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Archive 2015 · Happy belated 4th of July

  
 
lighthound
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Happy belated 4th of July


I decided to try my hand (ok, tipsy hand) at shooting our fireworks we set off at my house on the 4th. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be especially after having a few cold adult beverages.

I held the shutter open longer than needed to try and capture some stars in the BG but there was just to much light polution and clouds. I think the clouds add a cool effect to these myself. I also closed my aperture down in hopes to get nice stars. That part worked pretty well I think. I have a few with the family standing in the frame and I like the sense of scale they add but the firework displays in those were not great or way to large for my set-up.

I wish I had the shutter open when one of the mortars exploded inside the tube. THAT was both impressive and scary at the same time.

Other than the obvious need for a wider lens or further distance, how do these look to you?
Any glaring issues that I need to correct?


Dave




#1






#2






#3






#4




Jul 09, 2015 at 02:30 PM
beavens
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Happy belated 4th of July


Dave,

Gorgeous colors and great captures, with #2 being my favorite. It feels so clean.

Not sure about those trees, though - for something aerial like fireworks, unless it's a wide shot I don't want anything but sky in the frame because that's what my brain expects.

Love the leading line in #2, so I would most likely clone out the trees and keep the same crop.

Never tried shooting these before, but they look good to me.

Cheers!

Jeff



Jul 09, 2015 at 04:00 PM
kv9f68
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Happy belated 4th of July


At least someone got some firework shots. I wasn't fighting the crowds nor the weather to get any.

Like Jeff said, I like the capture of the fireworks in #2 as well. I also agree about getting rid of the trees as well but something about the background in #1 is grabbing me. I don't know if it's the yellow cast of the clouds or what.

One thing though, and it would have taken care of the background in all of them, ISO 3200 is usually way too high for fireworks. ISO 100-200 would have done the trick unless you were purposely looking to have anything else exposed. Nice shots though.

Kevin



Jul 09, 2015 at 04:20 PM
beavens
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Happy belated 4th of July


+1 @ Kevin and running some NR.

Jeff



Jul 09, 2015 at 04:35 PM
lighthound
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Happy belated 4th of July


Thanks for the feedback Kevin and Jeff! I wasn't sure what ISO I should have used but I did want to try and get some stars in the sky so I "thought" going high and holding it open would give the best results. I couldn't see a lot of details as I was shooting on my screen or else I would have known the sky and stars weren't working like I hoped.

I didn't have to fight any crowds other than family around the pool.






Edited on Jul 10, 2015 at 10:24 AM · View previous versions



Jul 10, 2015 at 09:25 AM
beavens
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Happy belated 4th of July


Oh man I love using mortars! I was wondering how the trees would be in frame with an industrial setup.

The last shot is very fun. Reminds me of a movie poster. Might be some perspective distortion, especially towards the left edge and I'd check some of those blown whites.

Cool stuff.

Jeff




Jul 10, 2015 at 09:38 AM
lighthound
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Happy belated 4th of July


Heya Jeff! Yes, this last shot is NOT a keeper by any means. I just posted it to show how close quarters these were and help explain why you could see trees in the other images. This is actually a horrible shot here. I wish it was better because of the family captured in it helps give it great scale and delivers a completely different message than just plain fireworks in open sky does.

Matter of fact, I just might try to salvage this shot looking at it again. Definitely need to apply lens distortion or something to it. I'm not sure why it looks so whacked out like that. That's not normal for this lens.


Dave



Jul 10, 2015 at 10:22 AM
beavens
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Happy belated 4th of July


lighthound wrote:
Heya Jeff! Yes, this last shot is NOT a keeper by any means. I just posted it to show how close quarters these were and help explain why you could see trees in the other images. This is actually a horrible shot here. I wish it was better because of the family captured in it helps give it great scale and delivers a completely different message than just plain fireworks in open sky does.

Matter of fact, I just might try to salvage this shot looking at it again. Definitely need to apply lens distortion or something to it. I'm not
...Show more

I'd keep it! I think it's a great family moment, and with a few tweaks I think it'll definitely be a shot you'll keep for your memories.

This could also be very cool if you started getting creative with the processing and take a page out of Lyle, Kent or Karen's playbook.

Jeff



Jul 10, 2015 at 12:37 PM





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