Parade/large event/fireworks photography

[sherryberrypie]

I'm interning at a city paper this summer and will be the photographer at a large parade next weekend. I'll probably just be using the Nikon D70 with which I've become accustomed... or the D200 with a larger lens. I'm just learning about DSLR's, so I'm a little nervous... the end result will be a photo slideshow to be featured on the website for one of the main media companies here in Canada. So yeah, pressure. I'm looking forward to it though!

 

Any tips/tricks/lens suggestions would be great. It is supposed to be slightly overcast that day, with probably quite a few sunny breaks. I'm not sure if I will be taking photos of the fireworks and other events, but I want to try and hang on to the camera all day... what is the best way to shoot fireworks?

[sidehop]

Are you going to be shooting relatively close to the action? If so you can go with semi-wide angle or if not shoot from the distance with a telephoto lens. If you can carry two bodies with one wide angle and one telephoto would work out great.

 

Just take many photos, I'm assuming you understand basics of aperture, shutter speed, etc? My dad was an avid photographer and he always said to "fill the frame" when you want to capture a subject. Unless of course you're trying to get a big picture of the parade in a wide angle.

 

Fireworks are one of those tricky shots, you can up the ISO so you can get away with relatively faster shutter speeds. Of course with higher ISO introduces more noise. When I shot fireworks, sometimes I have to guess and release the shutter before the next big bang were lit. Let the camera open for 2~3 seconds and hope that it will capture something! Too long of a shutter release than it's too bright. You're going to need a tripod for most fireworks shots.

 

With the D200 you can set interval time so you can set it on a tripod and let it shoot every few seconds. You'll probably end up taking tons of pictures and find maybe few that you like. D70 may be able to do this but can't seem to find the exact info on it.

 

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[sherryberrypie]

Thanks for your help

 

I'll be right in the action. I'm pretty sure I'll be using the D200. The D70 broke lol and you can only use the base lens now I didn't do it! I am going to be taking many, many photos. The end result will be a slideshow of about 35 photos.

[sidehop]

Ya, don't be afraid to just fill the memory cards. Especially if you need 35 photos I'd shoot as much as possible. When I shot the Blue Angels for my own collections, I shot about 2,000 photos and out of them I only liked 10. I regret shooting in JPG and not RAW but that's one thing you want to consider too, if they are looking for high resolution photos that can be edited or they are not too concerned with the file formats.

 

And I'd go there early if you know for a fact this place is packed. For the Blue Angels I went there at 5AM anticipating a huge crowd but it ended up where I just took off my shoes and went into the water where most people didn't consider.