Question About Fireworks & ND Filters

volguus zildrohar · #1 Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 11:25 PM**

Hello All,

Tomorrow night I'm photographing fireworks and, unlike last week, I plan to employ my ND8 filter. Does anyone have experience or advice about using ND filters for fireworks photography? This would be my first time using one in a situation like this.

bulliver · #2 Posted **Jul 12, 2013, 11:33 PM**

Well, bit late with this now, but I'm not sure I'd want to use an ND for fireworks. I like my fireworks exposures to be only 4-5 seconds or the bursts will start overlapping and leave your image with large spots of white nuclear burnout.

Is there something in particular you're going for?

diskojoe · #3 Posted **Jul 13, 2013, 12:17 AM**

ND filters are for day time when you are trying to balance out the sunlight and the foreground so you can get a longer exposure without over exposing. This is not the case at night with a pitch black sky. If you wanted some really good tips on using filters I would tell you to reach out to someformofhuman. He really know how to use filters properly and has lots of experience and good examples he could show you.

volguus zildrohar · #4 Posted **Jul 13, 2013, 8:39 PM**

I ended up not using the filter at all. It seemed unnecessary after I gave it some thought.

SomeFormOFhuman · #5 Posted **Jul 14, 2013, 12:51 AM**

Hahaha, no I am absolutely no filter guy. Everything I do is just trial and error, learning from mistakes.

Seriously.

Quote:

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

I ended up not using the filter at all. It seemed unnecessary after I gave it some thought.

Yeah for fireworks, short 3 - 5 second bursts BULB mode (Coupled with a remote shutter trigger would be cool) with ISO 200-400, f5.6-f7.1 would suffice, depending how intense or how long the light given off from the firework is. Using an ND filter would just "blur" out the trails coming off from the fireworks; that wouldn't look nice and they'll just appear faded.

I just shot one yesterday evening at the Marina Promenade as part of the National Day Parade rehearsal in Singapore. Will upload it soon.

diskojoe · #6 Posted **Jul 15, 2013, 9:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SomeFormOFhuman

Hahaha, no I am absolutely no filter guy. Everything I do is just trial and error, learning from mistakes.

Seriously.

Yeah for fireworks, short 3 - 5 second bursts BULB mode (Coupled with a remote shutter trigger would be cool) with ISO 200-400, f5.6-f7.1 would suffice, depending how intense or how long the light given off from the firework is. Using an ND filter would just "blur" out the trails coming off from the fireworks; that wouldn't look nice and they'll just appear faded.

I just shot one yesterday evening at the Marina Promenade as part of the National Day Parade rehearsal in Singapore. Will upload it soon.

Dont be so humble. Of the lot of us on here I know you probably at least have more experience with using filters then most.