People often ask me what my settings were for certain night shots, but the light on the landscape and your subject varies from night to night as the moon phase changes, it varies from hour to hour as the moon moves in the sky, and even from moment to moment as your point your camera in different directions and have more or less light pollution in your shot. So when I pursue night shots, I focus on determining the best exposure, and I remain vigilant to adjust it as conditions change.
Often an exposure time of around 4 seconds works well, but in this case the shots were being fired every 6 seconds, so I left one camera on an intervalometer capturing 5 second exposures at f/16, ISO 640, then triggering the next shot one second later, so they were 6 seconds apart in total.
Upon returning, I assembled the resulting shots into a time-lapse video, as described on my blog:
Create a Timelapse Video on Your Digital Camera
http://activesole.blogspot.com/2011/08/photographer-light-dance-pfeiffer-beach.html
For the video sequence it appears that I re-framed the shot a couple of times during the fireworks display. (I’ve also had been experiencing a bug in Lightroom where a crop from one shot pasted into others does not always take effect correctly, so that may be coming into play as well.)
Independence Day fireworks at Crowley Lake in the Eastern Sierra 2013
I’ve been shooting fireworks at every opportunity for many years. Here are some examples from recent years:
South Lake Tahoe, 2011
http://activesole.blogspot.com/2011/08/south-lake-tahoe-fireworks-ranked-6-in.html
Tahoe City, California, July 4th, 2010
http://activesole.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-4th-weekend.html
Seaside, Oregon, 2009
http://activesole.blogspot.com/2009/07/by-rockets-red-glare-bombs-bursting-in.html
Squaw Valley, California, 2006:
Squaw Valley, California, 2005:
#fireworks #fireworksphotography #tutorial #HowTo #nightphotography
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beautiful fireworks for Ralph and my 17yr anniversary, July 4th
Can you tell me what films/cameras you use to capture the beautiful images you post. Your an inspiration to me. They have pulled me out of some hard emotional times. Thank you for sharing your talents.