Saturday, August 18, 2007

Photographing Fireworks

Photographing Fireworks

1. Don't use a flash, which will only highlight the immediate area. If you can't disable the flash in your camera, cover it with tape.

2 Use a tripod if possible, or find some way to steady your camera. A bean-bag or sandbag works well.

3 Black & white film is not recommended. Use either colour slide or colour negative film, ISO 50 or ISO 100 for single-lens reflex cameras and ISO 400 for aim-and-shoot cameras.

4 Use 36-exposure rolls so you won't have to change film in the dark as often.

5 Set the focus to infinity (aim-and-shoot cameras have trouble with this - some will focus at infinity if you cover the focus sensor with a piece of tape).

6 Include something at the bottom of the frame, such as barge or beach or crowd, to establish scale and location.

7 Experiment with leaving the shutter open from five to 20 seconds. Set manual aperture control from f5.6 to f11, since higher f-stops may not admit enough light. Aim-and-shoot cameras generally don't offer this option.

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