I've done night fireworks in manual mode using the recommendations in
Kodak's Master Photoguide "Existing Light" section (new title is Kodak
Pocket Photoguide). The recommendations for lightning at night are
identical except one stop wider aperture (more exposure). Following is a
summary for lightning by film speed. Since we are getting close to July
4th, after that is a summary for fireworks, for the benefit of U.S. list
members. The higher film speeds will only work with telephotos that can
stop down far enough (see the tables). I've had very good exposures with
the fireworks using medium speed ISO 100 film, camera on tripod, and a
cable release (used my finger on the OM-4 release once).
Lightning at night
(shutter open on "B" for several streaks):
ISO Aperture
-----------------------
64 - 100 f/5.6
125 - 200 f/8
320 - 400 f/11
800 - 1000 f/16
1250 - 1600 f/22 (if you can stop down that far)
Fireworks at night
(shutter open on "B" for several bursts):
ISO Aperture
-----------------------
64 - 100 f/8
125 - 200 f/11
320 - 400 f/16
800 - 1000 f/22 (if you can stop down that far)
1250 - 1600 f/32 (if you can stop down that far)
Hope this helps.
-- John
At 23:03 6/13/00 , BBB wrote:
>So on my first attempt to shoot something for TOPE2, I noticed that
>there was a lot of heat lightning one night, drove to a remote bridge
>on the farm (with a great looking cypress tree framing the horizon),
>framed my shot, set to underexpose 2 stops, and let 'er fly. During
>the exposure, anywhere from 2 to 5 flashes of heat lightning would
>occur (sometimes different colors), so I was sure I'd get good shots
>(I was hoping a bolt would hit the cypress tree or a nearby
>irrigation rig, but no such luck).
>
>After shooting a half dozen exposures, I thought I should perhaps
>flash the cypress tree to get it better defined, and freeze motion
>(the wind was blowing pretty strong), so I started my exposure, gave
>it 3 or 4 seconds, and then fired a hand held flash (Sunpack 433D) at
>the cypress tree. Did this a couple of times, had lots of heat
>lightning activity on the horizon, and was sure I'd gotten SOMETHING
>useable.
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