OK, i hate to admit this.. but i learned this weekend, i do not know how to manually focus.

Seriously. I have always used the auto focus sensors on my camera. I tried manually focusing, and just like my eyesight, everything was blurry. It looks so crisp and clean in my eyepiece, but the actual shots.. Terrible.

I know part of this was my subject and me learning how to shoot fireworks, but seriously, how do you manually focus?


Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 100
.

Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 100

fireworks are pretty hard to focus on because of the limited amount of time you have while they are exploding.

You should get a good start by f8 and infinity focus distance. Do you have live view? This may help a little bit. For the 1st couple you should be able to chimp a bit and once you've nailed the focus it should stay the same.

Forgive my stupidity, but what do you mean by infinity focus distance?

I hvae live view, i have not played with it. I will be picking up a trigger cable today, as i have read that using that will help me, and have been suggested to shoot in bulb mode.

Infinity is indicated on the distance scale on your lens.

Here is something I wrote up on another forum a while back:
i tried something new this time. someone had once referred to it as the "black hat" method.

-set exposure to bulb.

-set aperture to ~f8-~f12 depending on how bright it is outside.

-set manual focus to infinity

-place a black felt hat or some other black non-reflective cloth over the lens.

-trip the release once you get a good feel for where the fireworks will be at

-for each firework, quickly remove the hat for the amount of time you think you got what you wanted then replace it. this is how you get the clean multiple exposures like the the 1st pic.

-release the shutter.

Here are some results:

sweet!
Ill give this a try tonight, and hopefully come back with some better results. (i figured out the infinity thing, sorry i misunderstood)

I will be picking up a trigger release. Thank god for 3 days of fireworks where i live!!

Results posted tomorrow, most likely.

"infinity" using isn't really "as far as it can go" or exactly where infinity is on the lens (depends on the set aperture)

I auto focus on something hundreds of feet away with good contrast (tree line, side of building, etc.) and that is generally the correct "infinity" for things that far away to be sharp and in focus.

Then just flip your lens to MF and go for it.

Originally Posted by PhatheadWRX

"infinity" using isn't really "as far as it can go" or exactly where infinity is on the lens (depends on the set aperture)

I auto focus on something hundreds of feet away with good contrast (tree line, side of building, etc.) and that is generally the correct "infinity" for things that far away to be sharp and in focus.

Then just flip your lens to MF and go for it.

Agreed, but it's pretty close. Things like fireworks are hard to judge as relative distances. It's a lot of trial and error.

SON OF A BLEEP! (stupid back button erased my lovely long post)

Anywhoo..

I had so much fun shooting tonight, and i barely lifted a finger, to take around 200 shots. I went and picked up a release trigger and used it this evening. Much more relaxing and let me me snuggle still with the hubby while continuing to shoot.

I used the infiinty/F8 Tonight. Pics so far (still downloading) are ok. Could be much better, but this was definatly something for me to work with. I have more fireworks tomorrow night to shoot. I am excited to use what I learned tonight to try out tomorrow night too.

I did find, i head the relase for too long, (3 seconds tooo long.. 2 seconds, barely long enough, any suggestions?)

will post results tomorrow morning. THANKS GUYS!!

Well I'm glad it helped. As far as the shutter speed thing. Either use the black hat or instead of using bulb set the shutter speed to 2.5 sec or bump up your f-stop to f10-12.

There are a bunch more i am content with on my flickr, but here are some that i really enjoyed.
I am excited to try again tonight, ill be a bit closer to the fireworks, and in an area i am familiar with.

Thanks again for the help, hope eveyrone had a great fourth of july!!

much improved!

Took more tonight.. at F/9, we'll see if they are any better.

I had a lovely night shooting. I hope everyone else did too.