F10 and Fireworks

[P_Schneider]

Hey everyone,
with the 4th of July coming up I am wondering what the best settings on a F10 are for shooting fireworks. Any help is welcome.

[sjseto]

Hi Paul,

I'd say, enable the Long Shutter option in the setup menu and then go into Night Mode. Then set the shutter speed for 3, 4, 5 seconds, etc...feel free to experiment. Try using the 2-second self-timer to take the pictures rather than taking the picture by directly pressing the shutter button, so you don't get any blur due to camera movement. Of course, if you use the self-timer, you have to do a little guessing as to when the best fireworks bursts are going to happen. I tried this last year and was semi-successful.

Oh yeah, and don't forget your tripod!

Stephanie

[P_Schneider]

Thanks for the reply Steph. I will give it a shot. I did some researching on the internet and found that most of the recommendations for fireworks are out of our (f10's) range. (ie: F5.6 - f7 @ ISO50).
I did find this site (http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial-fireworks.html) which has F10 fireworks shots, which look pretty good, so I'm not sure what to make of the recommendations that are out there. The website I linked to has the following posted.

Fujifilm FinePix F10
Focal Length = 20.1mm, Shooting Mode = Night Scene (Standard)
Shutter Speed = 3 sec., Aperture = F4.7, ISO = 80
Sharpened in Photoshop Elements

[digitallearner]

wont long shutter speed blur out your pictures too much?

i have a question, what is Focal Length and how do we change it. when ever i take a picture and look at the information on my computer, the Focal Length always comes out to be 8mm.

oh and the f10 never drops below 80 ISO. so then why are you saying 50 ISO?

[sjseto]

wont long shutter speed blur out your pictures too much?

Not really. What ends up in the photo will be different from what your eyes see - for example, it will show several different bursts simultaneously, when in reality you might have seen them one at a time, and you'll see more "streaky trails" - and it might be brighter because of the longer exposure time. Just make sure you use a tripod, and the 2-second self-timer. SLR's are the best for photography like this, because you can use either a remote control or a cable release to ensure that there is no blurriness due to camera movement.

i have a question, what is Focal Length and how do we change it. when ever i take a picture and look at the information on my computer, the Focal Length always comes out to be 8mm.

You can find a technical explanation of it here (http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=focal+length). But essentially, focal length increases the more you zoom in. So the telephoto end of your lens has a longer focal length than the wide end, which your EXIF data will give as 8 mm. If you zoom in and take a picture, and read the EXIF data off of that picture, it should give you something like 24.0 mm.

oh and the f10 never drops below 80 ISO. so then why are you saying 50 ISO?

Paul was referring to recommended settings for fireworks for cameras in general, not specifically the F10. In other words, you want to use the lowest ISO that's available to you. You're right, the F10 only has ISO 80, so that's what you'll want to use.

Stephanie

[P_Schneider]

Well I managed to get these shots of backyard stuff. I didn't get a chance to see a big display. A couple turned out ok.

Fireworks Pics (http://www.pbase.com/p_schneider/fireworks)