Thursday, July 5, 2007

Shooting Fireworks

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Fourth of July fireworks is one of the assignments we get every year, giving rise to the challenge of trying to make an image different from recent years. Covering fireworks is as much about what else is in the image as the fireworks themselves. I knew I wanted to be away from Memorial Park and have downtown in the foreground. I scouted three or four locations during the day, trying to visualize where the fireworks would best line up with the buildings. Once I found the best spot, I returned two hours before the fireworks to make sure I could set up my tripod before others arrived. The exposure was 15 seconds at f11 or 16. The shutter time was a compromise between getting a number of fireworks bursts in one frame and the amount of time the digital camera would spend reducing the digital noise, a time during which it isn't possible to shoot another frame. The longer the exposure, the longer the noise reduction time. This frame had the most bursts, making it the most pleasing image.

No comments: