ISO 200 (lowest on the D300)
Bulb
RAW
And manual focus on infinity
That seem good?
I actually tried fireworks on Tuesday (Canada Day here) – my first effort:
ISO 100 (btw doubt there is no way to get ISO 100 on D300)
F11
Manual focus
Bulb with remote: open with the burst and close when trail fades
In hindsight: should have also experimented with f16 and maybe even f22 - 15-24 sec ones ended up with more than desired blown out blotches… the fireworks ended by the time I realized this.
Sorry no examples: didn’t have time to process yet.
Good luck tomorrow!!!
Thanks MG! The D300 has a low mode, which is technically ISO 100 however it isn't a true ISO so I am unsure what it does and fear it just darkens the image or something else funky. The noise on the D300 is pretty nice though. I will try playing with it.
Originally posted by cpanaioti:
I was shooting for no more than 4 seconds on Tuesday. f8 - f11 How long you leave the shutter open depends on how many bursts there are.
Focus on infinity or just before though this depends on how far away you are from the show.
Thanks also! I wish this happened more than once a year, I will really be crunched to figure this out in 15 minutes xD
One small item I'd like to add: I use my viewfinder cover for most of my fireworks shots. I always seem to get the one person at the display who doesn't know how to turn off their flash sitting right behind me. :)
I'd say "most of the time," not "as a rule." When you don't have a nice foreground (a nice landscape, a nice cityscape, a nice waterscape, or cool-looking onlookers), you can always zoom in or crop. With my 6 MP, cropping is not really an option, so I zoomed in and got a decent composition here:
