How To Get Those Fabulous Fireworks Images – Photo Tutorial by Suzanne Mathia

Fourth of July is right around the corner.  With the advent of digital photography, photographing fireworks has become easy and fun, just by following some basic steps. With a little planning and a bit a practice you can get some truly spectacular and creative images

Here's how to do it:

A little planning goes a long way.

Take a little time before the show to scout the location. Determine where the fireworks will be launched and then try to find a clear, unobstructed view. You don't want to be in the middle of a crowd, with people wandering in front of the camera or bumping into your tripod. Avoid any other light sources such as streetlights to avoid the possibility of light flare. Watch out for tree branches and electrical wires that can sneak into your composition.

Be aware of smoke. If you can figure out which direction the wind will be blowing then try to position yourself upwind so the smoke will blow away from you. Smoke will really light up with the bursts, and if it’s between you and the fireworks then your photos will suffer and look...well smokey!.

Put the camera on tripod. Use a cable release or remote control so there will be no movement when you open the shutter. You want your camera to be as solid as a rock during the long exposures necessary for fireworks photography otherwise the smooth paths of light the fireworks create will appear jagged blurrey and messy.

Orient the camera on the tripod vertically as opposed the horizontal landscape orientation as this gives a better composition as the fireworks soar vertically into the sky.

Set the lens to manual focus and set it to the ∞ (infinity) mark. (Take a small flashlight with you so you can see your camera controls after dark)

Set the camera on "B" or "Bulb." When you press the shutter, or cable release the camera opens to light, and stays open until you release it.  You have full control over how long an exposure you get.

Shoot at the lowest ISO for the best results. 100 for Canon, 200 for Nikon. (Turn off ISO AUTO if you have it) you want a nice long exposure with as little digital noise as possible.

Start with an aperture opening of f8 or f11 and f 16.  These seem to work well for fireworks photography. The type of lens you choose will depend on your proximity to the show but generally a good telephoto zoom will give you the most flexibility.  I use a 70 – 200mm. However, if you are really close to the action a wider angled lens can work beautifully. 

All set up and ready to go…take some test shots of the first fireworks. Open the shutter at the first burst. Hold it open several seconds, until that burst is finished.  See how it looks.  Try different lengths of time and find the speed that you like best. Then hold it open longer and allow several bursts to appear in one shot. Leaving the shutter open for multiple bursts makes it look like they all went off at the same time and can look spectacular.  However, there’s a limit, leaving the shutter open for too long and too many bursts may end up in overexposed areas and too much confusion so strike a happy medium.

Another trick is to have a small piece of black cardboard with you.  Take an exposure through one burst, cover up the front of your lens with the black cardboard then take it off when the next one goes off. You can get some amazing “multiple exposures” with this method.

Look at your shots in the LCD and check your histogram.  You may need to open up or close down your f stop or increase or decrease how long you leave the shutter open.  Try different lengths of exposures throughout the evening.  There will be lots of busts and plenty of opportunities to get it just right.

If the fireworks aren’t bright enough open up you f stop (f8 instead of f11) the brightness of the burst does not vary by the amount of time the shutter is open.  If the Sky is looking too bright then decrease the amount of time the shutter is open.  The sky or ambient light is what is affected by shutter speed. Although this is very easy fix in postprocessing (photoshop or Elements) by increasing the Darks or changing the black point in your image.

Now you have the shots you want , get creative and think outside the box. Add foreground elements to your composition.  People, a bridge, children staring skyward.  Silhouettes of the onlookers to give a sense of location to your picture. Look for reflections in buildings or in lakes or pools. Look for the little details that make this day memorable. Now you can also throw out the “rules” Move your camera during the shot for an interesting effect.  Zoom in or out as the fireworks go off. Use flash to light up the foreground. Turn your camera horizontally. Be creative, experiment and most of all have fun!

More on Lightroom 5 release!

As I noted yesterday.  the final version of Lightroom 5 is out and ready to go! Most of the new features were in the beta version but they were a few tweaks that are worth noting. They included numerous little “bug” fixes. The automatic levels and straightening functions are greatly improved. Based on feedback from the beta testers they increased the feathering on the new radial tool.

Lightroom 5 has all of your favorite features from Lightroom 5 beta including the Advanced Healing Brush, Upright, Radial Filter, Smart Previews, improved photo book creation, and slideshows that mix video and still images. From what I’ve seen the performance has been excellent.

When you upgrade your catalog, Lightroom will check the original files to add additional information to the catalog - Image Bit Depth (i.e. 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit), Color Mode (i.e. RGB, Greyscale, CMYK, etc.) and Color Profile (i.e. sRGB, Adobe RGB, etc.) – and that can take a while if you have a large catalog or your images are stored on a NAS or slow external especially.

Camera raw file support has been added for a few more cameras

Hasselblad H5D-60

Olympus PEN E-P5 & E-PL6

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G6 & DMC-LF1

Phase One IQ260*

Ricoh GR

Tethered support for the Nikon D600

They also added some new lenses to the profiles

My private classes and classes with Arizona Highways Photo Workshops, Southwest Perspectives and BobbieGoodrich  will be incorporating these great new advancements.  Although many of my students will still be working in Lightroom 4, the interface has changed very little and we can easily work on both versions.

LR5 is HERE!!!!

After just finishing a great week in Sedona at Photofest teaching Lightroom 4 and giving a snaek peak into Lightroon 5...This morning Adobe released the final version!!!!! Great timing.

I will be posting more in the next couple of days.  My classes will now also incorporate the changes in Lightroom as photographers start to upgrade.

The software is available for both Mac and Windows computers. Adobe has given the option of buying the software with a standalone license as well as a part of the Creative Cloud. For previous Lightroom customers, the software can be upgraded for $79. For those who are new to the editing tool, the software will be available for $149. The Lightroom 5 is available as a free update to members of the Adobe Creative Cloud service.

The major enhancements in the new version of the photo management and editing software are:

• Advanced Healing Brush: The advanced healing brush on the Lightroom 5 works similar to the clone tool on Photoshop, however this one is both easier and quicker to use. Adobe'sdemonstration video shows how quick it is to remove an object or features such as wrinkles in a photograph using the new healing tool. You first choose the area that you need to 'heal' and then replace it with a 'source'.
• Smart Preview: When dealing with high resolution photographs, editing can be time consuming. In order to save both memory and time, Lightroom 5 comes with an option with creating a smart preview of an image on to your system. The smart preview for the image will have only 5% of the original file size. So, you can use the smart preview to make any changes that you wish to add to the original file. Once the source of the original file is connected to your computer, Lightroom syncs all the metadata to the original file as well.
• Upright: The upright feature on the Lightroom 5 fixes all the tilted images. While the same result can be achieved by rotating and cropping an image, the process on Lightroom 5 takes just the click of a button. If desired, the scaling and fixing can be done manually as well by adjusting certain levels.
• Radial Filter: The Radial Gradient tool lets you create off-center vignette effects, or multiple vignetted areas within a single image. This feature can be used for focusing on certain parts of an image.
• Video Slide Shows: The new Lightroom also lets you combine still images and video clips alongside music to create HD videos. This feature can be used to create video slideshows of your work.

Lightroom, Photoshop and the Creative Cloud

There’s been lots of lots of hoopla, buzz, excitement, confusion and misinformation about Adobes announcement of the Creative Cloud. In my Lightroom classes, this has been the biggest source of questions and concerns. Basically, Photoshop as we know it going forward is going totally subscription based and you will no longer be able to buy a stand alone boxed version or download a copy of it anymore. You have to subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud to get Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud). There a rumors floating about the Adobe may offer a package especially tailored for Photographers that includes Lightroom and Photoshop CC…I’ll keep you posted.  But as it stands now…this is the way it is.

Please note, you’ll still be able to buy Lightroom standalone without subscribing (even though it’s also included in the CC).

First I want to clear up some misconceptions about Creative Cloud that I’ve seen and heard many times over the past couple of weeks. There seems to be confusion over what the ‘cloud’ part of Creative Cloud means. Contrary to what I have read on some posts Adobe’s creative Suite is not a cloud service, but instead a subscription package that allows you to download the applications and install them locally on your computer.

The main difference between Creative Cloud and Creative Suite is that the applications check every 30 to 90 days to see if your subscription is valid – an Internet connection is required for this – and if your subscription is no longer active, the plug is pulled on your software. Otherwise there’s no real difference in how the software works as far as the user is concerned. The Software still needs to be downloaded and installed to work.

With the “cloud” you don’t need a constant internet connection you can be totally offline for 2 or 3 months at a time. You don’t have to store your images in the cloud. Your images can be stored on your system just as they are now. You can keep running older versions alongside the CC versions if you want to. Think of it as “renting” the software.  With the rental fee you don’t have to pay for the upgrades…they download automatically as soon as they are released, and you have the most current version with any new fixes, bells and whistles.

  

LR5 will be included in Creative Cloud, but you won’t have to subscribe to Creative Cloud to get Lightroom. You’ll be able to keep buying it via perpetual (non-subscription) license as we do now.

If you are a photographer and are not using Lightroom, you should…now.  No more fussing and complaining, just do it.  It is the best solution for Photographers, especially with Photoshop/Bridge going to Creative Cloud.

The best and most cost effective solution going forward will be to purchase and stand alone version of Lightroom and either keep using your current version of Photoshop of subscribe to a single app membership for the newest Photoshop for $9.99 per month.

Lightroom was designed by and built for photographers…if you are a photographer Lightroom is for you…period!  I offer many classes, workshops or one on one training in Lightroom if you still need convincing!

If you have downloaded the Lightroom 5 beta and will be using LR5 when the final version is released you will already have many of the new and cool features and upgrades in the upcoming Photoshop CC. The Radial Gradient Filter, Upright Lens Correction Adjustments, Non-destructive Cloning and Healing Brush. Now I have used these new cloning and healing brushes, my trips to Photoshop are even further reduced! Plus you also get Smart Previews along will all the other great features already included in Lightroom 3 and 4!

More information…..

Creative CloudFAQ for Photographers

Havasupai workshop with Arizona Highways Photo Workshops

  

Derek von Briesen and I are heading down to Havasupai to teach a workshop with Arizona Highways Photo Workshops tomorrow. A week in a garden of Eden in the desert, the land of Blue Green waters. Our students are in for a trip of a lifetime and will come home with amazing images and great memories! 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nik-radio-pro-talk-

Nik Radio PRO Talk with

         SUZANNNE MATHIA

Nik Radio delivers a variety of educational programming created to inspire digital photographers of all levels. Sponsored by Nik Software, Nik Radio features digital imaging tips and techniques, highlights the work of popular professional photographers and experts through in-depth Pro Talks, showcases industry events, and shares insights and the stories behind the most popular images of our time. Listen today for unique educational content that will help you achieve your goals behind the camera and on the computer!

CANON 5D Mark 111 Firmware Upgrade

To my Canon 5D Mark 111 users - There is a firmware update to you cameras.  Always a good idea to keep up on these.

Download the update to your computer. Here is the link  > Drivers and Software (After selcting your operating system and version click on FIRMWARE)

Plug in your card reader with an empty formatted card> drag and drop or copy the firmware update onto the card>  

(Make sure your battery on you camera is charged you dont want your camera to die in the middle of an upgrade!)

Insert the card with the firmware into your camera > navigate to Firmware Ver. x.x.x. in your camera's 3rd set-up menu (with the yellow wrench 

Select OK when asked if you want to upgrade to the new version.  Let it install then remove your card.  

If you have any questions or problems...contact me!

A list of improvements in firmware version 1.2.1 is listed below.

1. Uncompressed HDMI output is now enabled.
2. Enables the center AF point to autofocus when the camera is used with Canon EF lens/extender combinations whose combined maximum aperture is f/8.
3. Improves the speed of the camera’s acquisition of focus when using a Canon Speedlite’s AF-assist beam.
4. Fixes a phenomenon in which the LCD monitor may freeze and display Err 70 or Err 80 when a still photo is taken during Live View or in movie shooting mode.
5. Fixes a phenomenon that may occur when the continuous shooting priority setting is enabled for multiple exposures, such that, after the sixth image is taken, there is a slight pause before the remainder of the sequence is completed.
6. Fixes a phenomenon in which the viewfinder display shows incorrect information during AEB shooting.
7. Communication with the WFT-E7 Wireless File Transmitter has been improved.
8. When images have been successfully transferred with the WFT-E7 Wireless File Transmitter through the FTP protocol, an “O” will be displayed. When images have not been successfully transferred with the WFT-E7 Wireless File Transmitter through the FTP protocol, an “X” will be displayed.
9. Fixes a phenomenon in which the camera may not function properly when an Eye-Fi card is used.
10. Fixes a phenomenon in which the focal length value listed in the Exif information is not displayed correctly for images shot with the EF 24-70mm F4L IS USM lens.
11. Fixes a phenomenon in which the lens firmware cannot be updated properly.
12. Corrects errors in the Arabic language menu.
13. Fixes a phenomenon in which the camera changes the AF microadjustment value to -8.
14. Fixes a phenomenon in which the on-screen guidance cannot be fully displayed when setting the maximum limit value for the “Setting the ISO Speed Range for Auto ISO” option.

Light It Up In Lightroom & Monsoon Madness

Grand Canyon Lightroom

Suzanne Mathia

August 12-15

Monsoon season at the Grand Canyon offers photographers endless opportunities to capture images of billowy thunderclouds stretched out across the rim's horizon giving while working with spectacular light that dances on the canyon walls.
Frequent Arizona Highways Contributor/ Photographer, Suzanne Mathia, will lend her extensive expertise in photographing the Canyon while instructing how to take images from capture to print using Adobe Lightroom software -- the program designed by photographers for photographers!
Suzanne is our resident expert in all things Lightroom. She has served on Lightroom beta panels, testing various updates and releases for the developer. During your workshop, Suzanne will take you to the best locations for photographing the sweet light and then bring you back to the classroom to take you step by step through organizing, managing, processing and outputting your images in Lightroom.
After this workshop, you'll have images worthy of your wall! Just five spots remain to get in on the power of Lightroom while photography one of the seven natural wonders.

Lightroom 5 Beta - What's New!

Stay tuned.  I'll keep you posted on whats coming!!!

Advanced healing, Smart Previews and more
PNG file support

Videos can now be included in slideshows

Faster Loading

Lock zoom position

If you want to take this new BETA for a test drive and play with the new features you can download a copy from http://labs.adobe.com.

I would suggest just importing some duplicate images into the LR5 beta and just play - DO NOT move all your files until the final version is released.

I'll post more tips and highlights as I discover them and will now start updating my Lightroom classes to address the new version changes!

Lightroom 5 Beta Now Available!

The Lightroom team is proud to introduce the fifth major version of the product designed for and by photographers. It was 7 years ago today when we introduced the very first public beta of Lightroom at MacWorld on January 9, 2006. Since 2006 we’ve been hard at work improving an application that’s intended to be as easy to use as it is powerful.  This release builds on the image quality improvements in Lightroom 4 to provide a truly complete workflow and imaging solution.  We keep hearing from customers that they love Lightroom but needed to leave Lightroom to complete X, Y, or Z.  Lightroom 5 beta solves those issues.

IMPORTANT NOTES, PLEASE READ

Primary Known Issues

▪                Lightroom 5 beta is not complete but please provide feedback on the available enhancements.

▪                Lightroom 5 beta will not upgrade Lightroom 1.x, Lightroom 2.x, Lightroom 3.x, or Lightroom 4.x catalogs. The beta is intended to be used for testing and feedback purposes. Lightroom 1.x, 2.x, 3.x , 4.x and 5 beta libraries will be able to be migrated to the finished version of Lightroom 5.

▪                While data loss is not expected, this is an early ‘beta’ quality build and you should always work on duplicates of files that are securely backed up.

▪                Lightroom 5 beta will not overwrite or interfere with a machine that currently has Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2, Lightroom 3, or Lightroom 4 installed.

▪                Develop settings applied in Lightroom 5 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of Lightroom 5

▪                The Lightroom 5 beta will expire after Lightroom 5.0 is available

▪                Additional known issues are listed below.

Minimum system requirements

Windows®

▪                Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor*

▪                DirectX 10–capable or later graphics card

▪                Microsoft® Windows® 7 with Service Pack 1 or Windows 8

▪                2GB of RAM (4GB recommended)

▪                2GB of available hard-disk space

▪                1024×768 display

▪                DVD-ROM drive

▪                Internet connection required for Internet-based services†

* Dual-core processor recommended for HD or AVCHD video functionality.

Mac OS

▪                Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support

▪                Mac OS X v10.7 or v10.8

▪                2GB of RAM (4GB recommended)

▪                2GB of available hard-disk space

▪                1024×768 display

▪                DVD-ROM drive

▪                Internet connection required for Internet-based services†

Install Lightroom 5 beta

Download the beta 

Mac
1. Download Lightroom 5 beta from labs.adobe.com
2. Unzip the download, open the disk image, and double-click the Lightroom Beta 5 package in the resulting window.  Follow the on-screen instructions

Windows 7, Windows 8
1. Download Lightroom 5 beta from labs.adobe.com
2. Unzip the download, open the disk image, and double-click the Lightroom Beta 5 package in the resulting window.  Follow the on-screen instructions.

Serial Numbers

Anyone can download and work with the Lightroom 5 beta for the duration of the beta program. There is no serial number requirement.

Supported File Formats

▪                JPEG

▪                TIFF (8 bit, 16 bit)

▪                PSD (8 bit, 16 bit)

▪                PNG

▪                DNG

▪                Raw (Please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html for a full list of raw file support. File support for Lightroom 5 beta, aligns with Lightroom 4.4 and Camera Raw 7.4)

Important File Format Support Exceptions (Formats not supported)

• PSD files saved without a composite image. (Saved without “Maximize Compatibility” setting)
• Files with dimensions greater than 65,000 pixels per side

High Level Summary of What’s New

▪                Advanced Healing Brush

▪                Upright

▪                Radial Gradient

▪                Smart Previews

▪                Improved Photo Book Creation

▪                Slideshows with Videos and Still Images

Lightroom 5 beta Enhancements

Advanced Healing Brush
Lightroom 2 added the ability to quickly remove spots and imperfections from your images.  Photographers could only heal circular areas, but many unwanted elements in photographs have irregular shapes. In Lightroom 5 beta we’ve overhauled the Spot Removal algorithm.

With the Advanced Healing Brush, photographers can now adjust the size of the brush and move it in precise paths, so unwanted objects and flaws—even those with irregular shapes like threads—just disappear. Lightroom 5 even let’s portrait photographers achieve subtle, natural looking results when they smooth wrinkles or fix blemishes on their subjects.

Upright

There are many things that can come between a photographer and the perfect photo. Not holding a camera straight, or taking a picture from an odd perspective or with the wrong lens, can cause a subject to appear tilted or askew when imported into the Lightroom catalog and viewed on a computer screen. Correcting such images often requires a number of separate adjustments. A photographer might rotate an image, adjust it vertically and horizontally, and change its aspect and perspective. Finding the optimal combination of these settings often relies on a time-consuming trial and error approach.

Lightroom 5 extends the range of image enhancements available to photographers with Upright. The new Upright tool gives photographers four easy methods to straighten tilted images with a single click. Upright analyzes images and detects skewed horizontal and vertical lines, even straightening shots where the horizon is hidden.

Radial Filter

Busy backgrounds or bright colors can distract viewers from the focal point of an image. Photographers may try to reduce the distraction by cropping an image, but this can result in the loss of interesting detail and balance. Another approach to focusing the viewer’s attention is to create a vignette effect, but this only works if a subject is in the center of an image.

The Radial Gradient tool in Lightroom 5 now offers photographers more flexibility and control in how they guide a viewer’s eye to emphasize the important parts of an image. Using this tool, photographers can create off-center vignette effects or multiple vignette areas in a single image. This local adjustment control lets photographers minimize distractions and focus a viewer’s attention exactly where it should be.

Smart Previews

Photographers need flexibility, and new solid state drives and ultra-light laptops let them work from anywhere. However, the limited storage capacity of these devices restricts access to complete image libraries and original raw files, which are often stored on detachable storage devices or desktop computers. Inability to access to the files they need impacts their ability to edit and share high-quality images while on the go.

New Smart Previews in Lightroom 5 let photographers easily work with images without bringing their entire library with them. They just generate smaller, stand-in files called Smart Previews and leave the originals back at the studio. Photographers can make adjustments or metadata additions to Smart Previews and apply their changes to the fullsize originals later when they reconnect to the device holding the original files, all nondestructively, of course.

For many photographers, generating Smart Previews as they import their images gives them the freedom to disconnect from their storage device at any time, leave the originals at home or in the studio, and edit the Smart Previews from wherever they are. Building Smart Previews while importing is easy, just check the Build Smart Previews checkbox within the File Handling panel in the Import dialog box.

Improved Photo Book Creation

In Lightroom 4, Adobe introduced a robust Photo Book creation workflow. The Book Module makes it easy for photographers to create beautiful, custom books for clients, friends, or for their own personal enjoyment. The Book module provides everything photographers need to create a Photo Book and export it to a PDF for online viewing or directly upload it to the online printing site, Blurb.

Now Lightroom 5 lets photographers customize Photo Books more than ever, with a variety of easy-to-use book templates that you can now edit to create a customized look. Photographers can add page numbers, individual photo captions, and page captions.

Slideshows with Videos and Still Images

Lightroom 4 provided photographers tools to do more with video clips—from organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to playing and trimming clips and extracting still images from video footage. With Lightroom 5 photographers can now easily combine still images, video clips, and music in creative HD video slideshows that can be viewed on almost any computer or device.

Lightroom 5 Additional Features and JDIs

▪                PNG file support

▪                True Full Screen Mode

▪                Configurable grid overlays

▪                Additional search criteria for filters and smart collections

▪                Look zoom position preference settings

▪                Direction field in EXIF metadata panel

▪                “Set as Target Collection” checkbox in Create Collections dialogue

▪                Integrity verification of DNG files

▪                LAB color readout

▪                Aspect slider added to the Manual tab in the Lens Correction panel

▪                Persistent clipping indicators between Lightroom sessions

▪                Crop overlay aspect ratios

▪                Visual indicator of Favorite book pages

▪                Transparent buttons for improved Text creation in Books

Additional Known Issues

General

▪                Localization is still in progress. The UI for all new features has not been translated to non-English languages.

▪                Offline photos can go missing from Lightroom when moving folder of images to a different volume.

        Book Module

▪                Make sure to review your book carefully before printing. In particular, please avoid using the ‘Creative’ templates in this build due to a issue where the borders will not be printed.

Develop

▪                Clipping Indicators turn on automatically with each new session

       Smart Previews

▪                Please build Smart Previews in batches of 1000 images or less.

        Video

▪                The audio of trimmed video keeps playing even if the video slides is passed

▪                The exported slideshow video does not applied the develop presets

▪                Occasionally the exported slideshow video cannot be played

▪                Stroke border draws incorrectly during transitions between slides.

▪                Occasionally the slideshow will not allow you to stop playback.  In this case, please Force Quit Lightroom 5 beta.

▪                Most of the keyboard shortcuts will be disabled during slideshow playing in the preview/full screen mode.

▪                Quick Develop Adjustments will not be applied to exported video clips as part of Video Slideshows