Shutter Mike Photography

It is the first of July, that means we are only a few days away from photographing fireworks.  I do not have a lot of experience in this area to offer solid first hand advice on how to capture the best fireworks photographs.  But I do have a few pieces of advice from my fireworks photography outing last 4th of July.  I have also complied what I feel are some great resources out on the Internet to help guide you through the process.

My Fireworks Photography Tips:

1. A tripod is ESSENTIAL.  I’d go so far as to say “don’t even try it without one.”

2. A remote shutter release cable can help significantly as well.  It allows you to release the shutter without touching the camera thereby reducing camera shake and blur.

3. Location is key.  It really helps to scout out the area where the show is going to be the day before to find a spot where you will get the best vantage point.

4. Read up on the best settings to use for photographing fireworks ahead of time so you can limit your experimentation during the show when time is limited.

5.  Above all else, have fun with it.

Here are some resources I have found that offer tips and tricks on getting the best Fourth of July fireworks shots:

Digital Photography School – This is a great resource for all things photography related.  Their How to Photography Fireworks guide is one of the best and well worth taking a few minutes to read.

Photographyreview.com – The Fireworks Photography Guide from photographyreview.com goes more into the technical aspects of getting the best shot.  Even if you are not familiar with all the technical aspects of photography this is a good read.  No time like the present to start learning anyway.

Canon – You don’t have to be using a Canon camera to take advantage of their advice.  The Canon Digital Learning Center’s Quick Tips: Photographing Fireworks article includes a helpful section on how to best compose your fireworks shots.

Does the equipment make then photographer? I do not believe that fancy equipment, in and of itself, makes someone a better photographer.  The ability to use that equipment and an artistic eye are what make good photographs.  However, there are some pieces of equipment that really can make all the difference between an adequate photograph and a good or great photograph.  The tripod is one such piece of equipment.

My case in point is these two photographs.  They were both taken at about the same time of day (although on different days) from about the same vantage point.  The one on the left was taken with a hand held camera and the one on the right was taken with a tripod mounted camera.

The biggest issue with hand held shots at these light levels is camera shake.  Even the Sony Alpha DSLR’s Steady Shot feature is not going to be able to correct for the shake that can occur at the shutter speeds necessary to accomplish this image.  So without the tripod (left) I needed to get a long enough shutter speed to capture the image in low light while not making it so long that all I got was a blur from movement of the camera.  In order to decrease the length of time I needed the shutter open I could have used a larger aperture (smaller f-stop number) and/or increased my ISO.  For the image on the left, without the tripod, I used the widest aperture available on the lens I was using (a prime 50 mm), which was f/1.7 along with an ISO of 800.  This allowed me to use a shutter speed of 1/10 second and get a good exposure.  But 1/10 of a second is really still too slow for hand held photography.  Anything longer than 1/60 of a second is likely to cause you problems.  If I had bumped up my ISO any higher (the Sony Alpha 850 can go up to 6400) the noise would have been distracting.  Even at 800 ISO at larger sizes the noise in this image is noticeable.

So that takes us to the image on the right, the one taken with the camera mounted on a tripod.  The sure footed-ness of the tripod allows me to take camera shake out of the equation.  So now I have more options for a more crisp image with less noise.  For this image I used an aperture of f/5.0, an ISO of 200 (less noisy) and a shutter speed of .8 seconds.  This combination of settings resulted in a photograph that, when viewed at high resolution, is cleaner and far less blurred.

So although the tripod alone was not responsible for these images.  The right equipment combined with a little camera know-how and a bit of an artistic eye can combine together for much better photography.

A quick introduction and overview of Depth of Field:

Understanding Aperture:

Understanding Shutter Speed:

What is ISO?

There is not much worse than heading out to a much anticipated photography excursion only to discover that you forgot your memory card.  Well, except maybe returning from that anticipated trip and realizing you forgot to reset the camera settings back to the default and shot everything at ISO 800.  In either case you either end up unable to take any photographs or with a memory card full of images taken at the wrong setting that may only be fixable after hours of post-processing.  I have done this enough times that I came up with a pre photo shoot photography check list to make sure I have everything in place to capture the images I am after.

The Magic Hour, or as it is sometimes called, the Golden Hour, in photography is the time of day when the natural  ambient light is said to be at its ideal.  Although the time may not be an hour by the clock it is generally the hour (or so) following sunrise and preceding sunset.  At these times of day the hue of the lighting is warmer (more towards the orange and reds of the color wheel) and it is less harsh overall.  In contrast, mid-day lighting can be overly harsh causing deep and dark shadows and highlights that are too bright.  These conditions can often lead to an over exposed image.  The softer light of the magic hour will give you a much better lit image and fewer dark shadows.

Lighting, whether ambient or added in, plays a critical role in the end result of the image.  Paying attention to the position of the sun and the time of day can make a significant difference and is worth taking into consideration before snapping the shutter.

When it comes to the rules of composition in photography there are two things you need to know: 1) all the basic rules of composing a good photograph and how to execute them and 2) when to disregard those rules.

To start, composition in photography refers to how the elements in the frame are constructed and arranged to result in the desired final image.  There are a lot of these rules and a lot of expert opinions on how and when they should be executed.  Knowing them will help you be a better photographer and help you know when they do not apply to the image you are trying to construct.  I have already talked about framing the subject, leading lines and vertical vs. horizontal composition so up next is filling the frame.

Filling the frame is about making your intended subject the center of attention by doing just that, filling the frame, from top to bottom and left to right with nothing but your subject.  By cropping out the background “noise” and distraction you bring the subject to the forefront and leave no doubt as to what your photograph is about.  But as with all of these photography composition rules this is not an absolute rule.  You can’t zoom in on the intended subject and cut out everything in the background and expect a good rule obeying photograph.  Sometimes the background is part of the story or it enhances rather than distracts from the main subject or maybe that “distraction” gives your particular image the creative touch you were looking for.  This is where part two comes into play, know the rule and then know when it does not apply.

As a refresher from my previous posts on composition in photography, composition refers to how the elements in the frame are constructed and arranged to result in the desired final image.  You will often hear people speak of the “rules” of composition and a set way of composing an image in order for it to be considered visually appealing.  My stance on the rules is that as long as you are aware of them and able to follow them you are not required to follow them.  Photography is an art that is open to the interpretation of both the photographer and the viewer.

The “rules” around when to compose a photograph with a vertical layout versus a horizontal layout center around the composition of the subject itself.  It is often rather obvious which way to turn your camera based on the general layout of the subject.  The subject dictates the orientation in many cases.  However, the final decision is up to you as the photographer and your interpretation of the scene and how you want to present the final image may contradict what the subject commands.  This is where you have the luxury of trying it both ways and often achieving a completely different look just with a turn of the camera.

The two images below are of Cathedral Rock in Sedona Arizona.  The top photograph, taken with a horizontal orientation, tends to push the main subject back further as it brings in more of the vegetation to the sides and the stream in the foreground.  This is a great way for setting the scene and telling the whole story of the subject and its surroundings.

This image was taken with a vertical orientation.  The resulting photograph has the main subject filling more of the frame from left to right and therefore appearing more as a central focal point.  The foreground is still dominated by the stream and allows for the “story” of the subjects surroundings to be told.

As a rule of thumb, tall subjects that are vertical in nature dictate a vertical camera orientation while wide subjects that spread from left to right dictate a horizontal camera orientation.  Use that as a guide when deciding what will work best for your subjects.  But use your gut and artistic instinct as the final decision maker.

The term bokeh refers to blur in an image.  But more specifically, it refers to blur used for aesthetic or artistic purposes not just “oops I did not focus properly blur.”   Good bokeh is generally used for parts of the image that are outside of the depth of field to render them blurred and distinguish them from the main focus of the photograph.  However, as with all of the rules of photography, sometimes you need to reinterpret them or outright break them.  If it makes sense to you to blur the entire image then go for it.  Since bokeh is an artistic effect it is open to the interpretation of the photographer and should be used to create an more beautiful image.

You can achieve a bokeh effect in your photographs using the same principles you do to accomplish a shallow depth of field.  To manipulate the depth of field you can adjust several factors such as lens focal length, aperture, and shooting distance.  Using a large aperture (smaller f number) will give you a shallow depth of field in your images thereby blurring out the background of the scene.  You can also accomplish a full image bokeh effect by setting your camera to manual focus and intentionally not bringing your subject into clear focus.  Generally an over blurred image is considered a mistake and not bokeh.   But if you can pull it off and it works with the image you are presenting there is no reason not to experiment and see what you can come up with .

The composition rules in photography all serve the general purpose of engaging the image’s viewer with the image.  That may be through getting an image that follows certain standards of beauty or enticing some sort of interaction from the viewer.  The purpose of leading lines in a photograph is to lead the viewer’s eye through (and occasionally right out of) the photograph so that they view the image as the photographer wants them to see it, starting at point A and following a specific path to see the image as the photographer saw the scene.  Leading lines are also used to bring the viewer’s  attention to one particular point in the image, generally the main subject.

How the leading line is achieved and what is used to construct it is completely up to your imagination.  Railroad tracks are probably the most common example of a leading line.  But fences, roads, the edge of a building, or a row of similar objects can all make a leading line.  As mentioned in the Framing the Subject post the “rules” o f composition are not absolute so much as they are guidelines to use and expand upon to produce images that are appealing.  As photographers we have to interpret and often break or reconstruct these rules to get the images we are after.

The image in the upper right is using the yellow lines of the road as the leading line to start the viewer in the lower left corner of the photograph and leading them to the center and the sunset.

The photograph of the tunnel above is simply directing the viewer’s eye to a termination point of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally, the image of the path on the right takes the photograph viewer from the shade to the light and finally the museum building at the end of the path.  In this photo one could argue that the path, or the leading line, itself is the subject rather than termination point of the museum.

In photography, composition refers to how the elements in the frame are constructed and arranged to result in the desired final image.  There are many “rules” of composition in photography that are designed to produce an image that is appealing to the human eye.  Of course there is no one thing that is universally beautiful.  So these rules are not absolute so much as they are guidelines to use and expand upon to produce images that are appealing.  As a photographer you have to interpret and often break these rules to get the images you are after.  They do not have to be, nor are they meant to be, set in stone and followed blindly.

A good (and relatively easy) rule of photography composition to start with is framing the subject.  Simply put, framing a subject in an image is a photographic technique similar to physically framing your image in a picture frame.  Only in the case of photography you are using elements in the image to frame the part of the image that you want to draw the viewers attention to.

When you are composing your shot look for natural elements in the scene that could act as a frame for the main subject you want to draw the viewer to.  It does not need to be a solid, four-sided physical frame however.  It can be an implied frame, a hint of a frame on only 2 or 3 sides or anything you feel is appropriate for the image you want to make.  Remember the rules are made to be broken.