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591
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Long exposure fireworks with refocusing (xpost from r/ITookAPicture) [686x1024] (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by sweatysocks

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[–]sweatysocks[S] 42 points43 points ago

Here are a few others from the shoot. I didn't expect them to turn out like this at all, but I'm quite impressed!

EDIT: Here is the whole album of all the shots I got.

[–]The_Fiddler1979 4 points5 points ago

Awesome, you should be well proud of those shots!

[–]sweatysocks[S] 3 points4 points ago

Thank you very much! I was very lucky with the turnout, but hopefully I'll be able to use this new technique tonight at the Spain portion of the fireworks competition.

[–]MEatRHIT 0 points1 point ago

I now have a new desktop background slideshow this is pretty awesome stuff, thanks!

[–]sweatysocks[S] 1 point2 points ago

Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoy them!

[–]velkrosmaak 10 points11 points ago

Did you just manually adjust the focus or is there some kind of feature I'm missing here?

Looks awesome... almost organic. Could be some kind of thing found deep in the ocean.

[–]VallanMandrake 1 point2 points ago

Please explain!

[–]sweatysocks[S] 7 points8 points ago

When I saw a firework shooting in the air, I'd press the shutter button and hold in Bulb mode so that the exposure was precisely as long as it needed to be. When the explosion started, I would quickly refocus back to the fireworks (from 2ft in front of me). The exposure would start out of focus and slowly sharpen into focused points, which explains the strange shapes. Hope this helps!

[–]VallanMandrake 1 point2 points ago

Ah, right, that is the effect...

I thought you where constantly focussing the particls... if that is somehow possible with a "normal" camera, please tell me... ;-)

[–]velkrosmaak 0 points1 point ago

Did you refocus just by turning the focus ring, or is there some kind of option to ensure you get smooth movement, and don't move the camera, during the exposure? I assume you had a remote shutter release as well?

[–]sweatysocks[S] 1 point2 points ago

All I used was bulb mode on a tripod, triggered by my finger (didn't really care about too much camera shake, the pictures were gonna look bizarre regardless). When refocusing, I'd start the lens out of focus and manually turn it into juuust before infinity (where it's sharpest for that distance). Hope this helps!

[–]velkrosmaak 0 points1 point ago

Shame I don't have any fireworks... will have to experiment. Cheers dude!

[–]sweatysocks[S] 0 points1 point ago

I know what you mean. Lucky for me, I'm headed to watch Spain's performance in the International Fireworks Competition tonight. Then China's on Saturday, and Germany's next wednesday... words cannot describe how excited I am. Also, I'll have a chance to play around with these types of photos again! Cheers

[–]thinkbox 8 points9 points ago

I can't wait to try this! Thanks for the inspiration!!!!

[–]IVIEACH 4 points5 points ago

I love the refocusing during the exposure..never thought of doing that before. Nice photos

[–]zoolanderwin 6 points7 points ago

I love these! I took fireworks pictures with a crappy camera once and got a similar cool effect from the longer exposure time. Basically, just flicked my wrist during the exposure and got many pictures like these.

Here are a few (can put up more): http://imgur.com/a/gaIF3

[–]sweatysocks[S] 2 points3 points ago

These are great!! Awesome job. It's crazy how cameras can accidentally create such masterpieces.

[–]zoolanderwin 1 point2 points ago

Thanks! Although, I will admit I've tried to take these type of pictures every independence day since then and haven't been able to get the same effect, haha.

[–]miranimous 2 points3 points ago

The last one looks like something from space. Do you have a higher resolution of it? It would make a rad background.

[–]zoolanderwin 1 point2 points ago

Just uploaded it and a few more. Enjoy :)

[–]miranimous 0 points1 point ago

Sweet, thank you.

[–]lime-red 2 points3 points ago

I've seen this a few times before but never done this well. Brilliant! Can I ask what lens and what f-stop used?

[–]sweatysocks[S] 2 points3 points ago

Thanks a lot! It was a 50mm 1.4 on a 5d mk II, aperture at 2.8 with a 0.9 neutral density filter. Gave it the bloom and cool focal effects while also maintaining it's rich colour (fireworks are incredibly bright for a camera apparently)

[–]ARJunior 1 point2 points ago

Interesting choice with the ND filter, I also would never have thought it that bright. How low was the ISO?

[–]sweatysocks[S] 0 points1 point ago

The ISO was set at 100 the whole time. I've tried to shoot fireworks before but I found I was always at f8-f13 just to make sure the trails were coloured, instead of white with the coloured glow around it. With the ND it allowed me to have a better lens blur from a lower aperture.

[–]Anachronan -2 points-1 points ago

Incredibly bright for such a low aperture yeah....

[–]conanarama 0 points1 point ago

Very cool! Thank you for sharing.

[–]lex111 -1 points0 points ago

Now that's clever stuff!

[–]noryork 1 point2 points ago

I Love these, I did the same on 4th of july!

[–]mattybravo -1 points0 points ago

fantastic.

[–]PepeAndMrDuck -1 points0 points ago

Amazing!

[–]LanFeusT23 1 point2 points ago

That is such a cool idea I had never thought of! Awesome!

[–]hdrew43739 0 points1 point ago

you my friend are a genius!

[–]morganabbou 0 points1 point ago

Very inspiring shots.

[–]ad0b0friedrice 0 points1 point ago

Do you have an instagram account? A user named instagrille_app uploaded this very picture. Just thought you should know.

http://www.imgur.com/iSBZz.png

[–]DropbearNinja 0 points1 point ago

Hey, do you have higher resolution copies of these? Would love to have one as my desktop background! brilliant pictures! (sign your name in a corner)

[–]MUSTARD_ENEMA -2 points-1 points ago

NSFW man, NSFW.

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