July 01, 2004

silhouette3.JPG From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:

The right kind of fireworks (did I say 'right'?)

We interrupt the partisan fireworks for some real ones. I took these tonight.

Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at July 1, 2004 10:59 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links
Comments

But its not 4th of July yet...unless this is some Canadian thing.

Posted by: clovis on July 1, 2004 11:24 PM

Mindles:

Why, as these photographs amply demonstrate, do you Hate America (TM)?

Posted by: SomeCallMeTim on July 2, 2004 01:16 AM

Geeky, tech question: Were those taken with a digital camera? How did you get such clear pictures of fireworks? Whenever I shoot digital pictures at night, they come out either too blurry or too dark...

Posted by: Brian Greenberg on July 2, 2004 11:00 AM

To get good pics of fireworks with a digital camera, you need two things...

1. A camera that will let you manually adjust the shutter speed. IIRC, about 2 seconds seemed to work for me last year.

2. A tripod, because there is no way you can hold a camera steady enough with those very slow shutter speeds.

Posted by: Chris on July 2, 2004 11:42 AM

Chris:

Do you need to remotely trigger the shutter; I always worry that my pressing the shutter button is enough to wobble the picture into bluriness.

Also, what resolution would you think you would need to get those pics (which I think are nice)?

TIA

Posted by: SomeCallMeTim on July 2, 2004 01:30 PM

I've never tried my hand at photographing fireworks, but I have gotten some decent dusk and dark photos from a digital camera when I disabled the flash. If the flash was enabled, the camera adjusted its light-sensitivity accordingly and it turned out just like a normal camera image under similar conditions.

Posted by: anony-mouse on July 2, 2004 02:21 PM

Well, I didn't use optimal methods, but they came out OK.
I have a Canon EOS digital rebel camera and used a 28-200 F3.5 zoom lens. I 'pushed' the ISO to 800 and tried various exposures from 20-60. I rested the camera on my knee (necessary for speeds under 60). Manual focus (auto focus is screwy in the dark).

I took about 70 pictures experimenting with slight changes. The monitor on a digital camera is a wonderful thing. these are the better pix.

Slower exposures would give you longer light lines, but I didn't have a tripod.

By the way, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen was fireworks from above, flying on a clear night.

Posted by: "Mindles H. Dreck" on July 2, 2004 08:41 PM

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