I took a number of random shots of fireworks last night, but the display wasn't very good, we were behind trees, and I set my Gorillapod on the ground because I didn't have a tripod and there was nothing good to attach it to, so I was shooting blind. I wasn't going to submit, but since there are so few entries when I submitted I figured what the heck, I'd submit something off the wall. I'm not expecting much, especially after seeing the Sydney Harbor Bridge fireworks on TV. It's my second heavily processed Topaz Adjust entry (ever and this week, but I'll try not to overdo it). The heavy detail adjustment made it appear there were faces in the fireworks smoke, so I chose this one. I may regret it. It's a horrendous title but I thought it was needed to get the point across it's more than just fireworks. There is no ground because this is shot at about 45 degrees up to clear the people and trees.
Set to auto WB in Camera Raw and imported to CS3.
resized and imported to Topaz Adjust and set for "Spicify" preset and increased sharpness and did minor noise reduction.
Save for web.
[Jan. 6th, 2009 12:22:15 AM]
I'm thrilled that this picture is a personal best by .35 the day before the voting ends. What I'm not so thrilled is the picture was a total luck shot. I was not looking through the viewfinder but just opened the shutter at times when fireworks were going off. It was total luck that the fireworks fit so well in the frame, that the trees appeared at the bottom and that the clouds ended up having the detail. However I will be happy to bump my current top scoring picture, which I'm not too thrilled about either. Per request, this is the original unchanged except for saving for DPC entry size.
[Jan. 8th, 2009 10:31:18 AM]
I was thinking this was a Tuesday night roll-over challenge, but it's Friday night roll-over. Still a strong PB at 6.5580. Thanks everyone.
Post: Wow! Top 10! I didn't expect that with the 6.5ish score. My first completed 2009 goal (top 10 ... ok, so there were only 42 entries). Thanks again!
Statistics
Place: 9 out of 42 Avg (all users): 6.5625 Avg (commenters): 7.8667 Avg (participants): 6.1429 Avg (non-participants): 6.6027 Views since voting: 2770 Views during voting: 562 Votes: 240 Comments: 22 Favorites: 3 (view)
Personal best and top ten in one shot! And don't apologize for being lucky... you thought about what you wanted to do, set your settings to get the best capture, then fired away. I do it all the time. :-)
that is some really interesting lighting. Not trying to say that you cheated or anything, but if you DID do much editing, I think the original would be facinating to look at too.
woooooow. i was shocked when this popped up, i wasn't expecting such an awesome photo. the feathers of the fireworks are beautiful. the smokey lights in the sky are gorgeous, great job capturing them as well as you did. the silhouettes of the trees are a great touch too. all in all a very impressive photo in my book:)
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