The success of a fantastic fireworks shot is the location. You need to know where the fireworks will go off well before they do.
You don’t want to try to line up your shot after they start. You can tweak your composition, but don’t be caught not knowing where they will go off.
Consider clear view verses using foreground or surrounding to help make your fireworks stand out. My favorite shots are those iconic locations in the foreground, like the Statue of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Fireworks
Tripod and Cable Release
I recommend using a tripod and a cable release. This will keep the camera as still as possible during a long exposure.
Fireworks
This is the Nikon MC-30 that I have used for years on different Nikon Cameras.
Camera Settings
Manual
White Balance – Daylight
ISO 100
ƒ/8
Bulb Shutter-speed and keep open for two bursts of fireworks using a cable release
My exposures were from 6 seconds to about 12 seconds on average. I typically might shoot 75 to 100 photos and only really like about 10 of those shots.
Nikon D3S, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 11 sec
When to press the shutter? When you hear the boom of the fireworks, click the shutter and don’t let go until the end of the second fireworks. The bursting will create those beautiful shapes. You don’t get the same exposure if you shoot at faster shutter speeds. The reason is that as the bright fragments move, you capture them throughout the exposure, whereas the faster shutter speed would freeze them. This is similar to photographing car lights on streets at night. By letting the cars continue to move, you get a trace of the lights through the photo.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm, ISO 10000, ƒ/2.8, 1/800 with Nikon SB900 on camera flash fired at slow sync
While at first glance this photo may seem acceptable, the main light is now my flash, not the stage lighting.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm, ISO 2500, ƒ/2.8, 1/100
The second shot is available light and was shot only 1 minute before the flash shot. It is around 9 pm, and on one of the longest days of the year, there is still some sunlight as the sun sets.
There is not as much “Stage Light” as there will be after the sun sets.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm, ISO 2200, ƒ/2.8, 1/320 with fill flash from SB900.
I then went to the other side of the stage and shot a similar comparison of the flash and no-flash images.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm ISO 12,800, ƒ/2.8, 1/400
The one reason I was using the flash to begin with is the singer Marc Broussard’s hat is casting a nasty shadow and most of the time his eyes are hard to see. You can see the shadow in the second available light shot.
While the flash fixed this issue as long as it was on my camera it just ruined the mood of the stage lighting.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 1/100
While I now decided to shoot the rest of the performance with available light I now had another problem the light on the lead singer’s face only looked good occasionally Most all the time the light looked like this when he sang. You see a bright spot on his chin and his eyes are in a shadow.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 1/80
Now to get the best photos of the lead singer Marc Broussard I had to pick the best moments where the light and the emotion came together. I think I have this here when Marc looked up into the light and also the emotion in his face worked really well.
Now you know why so often a spot light is used to follow the main character on a stage with stage lighting. You also can see why many theaters have foot lights. These are lights on the floor of the stage at the front aimed up at the actors to get rid of the shadows under hats and those with deep set eyes.
When there is still not enough light at ISO 12800
I have been in the darkest places like Swayze’s Venue in Marietta. Here the punk band moved around so much that I needed flash.
I try my best to always look at the light that is present and go with it before I use a flash.
When Nikon introduced the Nikon D3 the ISO on that camera went to 6400 with no trouble. Then Nikon bumped it up again with the Nikon D3S to ISO 12,800.
My newest Nikon D4 ISO goes to 12,800 comfortably and if you really need it you can bump it all the way to Hi-4 (ISO 204,800). The Nikon D4 has other improvements as well with focusing and especially in video.
Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12,800, ƒ/2.8 & 1/125
In the photo here of singer Marc Brousard singing at the People’s Fest at Atlantic Station the lighting for the stage was very minimal as compared to other music events. For most other major music events at Chastain Park Amphitheater or Verizon Wireless Amphitheater you could easily shoot people on the stage with ISO 400 or 800.
This is important because for the bigger venues you can actually own a much cheaper camera than you need to capture the event when the light is low.
This is true in sports as well. When you are photographing an NFL game at night the light on the field is much better than when you are shooting in a small town at their high school Friday night football game.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm, ISO 12,800, ƒ/2.8 & 1/100
Do you need to go and buy a Nikon D4 for $6,000 without a lens to take photos? If you want the very best ISO 12,800, but Nikon even makes point and shoot cameras that will go to ISO 12,800.
If you want to shoot events like the People’s Fest at Atlantic Station as I did this past Saturday night then you need a high ISO camera. Minimum of ISO 6400 in my opinion will just barely work before you need to add a flash.
Nikon D4, 70-200mm, ISO 12,800, ƒ/2.8 & 1/125
For the photo of the couple I am hand holding a 70-200mm lens at 1/25 and vibration reduction technology is helping, but if they move they would not be in focus. The light from the stage and surrounding shops is helping light them, but barely. ISO 6400 would have me shooting at 1/10 of second. I doubt seriously that I would have gotten this shot without the ISO 12,800.
With the recent dismissal of the entire photo department at the Chicago Sun-Times we can see the times are changing. But there is no way an iPhone given to a reporter will capture the photos I was getting. Also, just to own the Nikon D4 will not get the same results.
You have to know how the camera works and how to make it work for you to get the best photos.
To remain competitive you need to have the best gear to capture the type of photos of the subjects you want to get paid to shoot. If you don’t have the best possible the guy that is able to show a better image because of their gear will get the job.
Remember, it is the photographer with the best images of the subjects that will get the job and not the most expensive gear.
All this is to say, your images decide if you get hired not the gear, but your gear can hold you back to get good images. If you have great gear and not good images then you still want get the jobs.
Downloading a video from YouTube can be tricky. Here is a simple App that will let you not just download, but choose the resolution that might be available for you.
FYI: You must not distribute or financially benefit from that content. It must also come with the express permission of the copyright owner.
This is a great way if you loose your copy to copy your own video from the web for example, or you can use this technique to let someone see your video and then give them permission to download it.
MacX YouTube is a free software that will let you download most YouTube videos. This is great for those presentations when you may not have an internet connection or you don’t want to rely on one in case that fails.
When you open MacX YouTube you get this screen. Just click on the link and copy and paste your URL for the YouTube video. It automatically detects the YouTube video opened in browse. You don’t need to copy and paste the URL manually if you have it open.
It is capable of downloading all YouTube videos in whatever format or resolution, including MP4, WebM, FLV, even YouTube HD video.
As you can see in the screen grabe you are given many ways to download the video. It will convert it to the video format you prefer. I prefer downloading, if available, @ 1080 H.264 MP4 since this is the standard for the internet and works just about everywhere for everyone’s computers.
Vimeo is better design for those who want to share videos across the web. You can upload the video package and then share a link and password protect the video. In addition you can make it downloadable.
So for those who choose to upload and distribute I would recommend Vimeo as a better choice.
With Vimeo they give you options for downloading the video if the person who uploaded it gave that permission. Here you just click on Download under the video and they give you a few choices. As you can see the choices are much more limited than with the MacX YouTube downloader.
In case you need to convert a video I recommend Wondershare’s Video Converter. It can convert video to 158 formats. You can download a trial version and then buy it for $59.95. It works on Windows and Mac platforms.
It will also download from YouTube.
Just drag your files to the screen and then pick the output you choose.
Now you know an easy way to download video from YouTube and Vimeo.
If you were in the press room and watched all the photographers ingest their images, write captions, crop, and upload their pictures to wire services or newspapers, you would find most of them using PhotoMechanic. It costs $150 and works on a PC or a Mac.
Why PhotoMechanic?
The number one reason most use it is speed. It is a stand-alone image browser that is so fast that it is ideal for the pressroom. Most who use it in their workflow ingest their images into this program, and if they need to do more than crop their pictures, they may use PhotoShop or Lightroom to adjust color, burn and dodge, or perform some other image correction.
Many photographers shooting on deadline shoot JPEGs for speed. Some will shoot JPEGs plus RAW and use the RAW to help salvage an image if necessary. Most of these pros nail exposure, focus, and white balance. They also crop or rotate images.
Figure 1
Step One—Ingest
PhotoMechanic allows you to ingest multiple cards at once. Figure 1 shows the screen that lets you customize how you consume. I select the cards and a destination, which is always an external drive. I have it checked that I should eject the cards and only ingest new images when it is done.
Two more things I do before clicking the “Ingest” button is click the renaming of files. Once this is done, it will be the same the next time I ingest this. By the way, I rename all my images using this code: “{year4}-{month}-{day0} {hour24}-{minute}-{second}.”
The most crucial step that makes this program stand out is the ability to embed text into every image I ingest.
Figure 2
You can see the box that pops up when you click on the IPTC Stationary Pad here in Figure 2. As you scroll down, there are more fields than you see here. PhotoMechanic will remember all that you have typed as a default. You can also save these and then load them as needed. For example, if you shoot for the Associated Press, you have to use specific fields, which will be different from the New York Times. You may also have your own style that you want to use. So, I have saved many different forms to help speed up the filling out of this form.
Once I finish this, I ingest. This will put the same IPTC on every image. This way, when I want to modify the IPTC, I only need to change a few things rather than put everything in the form from scratch.
Step Two—First Edit
I don’t want all the images I just ingested, so I will select the ones I want to keep first.
Figure 3
I look at each image and decide whether I want it. If it is a keeper, I type “T,” and the program checks the box. It is now “tagged.”
Figure 4
I then go and select all the “Untagged” images and select all the photos. Then I push “⌘ Command” and “Delete” to move all of them to the trash. Once this is done, I show all the images again.
Step Three—Rating PhotoMechanic lets you rate images using a color code system and/or stars. I primarily use the stars because this is how I marked my contact sheets back in the days of film.
Figure 5
You need to go to Preferences> Accessibility, where I check to use the Star Rating. Now, when I like an image, I can use the keys 1—5 and, if needed, 0 to remove it. A 5 means portfolio quality, and a 1 means it is OK and usable for publication. From there, it is a sliding scale for me.
Step Four—Caption Modification
Now, I go to the bottom right-hand corner of the PhotoMechanics contact sheet and click how many “Stars” I want to show to help narrow down the images I will transmit to the publication or wire service.
Figure 6
Usually, the number of images that sports photographers move from a regular game is about 5 to 6.
Now, I can customize the caption for each photo. PhotoMechanic is cool because it saves keystrokes and helps you correctly spell. In PM, this is called “Code Replacement.”
Go to Edit>Settings>Set Code Replacements. Here, you will select a previously created TXT file containing the rosters of the players for both teams.
Figure 7
One guy has a website that you can go to and create that file for a small fee, which helps save you tons of time captioning players’ names, positions they play, and numbers. Here is a link to help you understand how to use this in PhotoMechanic: http://www.codereplacements.com/.
Step Five—Image Correction if Needed Sometimes, you might need to do some work on the image. Here, the photographer can press “⌘ Command” and “E” if they have selected an editing program like PhotoShop to change a photo or picture.
Figure 8
To designate a program like PhotoShop, go to Preference>Launching and create the link to the program.
Step Six—Upload for Deadline
Could you please upload these images? I am doing this for the Associated Press. I have all the FTP information stored in PM, so I select all the photos, right-click, and click “Upload.”
Figure 9
Figure 9 pops up for me. I click send, and the images are off the photo desk.
Step Six—Keywording When Not on Deadline When I shoot for something other than deadline, I often keyword-image.
Figure 10
To help you with keywords, PM already has a structured list of keywords many stock agencies use, and you can add your keywords.
You can select one or multiple images and then type “⌘ Command” and “I”, which brings up the IPTC pad [figure 2], and then click on the pull-down menu for Keywords see Figure 11.
Figure 11
When you click on it, you will see Figure 10. This way, you can add things like “African American male” to all the photos you selected at one time. Right next to the keyword field is a box with a + sign next to it [Figure 11]. If you check it, it will keep any keywords already in the image and add them. This way, you can go through and select all the photos with women and keyword them and then go and + add those photos where there are flowers in them.
Step Six—Upload to PhotoShelter or Stock Agency
Figure 12
PM already has many FTP logins, such as PhotoShelter, Flickr, and SmugMug. In Figure 12, you can see that I have PhotoShelter. I pick a folder or create a gallery to upload the images.
Stanley’s Workflow
Ingest to PhotoMechanic
Select the keepers
Delete all untagged images
Import into Lightroom because I am shooting RAW
Make all corrections necessary to images
Export all images to sRGB JPEGs
Open PM
Upload if necessary
Burn DVD as needed
Cookie Consent
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
