Fireworks - Photography and Pages!


Tomorrow is Independence Day in the States. That means a lot of fireworks and in my case, an opportunity to capture those fireworks with photography and eventually use them in my digital scrapbook pages.

I did a little research on the internet (I'll post blog links below) and here's a quick list of a few things I found that I'm going to try this year.

1. Use a tripod. I've actually never used one in past years and this is pretty much the number one

2. Get set up early. I know this is a good tip because last year all of my fireworks photos had a lovely McDonald's and Big Lots sign right smack dab in the middle of all of my photos. If I could have gotten there a little earlier and set up I could have avoided that! The picture above is actually from 2011...the only really good shot I have. See, I need to practice the art of taking fireworks photos!

3. Use Manual Mode. ISO will be set low to allow for clearer pictures. Aperture will be set between f/8 and f/16. For the shutter speed, I'm going to use the BULB setting. This will allow the shutter to stay open as long as the button is depressed. I've never used that setting before so I might have to practice before the fireworks show.

I read this tip over at Wiki-How:
A rule of thumb is to open the shutter as soon as you hear or see the rocket shooting into the sky and to leave it open until the burst is dissipating. This will usually take several seconds.

4. No Flash. The fireworks are already bright enough and they will be too far away for the flash to really do anything to enhance the photo.

I think those cover the basics. There's a lot more detailed info over at Wiki-How and Digital Photography School if you want to read more about capturing fireworks.

As I was searching for fireworks photos on my EHD for this blog post I spotted my 2010, 2011 and 2012 digital scrapbook page folder. I had to take a peek and see my pages from previous July 4th celebrations. I thought you might like to see them. There are a few fireworks photos in them.

This was 2010, 3 years ago! OH. MY. GOODNESS! Look at how little my girls are. Sparklers are always fun.
Traditional Temps 1 by Scrapping with Liz
Digi Files #25
This was 2011. See how I hid my fireworks photos behind the title....they must not have been that great.
Blocks, Blocks, Blocks Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Everyone Has a Story by Captivated Visions
This was last year. You can see a few peaks of fireworks. As you can see I made sure the McDonald's and Big Lots signs did not make it in the layout.
Tile Templates by Scrapping with Liz
American Pride by SuzyQ Scraps and Amanda Heimann

I'll be back next Wednesday to share with you all how my fireworks photo taking went...and maybe I'll share a 2013 Independence page with you!

Hope you all have a happy 4th!
-Liz


1 comment

Chippi -Christie- said...

These are beautiful!! I really love the last one, it looks great. I love the colours, and the elements and the photos. The whole thing just looks fantastic!
Thanks for the tips on fireworks, I am just learning all these new settings for different things and I am going to have to start writing everything down, haha!!

© Scrapping with Liz
Maira Gall