What things to tackle when photographing FIREWORKS

Had a chance the other week to go out and shoot some fireworks at a park for Victoria day. To be honest, this was the second time I went for fireworks, but the first firework was so mediocre and lasted about only 2 minutes, I would not count it at all :D.  Let consider some of the challenges which I thought of during this particular shoot (which I think may be common to most cases).

One main difference was the presence of sunlight during this shoot. Been in mid May (summer), the sunset on that day was as late as 9pm and at 9:30, there was still a fair bit of sunlight left.  So, this shoot was extra challenging in getting the right exposure. But first things first... here are the things you should consider at such a shoot.

1. Location and the point of view. - Fireworks by themselves are pretty boring in my point of view. So, if you can get some landscape (a bridge, a river or a building) as the foreground or the background, that makes it way more interesting. Another way to make interesting shots are by including some other viewers of fireworks. Most people wont be moving a lot during fireworks, so may even get away without much blur with a slow shutter speed.

2. Getting ahead of time - This will help you ease into the shoot. Also will help you to pick a good vantage point for the shoot. Lay your gear down and take a couple of test shots with the available light. This will also help you to get a feeling for how fast the light fades out.

3. So now we ll come down to setting your camera. Its important to understand that there are no universal camera settings for fireworks. They change drastically from one shot to the other. The only path is to understand the basics.  First and foremost, you have to set it to MANUAL mode.

(a) Always have your ISO value as low as you can go. In my camera it is 100.. so I would start by fixing that.

(b) Then comes the aperture.. For this I would recommend something between f/7 to f/13 (f/11 is the sweet spot in many lenses). You do need a good depth of field. But going beyond f/13 would make your images softer.

(c) Focusing in fading light or in complete darkness is next to impossible by using auto focus. Your lens will be focus hunting forever. So switch it to manual focusing and then turn it close to (not exactly to it or passed it) infinity focus point on your lens. This will assure your fireworks been in focus for the whole shoot.

(d) Now getting the correct exposure with the shutter speed is the tricky part. You have pick something to expose for before the show starts (right before) and I started by under exposing for the dimmed sky. The general rule of thumb is that the lower the shutter speed is, the more fireworks you will catch. But they should not over expose everything in the image. Remember not to get the exposure levels while fireworks are going off.. that can throw you off. One of my friends in this shoot by my side had all his photos like they were shot at noon because of that. Remember that fireworks are brighter than you think and that as ambient light drops, the fireworks become more prominent.

(e) Did I forget to tell you that a Tripod is a MUST in these shoots? Plus a cable release would definitely help to get the exposure without any camera shake. The other alternative to a cable release would be self timer (like 2 seconds) but that can be tricky. Next, its really important to listen very well. Because you could clearly hear the fireworks been fired off from the ground few seconds before it explodes. I simply listened to this, counted to 3 and triggered my shutter. Also try to use a wide angle to mid telephoto lens for these so you can quickly adjust your field of view to include all the fireworks in them.

Here are some of my results from this particular shoot. Please note that ALL PICTURES ARE COPYRIGHTED.

Comments are always welcomed.

Thanks,
Akila.

Macro series continues - Depth of field

One a warm weekend, I took off to hunt for some insect macros. Within minutes, I realized that there are few flies flying around a particular sunny area. There I found the source of this activity... a pile of fresh bird excrement... For any other it would be disgusting.. But for me, it meant that I am gonna lay down right next to it to get some macros of its main customers...flies. Here s one of the first shots I took,

 

You might notice that I have gone for a higher depth of field (DOF) in order to catch a lot of its body in focus in the hunt for details. Yet, in this picture its also noticeable that the background is too busy.  In other words, its a cluttered background and the deep DOF is keeping most of that in focus. So, here is a logical scenario where a shallow DOF (focused precisely on the closest eye on the insect) would help me separate the subject from the busy background. Here s one such image I took with natural available light at f/2.8. 

So, the takeaway message is this. If you have the ability to insert light or there s ample ambient light available, then first go for shots with high DOF. They will be your safe shots. Most of the insect and even some of the background in focus. Then depending on how nice of a bokeh the background will make or to avoid a busy one altogether, reduce the depth of field and shoot one with a carefully selected focus point. This is an unforgiving setup as a millimeter deviation of the focus point might ruin the whole shot. 

All Pics are Copyrighted. 

Have fun shooting.. 

Akila.

More macro photography - Location

Was sick for few days and thought about the best way to feel good after recovering a bit. Grabbed my lens and went out hunting some quick macros. Walking around with a heavy lens and a camera, I couldn't see anything living for a bit and to make things worse, there were signs mentioning the use of pesticides at the site. So, I decided to increase my chances. Rather than scanning the grass, I looked for a well spanned out tree where there s a good bit of undergrowth. The shade and the moist environment draws in lots of insects and with some patience and persistence, I was able to capture these little guys,

Please note that ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHTED. 

Let me know your ideas or if you identify some of these beautiful creatures.

Akila.

Chasing Macros - Different lighting sources

There are three difficulties in Macro Photography in my experience.

1. Patience
2. Focus
3. Depth of field

The first two comes with practice. In most cases as with insects, you really can't rush into the shot. Due to the risk of scaring them off, I usually start from a bit far away and then close in while increasing the magnification. This way, if the guy decides to take a leave, I ll still have something recorded. In other words, I will have few safe shots. Focusing definitely improves with practice. A 1mm sway of focus can mean the difference of a bugs eyes been off focus as opposed to on focus. Trust me, you can rarely see it in the back of your camera... and its devastating to find that out after the shoot.

As for the depth of view, its a subjective issue. Some images are great with shallow DOF while some begs for more. So, its always a good idea to take two shots of each subject. One with shallow DOF and one with a deep DOF. But when you go for a deep DOF (as you close down the aperture), the camera lose a lot of light partly by been so close to the subject. An external light source can help you a lot to get some of these shots for sure. Also remember that the higher f numbers only increase the DOF by very little in macro work. So, when I say deep, I mean f/20 or f/22 at least. I have personally tried out ring lights and the results have been really disappointing.  Unless you go for a real expensive ring light, they may not put enough light on the source to freeze the motion. This is specially true with my 100mm lens due to the larger minimal focus distance. So, tried out a speedlight with a diffuser and came up with these results (All except the last one).

Please do note that all images are copyrighted. Comments are always welcomed. 

Akila.

Kicking ass.. taekwondo style

Had the opportunity to go witness a taekwondo demo performed by the Korean Diplomacy Foundation team here in London by invitation. Took my faster lenses (50mm 1.8 and the 100mm 2.8) since the light levels would be  lower and the action was expected to be faster. While the demo team warmed up, I too was warming up :),... and set the camera to Manual, did the metering, white balance and then set to continuous shooting... But when the action started, boy was I in for a surprise. My rebel 600D's 3.5 fps and the smaller buffer combination was not even close to keeping up with them. So, had a horrendous time to capture at least some of the action... So, come next similar opportunity, I will go sporting a faster camera for sure.. Here are some of the results,

Please note that all pictures and copyrighted. 

Breaking board backflip style... 

Fastest way to cut two apples into million pieces. 

One two three.. all in one jump.

Trust and Precision... 

 Why make it simple, when you can do this?

Sticking to basics... 

 Comments are always welcomed.

Akila.

Chasing Macros - Natural Light

Went out last Saturday morning, hoping to chase down some insects to get some macros out of them. Here are some of the results. Will try to walk you through my thought process and my mistakes etc.. First, noted this ant running on a small flower and tried chasing it around. Got as low as I could by laying on the ground.... Even though I got the focus on this right, the aperture was set at f/4, which is not quite enough.

To be honest, I almost stepped on this little guy.. Just noticed him silently enjoying the sun on a small flower.. Had a little better DOF on this one.. but should have gone for more.

Got this rare shot where a spider (usually a predator) becomes the prey. Had a real hard time getting everything in focus (DOF) while keeping a fast enough shutter to get some light (which was not consistent) and blur from the flower flailing in the wind. ISO was boosted up to cope with it.. and the cheap ring flash I had was no help as my lens could focus far away from the subject. Even with an aperture of f/10, most of the predator is out of focus.

This is in fact, the best shot I had. It was so hard to catch this one, who never stopped for a breather. My auto focus (selective) was going crazy no matter what I do to get him in focus. Tried a few and then switched to manual.. here, I had more control over the shot and also could use my intuition to predict where the bee is gonna move into etc... Out of the 5-6 shots I took this way, had 2 presentable ones.. Here s one of them.

Please note that All Images are Copyrighted.

Comments and suggestions are always welcomed.

Akila.