This year I decided to play around with long-exposure shots of our local fireworks. The idea was to capture multiple bursts in a single image and also to capture longer tails.
It worked on both counts, as you'd expect, but I can't say that any of the resulting pictures were super outstanding. Still, I got a few nice color combinations, including an excellent mix of red, white, and blue (top photo) and orange, purple, and green (bottom photo). Happy 4th, everyone, both actual and observed!
I have a great view of our municipal show from my front porch, so I studied up on how to use the live composite mode on my camera. I broke out the BAT (Big Ass Tripod) pre focused on a suitable infinity target while it was still light. I set up a couple of test exposures to get the base for my composite shot. Then I waited. And waited. Then I went to Google and found that there was in fact NO FIREWORKS DISPLAY scheduled for the 4th.
Drat.
Whaaaaaat? What sort of unpatriotic place do you live! On the other hand, I could have done without the two months of M-80s we got in my neighborhood prior to the holiday. Is this the price of freedom? 😉
Looks really good, actually.
Camera? Settings?
He uses a Sony RX-100, but not sure of the generation. For these sorts of things in the traditional vein you stop the camera down, use a lower ISO and a long shutter speed (several seconds). The low ISO and stopped down settings are to avoid overexposure, since fireworks are frikkin' bright.
When you see the trail of a rocket heading up, trip the shutter.
Camera: Sony DSC-RX10M4
Lens: 9mm (35mm equivalent: 24 mm)
Exposure: f/10, 5 sec, ISO 100
Windows: Right click, save image as file. Right click on file, select properties, pick on details tab and all the details are listed.
Excellent! Beauty without the noise that cats, dogs, & I don't need.