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Fireworks Bokehs

Picture
The image on the left is the image that started it all, for me.

About a year ago, I discovered this through my own inability to take a nice photos of fireworks, I decided to just take one out-of-focus and was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful color bokehs.

From then on, I've been trying different lenses, different processing techniques, doing my best to capture the best out-of-focus fireworks.  Few things I've learned:
  • Always shoot with wide-open aperture - this is to ensure you'll end up with well-rounded bokehs.
  • Low ISO is ok - the sparks will be bright enough to be captured, and if ISO is too high, you may end up capturing more of the smoke.
  • Give the explosion a few moment to grow - hitting the shutter too early may cause the lights to bunch together and be too crowded.

Also, sometimes using an older lens will give the bokehs different characteristics.  When you're processing the image, try playing with the clarity slider in Lightroom :)

© Copyright 2013 David Young.  All Rights Reserved.