Liberty of the Seas - 1st Port of Call

[John Harper]

Hi There

Not sure if this is the right forum for this sort of shot, apologies if not and if it needs to be moved please do so.

I live in Southampton in the UK and we quite regularly get new cruise ships in as their 1st port of call after being launched from the shipbuilders. We have in port at the moment what i have been told is the worlds biggest cruise liner "The Liberty of the Seas" about 160,000 tonnes. She is sailing on a short cruise on Tuesday evening. Then heading for the Caribbean were she will be based.

They had a firework display as part of the celebrations on Sunday night and i attach photo of same for comment / critique.

I have shot a few firework displays and to be honest it just seems to be luck if you get a pleasing pattern without the highlights blowing completely, or just a mass of overlapping bursts.

Technical details for those interested in such things

EOS1D MKIIN - 24-105 F4L at around 32mm - ISO 200 - 2.5 second exposure @ f11. Camera mounted on tripod (Manfrotto 190) remote release cable and no mirror lockup.



John

 

[Mike Harrold]

Nice!

John,

One of the nicer fireworks photographs that I have seen. I might clone out the three small white lights in the lower left corner and the small red one, but that is just me.

I especially like how the small amount of smoke/clouds has taken on the same hue as the tone of the fireworks.

Great job.

Mike

 

[Asher Kelman]

John, greetings!

This is an impressive display and you have captured it well. I wondered whether this picture might stand out even more with a grey frame and showing just a little more of the crowd and smoke. I don't normally find frames add much in posts but here I felt that a setting that dulls the surrounding white, prepares the eye better for the darkness from which the fireworks erupt.

What do you think?

Asher

 

[John Harper]

John, greetings!

This is an impressive display and you have captured it well. I wondered whether this picture might stand out even more with a grey frame and showing just a little more of the crowd and smoke. I don't normally find frames add much in posts but here I felt that a setting that dulls the surrounding white, prepares the eye better for the darkness from which the fireworks erupt.

What do you think?

Asher

Asher

Thanks for the comments and advice I have put a grey frame and a black edging around the picture (after searching around on the net for how to do it... ahh the joys of google!) and post it here for feedback.

John

 

[John Harper]

John, greetings!

This is an impressive display and you have captured it well. I wondered whether this picture might stand out even more with a grey frame and showing just a little more of the crowd and smoke. I don't normally find frames add much in posts but here I felt that a setting that dulls the surrounding white, prepares the eye better for the darkness from which the fireworks erupt.

What do you think?

Asher

Asher I attach a shot from the naming ceremony of her sister ship the "Freedom of the Seas" which took place last year. It was a similar firework display but there is a bit more colour in this one and was shot with my 20D

Tech Info

EOS 20D 24-105 F4L @ 45mm ISO 400 3.2 secs @ f10.00

John

 

[Asher Kelman]

We seem to have specialists here.

Nikolai takes outstanding pictures of fires and you hold your own with firewirks.

I hve found both a challenge to photograph.

I can see you are using long exposures and that makes sense. A tripod too or do you rest the camera on something.

Asher

 

[John Harper]

We seem to have specialists here.

Nikolai takes outstanding pictures of fires and you hold your own with firewirks.

I hve found both a challenge to photograph.

I can see you are using long exposures and that makes sense. A tripod too or do you rest the camera on something.

Asher

Asher

Thank you for the kind words, I do always use a tripod for firework shots. I have experimented with different exposure times and at 1st found i was using too long an exposure. I was maybe keeping the shutter open for between 6 - 8 seconds at F8 at ISO 200

I generally settle on between 2 - 4 secs at f8 or F11 at ISO 200 this generally gives you enough time to get a few bursts on file but not too many that all the highlights blow completely. But it really is pot luck.

I set the focus manually at infinity and use a remote release to trip the shutter. This way i can watch the display and just trip the shutter without looking through the viewfinder or touching the camera. You can generally hear the big starshell mortars being fired and i watch them go up and try and trip the shutter just before the explode. Sometimes its works sometimes it doesn't.

An average display may last from 10 - 15 mins and i am pretty much shooting pics every 6-10 seconds. Most of them are pretty average, but you do occasionally get a nice composition or get the exposure just about right. But the moral is just shoot and see what you come back with at least with digital you are not wasting lots of film.

I attach one of the shots from my 1st display when i was shooting with my EOS 300D (Digital rebel in the US i believe). I had used a longer shutter speed so the main highlights blew out, but one of the starshell mortars fired early at a lower height than normal, and the trailing streaks almost came down to the ground. Again just luck, but as the old saying goes about the photographer when asked how he took his photos... F8 and be there!

John