Let's see your R-D1 fireworks pictures!

K

krimple

Guest
Here in the USA we just celebrated Independence Day... I took my R-D1 to a family party, and afterwards the town had a great fireworks display.

When I got there, I noticed I forgot my tripod and cable release. Bummer. However, I set the R-D1 to ISO 800, put on the 28mm Ultron (then the 15mm Heliar) and shot wide open with the focus set to infinity at around 1/4th to 1/15th -- with the R-D1, and my elbows on my knees as a stabilizer, I got a few decent shots (not what I would have liked, but nevertheless the R-D1 saved the day)...

I have a slideshow at my flicker galleries :
4th of July Fireworks Display, Bethlehem, PA

Anyone else have success? Someone smart enough to bring a tripod? I must say, I'm pretty impressed with how well these turned out, considering.

Ken
 
krimple said:
Here in the USA we just celebrated Independence Day... I took my R-D1 to a family party, and afterwards the town had a great fireworks display.
Click to expand...

Wow, very impressive! :)

When I got there, I noticed I forgot my tripod and cable release. Bummer. However, I set the R-D1 to ISO 800, put on the 28mm Ultron (then the 15mm Heliar) and shot wide open with the focus set to infinity at around 1/4th to 1/15th -- with the R-D1, and my elbows on my knees as a stabilizer, I got a few decent shots (not what I would have liked, but nevertheless the R-D1 saved the day)...
Click to expand...

I think I may try your technique next year. I went to a local concert and fireworks thing, but didn't feel like dragging the tripod along.

Anyone else have success? Someone smart enough to bring a tripod? I must say, I'm pretty impressed with how well these turned out, considering.
Click to expand...

I didn't try any this year. I had such miserable results a few years ago (I posted one in the main forum and am embarrassed to post any more) that I was kinda discouraged. Now that I know what worked for others I may try again next year.
 
Ken

Nice shots. A tripod may have helped but I see nothing wrong with your method and have used it with 800 film. A lower ISO setting would dictate a tripod and get you the added benefit of less noise/grain.

Bob
 
Really nice shots, Ken. I was in Montpelier, Vermont on a friend's porch, and had my Tri-Elmar, cable release, and tripod. Unfortunately, I could have used a 75 or even better, a 90, but it's hard to know this beforehand. I had to crop vigorously. Here are a couple, rather straight and blah compared to yours.

Ed
 
dmr436 said:
I didn't try any this year. I had such miserable results a few years ago (I posted one in the main forum and am embarrassed to post any more) that I was kinda discouraged. Now that I know what worked for others I may try again next year.
Click to expand...

I understand. Last year I brought the 20D and a tripod to the event--rather a heavy setup, and I didn't have an easy time in framing the shots as the dim viewfinder really slowed me down. I also got a tip from someone who said it was good to get the crowd in the shot. So I tried that this year.

I think I got about 5% to 10% keepers. Not bad, considering. Give it a shot--especially with the R-D1 prefocused to infinity, it was much better for me at getting consistantly well framed shots. I felt much more like a snapshooter than a landscape photographer in the crowd this time! ;)


Ken
 
Ed Schwartzreic said:
Really nice shots, Ken. I was in Montpelier, Vermont on a friend's porch, and had my Tri-Elmar, cable release, and tripod. Unfortunately, I could have used a 75 or even better, a 90, but it's hard to know this beforehand. I had to crop vigorously. Here are a couple, rather straight and blah compared to yours.
Click to expand...

You know, Ed, I had a fantastic seat. Where we go, everyone sits on a large platform facing a valley where the fire off the fireworks. They explode about 500' overhead and about 1/4 mile max in front of us, so we're right there. If anything, I needed wider angles for some of the shots! I think you're right though, and with a pre-focused 75 or 90mm lens and an aux finder, it probably would be pretty easy to pluck out good shots.

We actually got rained on by cardboard remnants of the fireworks at one point.

Location, location, location.

Ken
 
krimple said:
I think I got about 5% to 10% keepers.
Click to expand...

If I could get 10% keepers shooting fireworks I would be happy. I think next time I'll try shooting at a more sane instantaneous speed like 1/4 to 1/15 instead of time exposures which I think caused the smoke to show up and the exaggerated lens flare. I think I also may try 400 film and a smaller f stop rather than trying to maximize saturation with 100 film.

Oh well, I've got a year to think about it. :)
 
From past experience with film, I shot at f/11 on B, and left the lens open for various time periods, based on what was happening. I would cover the lens with my hand when there was no activity, so not to increase the cumulative background light.

Ed
 
Heidelberg Fireworks July 2005

Heidelberg Fireworks July 2005

This weekend there was a firework display in Heidelberg, Germany.

Using a Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4 ISO 1600 metering with AE at f/1.4, as I have no tripod I had to rely upon a Manfrotto monopod and the yoga breath control method [try not to think about it].

In-camera settings were on standard and post-processing was done using Epson RAW with adjustments to Sharpening +5 and Exposure +0.5. The images were saved as 1504 x 1000 90% quality jpeg files.

Out of 65 exposures, these 36 were the best.

http://peterbilitch.smugmug.com/gallery/651548

Peter
 
Peter,

You did a good job! Looks like you had to deal with a bright sky early on, but the later pictures darkened up nicely. I like your analogy on the Yoga breath control--I often try to take pictures in pauses between breaths. I was really concentrating on it when I took my shots; I'm sure I would have had less trouble if I tried to focus on something else...

Sharp images and nicely saturated colors. Thanks for sharing!

Ken
 
Ed in Montpelier

Ed in Montpelier

Hi Ed,

If you were in Montpelier for the fireworks, that must have been July 3? I was there too (Main Street) and we may have walked right past each other. Small world. You weren't on Rick Rizza's porch were you?

Cheers,

Sean
 
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