Thinking I had a prime spot between Casey's and Plaza Ice Cream Palace on Main Street USA. Right in the center of the street on the masking tape with a few feet of empty space in front of me where Disney keeps a clear walkway. ; However, I really needed a stepladder or a high tripod to shoot over the crowd in front of me. ; Having neither, I had to get creative with focal lengths and cropping in post. ; Back to studying the flickr masters...
I don't know what you are thinking of Scott, these shots are wonderful! ; I really like #2, 3 and the last one.
Thank you, Jeff. ; I am still not very satisfied with my firework show work at WDW. ; Never seem to catch the colors others do. ; I keep thinking it is the camera but I know it's more the technique I need to work on.
Very nice shots. ; Though to be honest, some of the crowd in the shots could be interesting...I find fireworks shots where the crowd can be seen looking up in awe to be often more interesting than the ones that leave them out (Tom's UWA shots, for example).
In my opinion, getting good fireworks shots at WDW is more about knowing the shows than it is about proper technical work. ; Technique-wise, it's pretty simple: ; manual focus to infinity, ISO 100/200 (which is the low on your camera that isn't software-based), bulb mode. ; From there, you'll vary your aperture based on how long of bursts you want. ; Then, you open and close the shutter at the appropriate time, which may sound easy, but I think it can be the most difficult part--not only do you want to capture the right bursts, but you had to plan ahead with the right aperture (I vary my aperture during Wishes! from f/11 at points to f/22). ;
Thanks, Justin...if only my crowd looked like Tom's. ; They were just silhouetted shapes between me and the castle. ; You can see one on the left of the second shot though it is not as intrusive as in the others which is why I cropped them out.
Paul, I did another crop of this photo which trimmed the top burst off so you only see the three bursts with trials from others along the edges. ; Will post that one when I get it uploaded someplace. I was doing the bulb technique here with a shutter of 4.9s. ; So hard to judge when to close it. ; I tried longer times than I have done previously. ; Any longer and I think I would need some kind of ND filter to cut down the light.
That's what I was doing, Tom. ; Had the aperture at f/22 or f/29 for these. ; I need to study the show more (or whatever show will be there on my next trip). ; I wrote once people should use youTube for research to get the timing down. Should take my own advice, huh? ; : Trick is finding a youTube video of the entire show. ; For those going this summer, hope someone does that before you go!
Making it sound like I did with Fantasmic! Like being the only one to turn to the right from center stage away from the bubbles in the never ending quest to capture the Columbia firing her one working cannon[nb]Yes, the same cannon that fired on New Orleans Square when POTC opened.[/nb] to open the Peter Pan sequence.
eh no. 1) AF won't work fast enough 2) It's hard to MF against a dark item. ; The lights on the Columbia don't come on until after the cannon fires. I've gotten the cannon shot, but OOF.
I really like #2 and #3, nice shots! Count me in for bulb mode too. I leave the aperture between f/8 and f/10, focus at infinity, ISO at 100-200, and most importantly use a cable release. The fireworks seem to be the easy part to capture for me, but the castle is always the tricky part due to the lighting changes. Anywhere from 3-6 seconds seems to be the best exposure time, depending on the castle lighting. I try to time the shutter release to just before I hear the launch charge of the shell and close shortly after the burst. I really like the idea of using youtube too, thanks for the tip , and will have to try that next time.
I've did that before my last visit. ; I have had no luck getting shots of Illuminations on past trips, so I watched the show during lunch at work every day during the week before the trip. ; My boss thought I was kind of nuts until I showed him the shots I got...
Here's the slightly different version of the last photo. I like just showing three bursts. ; The fourth in the OP was too close to the edge and distracting to me.
