Olympus fireworks link

I just got an email from Olympus announcing the latest sales.  In addition, since this weekend is the USA 4th of July celebration, they sent out a link for taking fireworks photos.  For people that haven't seen similar information in the past, the link is: Olympus DSLR/mirror tips on taking fireworks photos

Note, you can tell the guide was written some time ago, as it suggests using ISO 100.  On more modern Olympus cameras, you would want ISO 200, and either cutting the shutter speed to 2 seconds or aperture to f/5.6.

Here are some fireworks photos I took in 2013 when I was visiting my father in DeKalb Illinois, using an E-PM2 with the 14-150mm lens stopped down to f/8.  I used a shutter release cable (RM-UC1 clone) so that I could watch the fireworks with my eyes and enjoy it, and just every so often hold the shutter down (time was set to bulb mode). Most of the times were around 2-3 seconds:

DeKalb, Illinois fireworks, f/8, 1/2 second

DeKalb, Illinois fireworks, f/8, 2.5 seconds

DeKalb, Illinois, f/8, 2.1 seconds

DeKalb, Illinois, f/8, 1.3 seconds

Was your ISO set at 200 for those?

daleeight wrote:

Was your ISO set at 200 for those?

Yes.  I set it to ISO 200 (base level for the E-PM2) with manual focus (the first few fireworks I set the focus via the LCD -- I wish Olympus had options to set a lens to maximum focus or hyperfocal point).  I shot on a tripod with a shutter release cable.  I used bulb mode, and once in bulb mode, I turned off noise reduction (otherwise it will do dark frame subtraction for the length of time you had the shutter open).

With a lot of fireworks, you can hear the rocket go off, and then start recording before it opens, and wait until it creates the trail before closing the shutter.

Expect to have a lot of misses where you missed the timing or the fireworks were off frame.  But hopefully you have some keepers in the lot.