How to Shoot Fireworks Pocket Field Guide

[mistermonday]

Great capture, Josh.

[_Provo_]

Here's one shot from last night

[Steven G Webb]

Nicely done

[_Provo_]

Originally Posted by Songman45

Nicely done

Thanks Steve here's another one

[mistermonday]

Beautiful capture.

[mistermonday]

Very nice series of shots, WJ

[mistermonday]

Hey Josh, all nice shots but I like this "blue burst" one the best. Thanks for the fireworks guide which I just read. Why do you recommend turning OFF VR on the lense? Obviously it isn't needed on the tripod but was there any other reason?
Cheers, Murray

[_Provo_]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Hey Josh, all nice shots but I like this "blue burst" one the best. Thanks for the fireworks guide which I just read. Why do you recommend turning OFF VR on the lense? Obviously it isn't needed on the tripod but was there any other reason?
Cheers, Murray

Your working a night scene so already you have slower shutter speeds for the scene IS/VR works by slowing the shutter speed so
add the two together and you have further slowing of the shutter speed so movement will introduce more streaking etc...
In this case the fireworks etc... will be further streaked and ghosting might start to take place.

Now you can have IS/VR turned on with higher ISO but for me I like to shoot
at low iso to have very little image noise. And seems to work out better this way

[Steven G Webb]

Josh, thanks for the white balance suggestion. I like the tungsten correction, it of course takes down some of the orange/yellow associated with the burning.

As for the IS/VR thing. Where did you arrive at the information that the function further slows the shutter speed? I think that's in error. The VR in Nikon doesn't change the shutter speed at all. The success of VR/IS is dependent upon the shutter speed and the amount of movement involved. I've had good results with the 70-200 2.8 at 200mm for 10th of a second. I've never tried a more extreme speed. Maybe I'll have a go at it tonight just for fun

[_Provo_]

Everytime I have shot with IS on for capturing birds in flight I only end up with
the bird not being as sharp wings ghosted even when setting it on faster shutter speed, and for capturing birds in flight it is recommened to have IS/VR off as well
so I apply that principle to fireworks as well. So I turn it off.

I am also shooting these shots mounted on a tripod with shutter release cable.

And for fireworks I have turned it on and done a test and have verified the images
have more ghosting in them then with the IS/VR turned off for long exposure night photography involving items of movement in this case the fireworks.

Here's two articles below both recommend turning off IS/VR
I might be incorrect on the slowing of the shutter but from my own
test for fireworks having it on has not produced images up to par
as the ones with IS/VR turned on but then again I am now using a
sigma wide angle lens to take these shots

I have only tried it with a Nikon 55-200mm VR


How to Photograph Fireworks: Tips for Capturing Some Great Memories - ABC News


How to Photograph Fireworks: 7 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow


Yo steve check this out other folks reported same issue with VR/IS affecting shutter speed.
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/nikon-digital-cameras/15087-d80-slow-shutter-speed-w-vr-enabled.html


and this one http://photonaturalist.net/when-not-...stabilization/