me which means anytime I want to catch something other than what I'm looking at I have to refocus and recompose the shot before I miss anything and of course the camera is in full manual everything because metering systems on digital cameras don't know what a good exposure is for fireworks (and autofocus is useless in the dark).
I ended up taking over 100 photos and a little more than 2 dozen videos, but sadly I underestimated the focal lengths I was zoomed to during shooting so I concluded that the videos were all framed too tight to be enjoyable.
Lastly, although I've had this camera for several months now and have gotten a bit experienced with it, this is my first time using it to shoot fireworks so easy with the criticism lol. Please excuse photobucket's garbage file limits as well in the case that they may have messed up anything when downsizing my photos.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/moreinframe.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/moreinframe.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/mostinframe.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/mostinframe.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/dumpsterglory.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/dumpsterglory.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/upwardsshow.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/upwardsshow.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/trio.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/trio.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/colorchanging.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/colorchanging.jpg.html)
My cousin had one of those lantern things and I was hoping to get it on video but I'll be damned if my camera battery didn't die right before she lit it off. I ended up using my phone to capture it but of course the quality isn't too good on that. This would be my first time seeing one of those lanterns up close and I gotta say those things are actually pretty cool, I suggest buying them if you've never bought one before.
I've got a few more pictures I'd like to post but I can only do six at a time so I'll continue them shortly.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to afford fireworks this year and I even missed the public displays at both panther creek on July 3rd and the city's July 4th show on the river (The city's show has been getting worse over the years anyway). However, I opted out at home in the neighborhood with my camera in hopes of getting a few decent shots of the fireworks everyone else were shooting.
Just in case anyone is curious, I am using a canon eos rebel t3i DSLR and most (if not all) of these shots were with the 18-55mm kit lens. At one time during the show I switched out to my 50mm 1.8 lens for a few shots but I can't really tell you which shots were with what lens because I'm not currently at the computer where the RAW pictures were that contained the exposure data. All of these pictures however should have been shot at f/8 with 100-200 ISO and BULB exposures (the camera shutter stays open as long as I have the shutter button pressed).
Unfortunately again, these long exposures that allow for nice looking fireworks in the dark make a tripod essential, which is something I don't have access to. So all of these shots are from hand holding (sometimes I may lean on something to help stabilize the camera), you will notice this throughout as many of the star trails in these pictures appear sort of "jagged" which denotes hand/camera shake. What makes it more of a challenge is that shit is being shot up into the sky from all around me which means anytime I want to catch something other than what I'm looking at I have to refocus and recompose the shot before I miss anything and of course the camera is in full manual everything because metering systems on digital cameras don't know what a good exposure is for fireworks (and autofocus is useless in the dark).
I ended up taking over 100 photos and a little more than 2 dozen videos, but sadly I underestimated the focal lengths I was zoomed to during shooting so I concluded that the videos were all framed too tight to be enjoyable.
Lastly, although I've had this camera for several months now and have gotten a bit experienced with it, this is my first time using it to shoot fireworks so easy with the criticism lol. Please excuse photobucket's garbage file limits as well in the case that they may have messed up anything when downsizing my photos.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/moreinframe.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/moreinframe.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/mostinframe.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/mostinframe.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/dumpsterglory.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/dumpsterglory.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/upwardsshow.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/upwardsshow.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/trio.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/trio.jpg.html)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/phillybluntd/colorchanging.jpg (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/phillybluntd/media/colorchanging.jpg.html)
My cousin had one of those lantern things and I was hoping to get it on video but I'll be damned if my camera battery didn't die right before she lit it off. I ended up using my phone to capture it but of course the quality isn't too good on that. This would be my first time seeing one of those lanterns up close and I gotta say those things are actually pretty cool, I suggest buying them if you've never bought one before.
I've got a few more pictures I'd like to post but I can only do six at a time so I'll continue them shortly.