Firework Tracers

ND – Cold but Sunny, Blue

It’s been that time of year again…
…where we have, en masse, taken long thin things designed for purpose, set light to them, and stood back to hear a hiss, bang and occasional whistle to a pretty but short-lived visual display.

Between Bonfire Night and the coincidental timing of Diwali this year many fireworks have been launched into the sky, though judging by the multitude of simultaneous displays witnessed across the horizon from our city centre base in years past, I’m thinking that the credit crunch has toned down such activities here somewhat this year.

The first thing you learn about photographing fireworks is “don’t use a fast exposure”. If you do, then all you get are muted dots of light in an otherwise black picture. Firework photography needs to capture their motion, which in turn fills the image with light and gives a more spectacular result.

During one such display, I happened to catch a few quick bursts with a shutter speed that avoided the uninspired dots, but also cut short long trails being etched across my sensor. here I managed to get short bursts of motion that look more like scattered tracer fire than anything.

Firework Tracers – Red Yellow

Nikon D700 'FX', Nikkor 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G AF-S VR @ 70mm, Exposure 1/8 @ F29, ISO 2500, Description

I was also curious to see…
…how removing the colour and focussing on tone would work. A quick drag of the saturation control to zero gave me that answer. I quite like it.

Firework Tracers – Black and White

Nikon D700 'FX', Nikkor 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G AF-S VR @ 70mm, Exposure 1/8 @ F29, ISO 2500, Description

Have fun,
ND

(c) Nakedigit 2010