Camera Labs

Hi...
Soon there will be fireworks in my place and i want to ask what is the best lense for to shoot it and what mood should i use.
i used to use 18-200mm if there is a better lense please tell me
Thank you

I shot fireworks with an 18-55 kit lens before and had no problems. How close will you be to the display If you are really far off, then your lens will work even better than mine.

Ookami: I assume you are using cropped DSLR. Your lens is perfectly fine. Focal distance depends on the distance between the firework and you.
Some tips:
1. Go early and set up your tripod.
2. Use lowest ISO eg 100. Really small aperture eg F16-22( situational). Manual focus as AF may be out and hard to focus. Cable release/ bulb mode-One or few seconds for start off.
3. a black cloth/clothe to "shield" your lend from flare or overepxose as i do not know how big is the fireworks event and how close your are, and where you could have positioned.

What you can expect:
Some shots will be too bright, too smoky, and worst till- not even a good ones.
Practice and hope you enjoy yourself.

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www.flickr.com/photos/jojovan

new to photography, soo what exactly would you use the black paper for then, i have seen pictures with the camera man holding it infront of the lens but when and how exactly does it work

sorry to be a pain lol
lee

This is what I've done before and worked quite well:

Use a tripod and a cable release (or remote) on manual bulb setting. I wouldn't close the aperture at all - as wide as possible). Set ISO to taste, try 100... and bump that up if necessary.

The first few shots of fireworks, frame your photo and get autofocus to pick up. Once autofocus has found it, swap to manual focus as not to change it.

Play around when you open and close your shutter. Sometimes you may want the trail of the firework, other times you might want the plume... have fun with it!

I've done both hand-held and tri-pod mounted. I find that I can do it hand held decently, but for the very best results a tri-pod certainly is needed.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

The black paper idea is because you are often shooting very long exposures - even with a small aperture, if there is a lot of ambient light around you can overexpose parts of the shot you don't want or need - the black paper shields the sensor from light - pulling it away at just the moment you want to capture, then blocking again...waiting for the next firework, and pulling away again, can get you lots of nicely exposed firework blooms together. It's essentially just leaving the camera shutter open and using the black paper to act as a shutter, to expose multiple fireworks in one shot.

Some folks like to use ND filters too, which will allow extremely long exposures of 30, 45, 60 or more seconds, capturing lots of firework blooms during one exposure.

Handheld is certainly possible, but the shorter shutter lengths give a different look - more instant, sparkly, little dots captured...whereas the long shutter exposures on tripod will capture long, streaking starbursts and smooth light trails...just a different capture style.

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Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
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