Set Fire to the Rain, English Bay
Taken during the festival of lights at English Bay in Vancouver. We were lucky to get primo seats in the centre of the barge.
Once thing I notice...
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Taken during the festival of lights at English Bay in Vancouver. We were lucky to get primo seats in the centre of the barge.
Once thing I noticed about Vancouver that night is how disciplined the general public is, in terms of respecting each other. Within seconds of the fireworks beginning, everyone (approx 200,000) sat down in order to allow everybody to enjoy the view unobstructed. It was truly amazing.
This shot was taken with my tripod barely 2 feet of the ground and with a good 200 feet of people in front of my sitting that I was able to crop out.
Post processing here involved cleaning up some noise, reducing motion blur and desaturating the colours using a gradient map.
Song: Set Fire to the Rain
Artist: Adele
Album: 21
Read less
Once thing I noticed about Vancouver that night is how disciplined the general public is, in terms of respecting each other. Within seconds of the fireworks beginning, everyone (approx 200,000) sat down in order to allow everybody to enjoy the view unobstructed. It was truly amazing.
This shot was taken with my tripod barely 2 feet of the ground and with a good 200 feet of people in front of my sitting that I was able to crop out.
Post processing here involved cleaning up some noise, reducing motion blur and desaturating the colours using a gradient map.
Song: Set Fire to the Rain
Artist: Adele
Album: 21
Read less
Aug, 2014Views
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Awards
Chatter Award
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Contest Finalist in Glitter And Flares Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Celebrating Freedom Photo Contest
Joby Tripod
Contest Finalist in 350 Lights In The Sky Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in The Right Place And Time Photo Contest
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MaryAnne306
October 27, 2014
Outstanding fireworks capture. I'm making note of the post processing you did--an opportunity to learn. Thanks. Congratulations on being featured.
PRO+
adavies
February 06, 2017
Fantastic! If you haven't done so already, please consider joining my Outdoor Events challenge:)
https:// viewbug.com/challenge/outdoor-events-fairs-concerts-marketsany-outdoor-event-photo-challenge-by-adavies
https:// viewbug.com/challenge/outdoor-events-fairs-concerts-marketsany-outdoor-event-photo-challenge-by-adavies
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken during the festival of lights off of English Bay in Vancouver. We were lucky to get primo seats facing the centre of the fireworks barge. Once thing I noticed about Vancouver that night is how respectful the general public in Vancouver is. Within seconds of the fireworks beginning, the whole beach (200,000 was estimated) sat down to give everyone an unobstructed view. It was truly amazing. To give context, my tripod was setup with the camera barely 2 feet of the ground with a good 200 feet of crowd sitting in front of me that I was able to crop out.Time
I took this shot just past sundown during the peak of summer in July. Having captured this shot just at the edge of darkness, give a beautiful gradient blue sky at the fringe of the mountains in the background. Another interesting point about the timing of this picture, I was lucky get this shot early in the presentation. After a hand-full more explosions barely a minute later, the sky was thick of smoke. Combined with no wind, the rest of the show was completely dampened by lingering fog.Lighting
The lighting was constantly changing for the first half of the show because the sun was skill making its way behind the mountains. I had to constantly tweak my exposure rather than my f-stop in order to keep the aperture setting in its sweet spot.Equipment
I brought with me a small lightweight tripod knowing that the crowd generally sat down at these shows and didn't want to have something that obstructed the view. I used a Nikon D5200 with an 18.0-70.0 mm f/3.5-4.5 Nikkor lens shot at f/7.1 / 18.0 mm, with a 2.5 sec exposure at ISO 250. I used a remote trigger with the mirror lock-up mode to reduce vibrations.Inspiration
I've been to many fireworks shows but never happened to carry my camera and tripod. Usually because we've gone on a whim and I wouldn't have my equipment handy. This time around a group of friends and I planned it out in advance and got there relatively early to secure a spot. That being said, having gone fully equipped and to one of the best photo settings, we found one of the best spots in the house and I just fired away.Editing
Post processing here involved cleaning up some noise and reducing a bit of motion blur using a high-pass filter with a soft-light layer mode. I slightly desaturating the colours using a chromatic gradient map to balance the colours to something with a bit more control. I also increased the clarity of the image by boosting the mid-tones, and also tweaked the contrast to make the foreground pop a bit more.In my camera bag
My camera bag that day was slim. I only had my shoulder strap bag carrying my lightweight Manfrotto tripod and backup D5200 camera with its kit lens. This was because I was going into a large crowd and didn't need anything fancy. I generally lug around a decent amount of weight since I don't mind this becoming part of my work out. I'll normally carry my ThinkTank backpack filled with my Nikkor 105mm macro lens and 70-300mm zoom lens, as well as my Nikon D7100 with its 18-70mm kit lens for my digital shooting. My Mamiya RB67 medium format camera and 90mm lens are also packed deep in the bag for some more special shots. In terms of accessories, I carry my ND10 and IR Hoya filters, a remote trigger, and a spare battery and SD card. Depending on the time or day or setting, I'll strap on my tripod.Feedback
With fireworks, a lot of it is luck. Since you don't know what will pop up at any given moment, you just need to cross your fingers and fire away. Depending on the rate of explosions, you might want to stick between 1/2 and 5 seconds exposure. Anything more and you'll probably get too much action in your frame. I would suggest setting it up so that you get a good composition, adjust the exposure for your background, turning off your preview screen and click away. Another trick is to shoot with bulb mode and click between patterns in the fireworks. The only risk with this is that you don't get the exposure you wanted, but you get more control over what you capture in your frame. A good rule of thumb to get sharper images, is to keep your f-stop between 7.1 and 11 (there are tables for optimal sweet spots) and ISO under 800.
