Happy new year photos

[Zom-B]

Happy new year!! (2009 already?! *mumble*)

I photographed some fireworks while getting used to my brand new Nikon D90 camera with 18-105G VR lens (@ manual focus). Sorry for the blurriness in some. The shutter speed is either 1s or 2s in all photos (manually chosen) at ISO 500. Aperture differers depending on the amount of light (f/3.8 - f/27).

And some regular fireworks, because people with a laser passion also tent do like other eye-pleasing things.

 

[lamborgini8]

Nice shots mate, happy new year!

Tip for firework photography that I found gets the best results. Get a tripod and set it somewhere that has a clear view of the fireworks, then set the aperture to a low setting F2.8 works best for me and then set the exposure to around 5 to 10 seconds. Then just set a timer to go off in 3 seconds, or if you can turn the camera on continuous shoot mode with the same settings, and let it go . That way captures all the colours as well as the whole firework with just a black background.

How powerful is that red by the way?

 

[Zom-B]

I was at a friends, without tripod.

If I would set the aperture to lowest all the time, then even at lowest ISO (200) it would be overexposing. ISO 200 is native on my camera. ISO lower than 200 have progressively less dynamic range because the amplifier would be lowering the measured sensor values.

The red is the leadlight in my sig (214mW).

 

[andy_con]

i did a show last night

setting up -

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x202/magicmushrooms1/NYE/?action=view&current=30122008021.flv

only got a couple of phone pics from the night

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x202/magicmushrooms1/NYE/?action=view&current=MOV007.flv

 

[rog8811]

I assume it was well recieved by the party goers?

Regards rog8811

 

[andy_con]

sure was

i was also doing dancing people, other animations, real time clock and text

 

[lamborgini8]

I was at a friends, without tripod.

If I would set the aperture to lowest all the time, then even at lowest ISO (200) it would be overexposing. ISO 200 is native on my camera. ISO lower than 200 have progressively less dynamic range because the amplifier would be lowering the measured sensor values.

The red is the leadlight in my sig.

Whoops, I meant set the aperture to a higher number.... I guess it still depends how close and how bright the fireworks are. If the aperture is set to the right level then it don't matter if it over exposes because it captures the entire firework and it cant see anything else but black.

Heres one of mine.

Settings:
Shutter speed: 6 seconds
Aperture: 7.7
ISO: 100

 

[Zom-B]

Nice photos!

andy_con: It's funny, if i use PgUp/PgDn, it scrolls exactly one picture (instant, not smoothed), and the photos almost form an animation.

lamborghini8: Nice fireworks. I can see you have experience with DSLRs. It's a shame it's resized the wrong way (probably nearest neighbor or Bicubic with a too low "A" parameter (<= -1)), introducing loads of frequencies above Nyquist and trading smoothness for fake sharpness. (yep, I'm an image- and signal processing expert, but just the technical stuff)

 

[jasonck08]

Wow some really amazing pictures guys. Thanks for posting!

 

[LRMNmeyer]

Wow some really amazing pictures guys. Thanks for posting!

I agree with this.

I didn't see any fireworks at all.   I can't wait until next Independence Day though-laser(s)+smoke+flashes of pretty lights=win.
Last time, at my cabin, nearly everyone on the lake had illegal fireworks. ;D I'm not sure about other states, but in MN, those fireworks that shoot up in the air are banned, with the exeption of organized shows. No one really cares though.

 

[rocketparrotlet]

I didn't get to see any fireworks. But I got a Nikon D90 for Christmas too!

I almost always use low ISO and just change the aperture and shutter speed. VR is great!

-Mark

 

[Zom-B]

Great you got the D90 too.

I technically didn't get it for Christmas. I was already planning to buy it, but waiting to get my driver's license and then review my financial situation. A positive tax adjustment accelerated the purchase.

After I got it, I found it renders 405nm very realistically, very unlike my HP 935. The 390nm UV filter doesn't change anything at all either. However I don't like the 18-105nm kit lens, it distorts badly at wide angle and the only distortion-less setting is at ~22mm (although anything between 21-105mm is usable if there are no straight lines in view) I'm going to sell it and buy two better lenses instead.

Some D90 tips: Don't use below ISO200 because losses in dynamic range. VR drains batteries, with VR off, the batteries last >6hr continuous. When indoors, shoot RAW and use the internal RAW processing program to correct color balance. And as for the configuration, I think anyone would like like these settings better than the defaults: shutter button locks AE = on (c1), easy ISO (d3), file numbering continues = on (d7),

Oh, and try to get a copy of Adobe Lightroom. It's ideal for postprocessing RAW files and it van even process jpeg files as if they were raw (with corresponding minor quality loss). It can retouch and remove spots, red eyes and much more. (Don't use the printing function though, there is a fatal bug there, even in the newest version)

 

[lamborgini8]

Nice photos!

andy_con: It's funny, if i use PgUp/PgDn, it scrolls exactly one picture (instant, not smoothed), and the photos almost form an animation.

lamborghini8: Nice fireworks. I can see you have experience with DSLRs. It's a shame it's resized the wrong way (probably nearest neighbor or Bicubic with a too low "A" parameter (<= -1)), introducing loads of frequencies above Nyquist and trading smoothness for fake sharpness. (yep, I'm an image- and signal processing expert, but just the technical stuff)

The photo I posted is actually from a digital camera, I just set it to manual mode and set my own settings. It did take some time to get it right though, I had about 15 mins of fireworks to play around with the settings and perfect it.

I don't actually have my own DSLR although I will get one this year I hope, I just picked up on this stuff from using my aunts one.

 

[Dr_Evil]

I also had some fun with some of my lasers new years eve. I was visiting some of my family near Chicago. They had some friends over. I brought my Optotronics green pen out and started playing with one of the cats. Everybody was like "ooohhh" and "aaahhh."

I tried to like a sparkler with my 285 red but it didn't work. I was told the sparklers were kind of old so that might be why.

I also had my violet and blue lasers with. Too bad I couldn't bring my RPL with.

 

[Zom-B]

Sparklers are always hard to light, right, even with open fire.

I tried to lit a green fuse with my violet, and it lit only after about 4 seconds, after finding the burning spot for 6 seconds, so that is a fail too.