Fireworks photography

[drwex]

Here are a few images from my first attempt to photograph fireworks: http://picasaweb.google.com/awexelblat/JulyFireworks#

The environment wasn't ideal for them - there was a lot of ambient light where I was standing, I forgot my tripod, and there was virtually no wind, leading to a lot of smoke hanging around in the display area. You can see some of that in some of these shots.

I've done no manipulation on the images, other than cropping and resizing. If anyone has any suggestions for ways to improve things I'd like to hear them. I still have the original RAW files so I can go back and re-edit.

Comments

[inahandbasket]

You has photoshop?
If so, go to "Image... Adjustments... Levels"
- Grab the bottom left slider and pull it up to the edge of where the histogram peaks, it'll take your sky towards black.
- Grab the bottom right slider and do likewise, it'll take your brights brighter.

Curves are also fun, but I'll save that if you ask for more tweak options.

[drwex]

yeah, I usually tweak the levels on standard photos. I hadn't tried that on these. I'll go give it another pass.

[inahandbasket]

The more dynamic the range on a photo the more good it'll do ya, so these are prime candidates.

[drwex]

OK, I played around with about half of them. I found that most had pretty good true black, but some didn't. I also found I could drop out a significant amount of the smoke by playing around with the mid-range.