Fireworks

[bambleweeney]

Friday was the 'jour de patrimoine' here in Foix. Basically, fireworks, funfairs and no parking for miles. I dragged myself and my ailing leg up a pretty steep path that looked down on the town and its chateau and with the camera set on wireless shutter remote I watched the display (always worth the effort) and took snaps at the same time. Here's a selection ...

[Kodiak]

Friday was the 'jour de patrimoine'

Salut Paul, tu as bien cadré le château!

Great coulisse for the castle… cool colours and well chosen moment!

[Wayland]

Great stuff and nice looking venue as well.

[ajsmith]

WOW! Those are beautiful.

[IzzieK]

Not that I haven't seen fireworks shots but this one has a beautiful backdrop for it. Nicely caught....

[Wayland]

I think that is the key.

I see a lot of shots of just the fireworks against a black background and they do nothing for me.

Balancing them against a well illuminated point of interest turns them into a much better picture IMHO.

[Stagecoach]

Good series Paul, as already said the setting really helps here.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[bambleweeney]

Thanks guys. Most people watch the display from the bridge just below the chateau where they stand shoulder to shoulder jostling each other. Impossible to find a spot to put up a tripod let alone get a good angle so to actually shoot it you have to put in a bit of effort. A lung bursting climb up a semi overgrown path leads to a small field that looks down on the chateau, I had this little field all to myself which should tell you something. (a. I need therapy. b. I was the only one in town with a camera. c. There was an even better viewpoint that I didn't know about.)

[Rebel]

Stunning shots, all beautiful but if I had to pick a favourite... number 2!

[vaez]

WOW! Those are perfect beautiful.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice series, the chateau adds to the images a lot

[ShaneS]

I dragged myself and my ailing leg up a pretty steep path that looked down on the town and its chateau and with the camera set on wireless shutter remote I watched the display (always worth the effort)

Definitely well worth the effort Paul! Thank you so much for your effort and the resulting shots. I can't image that there was a better viewpoint...the other photographers were probably too lazy t make the trek you did

#1 for me too and I find that has the best balance of light on the castle. #3 is aclose second as you managed to avoid smoke in front of the castle.

PS Don't tell anyone about your 'secret' location...

[John 2]

I think that is the key.

I see a lot of shots of just the fireworks against a black background and they do nothing for me.

Balancing them against a well illuminated point of interest turns them into a much better picture IMHO.

+1 from me.

[Nicola]

Superb pictures Paul!
Please can you share the exif data of one of those? In fact I'm impressed by the light and the details visible on the castle. During the very few times I've shot at fireworks, i've had serious issues to get the details of the environment: tryed to increase the time of exposure, but the fireworks became motion-blurred, increasing the ISO speed, the fireworks became burned white.
Maybe it was just too dark, whereas your castle seems to be well lit by the firework itself...

thank you

Nicola

[Mike Buckley]

Terrific setting and you took full advantage of it!

[bambleweeney]

Superb pictures Paul!
Please can you share the exif data of one of those? In fact I'm impressed by the light and the details visible on the castle. During the very few times I've shot at fireworks, i've had serious issues to get the details of the environment: tryed to increase the time of exposure, but the fireworks became motion-blurred, increasing the ISO speed, the fireworks became burned white.
Maybe it was just too dark, whereas your castle seems to be well lit by the firework itself...

thank you

Nicola

Mainly shot at 3.0secs at f8, ISO 200 apart from a few shots that seemed excessively bright when I had to stop down. The camera was on a wireless remote on a tripod so I could shoot without moving the camera and watch the fireworks rather than have an eye glued to the viewfinder. The problem I had was that it was a very calm night with not even the slightest breeze which meant that I got a lot of shots like this ....



... i.e the castle is completely blotted out. The trick is to get one or two good shots of the castle (or whatever) before the smoke arrives or hang around until it has all cleared and merge them carefully in Photoshop masking the chateau image to put back just enough smoke to make it look realistic.
Fireworks will usually overexpose at some point in their short fiery lives and it's a balancing act to try to minimise the overexposure and at the same time capture the colour. Some highlights can be reclaimed in ACR which helps to minimise the overexposure and a little saturation and exposure on the coloured part of the firework does the rest. I generally take a reading on the environment (the castle in this case) and aim for about three seconds on the shutter adjusting aperture as appropriate so that the castle is exposed at an 'appropriate' level. This year the castle wasn't lit up as in previous years so instead of taking a reading from the castle walls I used guesswork and tried to nail the exposure as the first few fireworks appeared.
I'm a total sucker for fireworks (a big kid) and Foix always puts on an impressive display.

[Wavelength]

Awesome images, no doubt

[truonda]

Nicely done, Paul!

[Nicola]

Mainly shot at 3.0secs at f8, ISO 200 apart from a few shots that seemed excessively bright when I had to stop down. The camera was on a wireless remote on a tripod so I could shoot without moving the camera and watch the fireworks rather than have an eye glued to the viewfinder. The problem I had was that it was a very calm night with not even the slightest breeze which meant that I got a lot of shots like this ....



... i.e the castle is completely blotted out. The trick is to get one or two good shots of the castle (or whatever) before the smoke arrives or hang around until it has all cleared and merge them carefully in Photoshop masking the chateau image to put back just enough smoke to make it look realistic.
Fireworks will usually overexpose at some point in their short fiery lives and it's a balancing act to try to minimise the overexposure and at the same time capture the colour. Some highlights can be reclaimed in ACR which helps to minimise the overexposure and a little saturation and exposure on the coloured part of the firework does the rest. I generally take a reading on the environment (the castle in this case) and aim for about three seconds on the shutter adjusting aperture as appropriate so that the castle is exposed at an 'appropriate' level. This year the castle wasn't lit up as in previous years so instead of taking a reading from the castle walls I used guesswork and tried to nail the exposure as the first few fireworks appeared.
I'm a total sucker for fireworks (a big kid) and Foix always puts on an impressive display.

thank you very much,
it is very useful for me
have a good day