Take Epic Hands-Free Fireworks Photos
/With the American Independence day holiday right around the corner I thought it would be timely to have a quick how-to post on shooting fireworks. In the first part of this video I share basic fireworks tips and tricks for getting great shots.
You must have a tripod or something to hold the camera steady or a few seconds. I love the Leofoto Tripod
Use manual mode on your camera - Shutter speeds between 2 and 8 seconds, Aperture f/5.6-8.0, ISO 100-200 if you have a P&S camera use the fireworks scene setting (still need a tripod)
Use a remote release device to trigger your camera- I recommend Intervalometer with multiple connections: http://amzn.to/29xNO3M
Be ready! Some of your best opportunities happen early on, as the smoke builds your shots may get hazy unless you have a breeze removing the smoke. So I suggest you start to setup before it gets dark, frame your composition and take a few test shots - use trees or light poles near the fireworks launch spot to focus on - review the photos watching for stray objects or horizon lines that might distract from the fireworks. If you end up setting up in the dark, use the following tips - set your ISO to MAX and your shutter speed long enough to get a well lit photo, we don't care if it is grainy, we just want to get quick feedback on focus and composition. Once you have those set then use the suggested settings in step 2 for the actual fireworks shots.
Try to time your shots to start just as the rockets head up, longer shutter speeds are going to capture more of the action
Experiment but don't forget to enjoy the show some too
Finally, watch out for the Grand Finale - shorten the shutter speed during that fireworks-heavy period or you will end up with an overexposed image.
Shape bokeh is a fun way to add a creative flare to your DSLR photography. You can create shape bokeh with any DSLR camera and prime lens. Many photographers use a 50mm lens for shape bokeh photography (which is what I used for this post), but don't feel limited this option.For the upcoming Valentine's Day, I'm sharing DIY heart shaped bokeh! The first step is to create a heart bokeh filter for your prime lens. Trace the lens you're going to use on black construction paper or card stock. Cut out the circle. Punch or cut out a heart in the center of the circle. If you're using a paper punch, you may need to fold the edge of the circle to center the punch.I cut the circle small enough that I can fit it right on the lens as you see pictured below. I have always used this method for shape bokeh with no problems. Some photographers create a paper cylinder or paper handles to attach to the bokeh filter, which works well, too.
The second step is to gather your supplies. In addition to the heart filter, you'll need Christmas lights or another light source that will create bokeh. You'll also need a light source for your subjects. The ambient room lighting may work just fine. A speedlite works well, too. I have a couple of 
The fourth step is to dial in your camera settings. Switch your DSLR camera to manual mode. Open your aperture as wide as possible. I shot with a 50mm f/1.8 lens, so I set my aperture to 1.8. Then I set my shutter speed to 1/80. The subject lighting source you use will determine the best ISO for the particular shot. I used a few different lighting setups, so my ISO is not the same for every shot. In some instances, it's as low as 200 while for other shots, I dialed it up to 400 or 800.Attach your homemade heart bokeh filter to your prime lens. Keep in mind when you shoot in portrait orientation, you'll have to rotate your heart filter accordingly. Otherwise, the hearts will be sideways!You're ready to start creating heart bokeh! I recommend trying a few shots of the bokeh alone to get comfortable with your camera settings. Heart bokeh is beautiful on its own. You may create some photos of it that you really love. Try switching your lens to manual focus and experiment with creating hearts in different sizes.
One popular bokeh background technique is to make is look as though the bokeh is coming right out of a glass, jar, or vase. You'll have to position your lights carefully, so the hearts match up with the glass or jar. You can edit a few stray hearts out of the background, but the more you do to position the lights properly, the less editing you'll have to do.I started with a heart mug because it seemed fitting to have the hearts coming out of a heart mug for Valentine's Day.
A clear glass or vase also works well because it looks like the hearts are right in the glass. In this first shot, I used a clear stemless wine glass.
I absolutely love colored glass and have a number of colored Ball jars and other glass pieces around my house. I used a blue Ball jar for a few shots because I love pairing turquoise and red. Green or purple glass would be so pretty, too.
I added a string of fairy lights to the Ball jar to bring a little more light into the shot and get some hearts right in the jar. I purposely made this shot a little fuzzy to get the fairy light hearts to pop and to heighten the whimsical aesthetic.
Playing around with my blue Ball jar was so much fun I decided to create a shot with it with a regular red bokeh background. The fun of a bokeh setup is that there are so many possibilities. If you have an idea for a shot, give it a try!
I've seen a few similar images to the book image I've shared below and was excited to try this technique myself. I switched up the red Christmas lights for a pastel strand. I tried shooting with a few different books and liked the results best with a larger book because you can see more bokeh IN the heart. Larger pages also make it easier to get some color on the top interior of the hearts, as you see below. My favorite shot worked best as a square crop, but a wider landscape composition is perfect for a heart book shot as well.You may need to tape your pages into place, particularly if you use a book with glossy pages like I did. Painter's tape is ideal because it's less likely to damage the pages than something like packing tape. I would still remove the tape (carefully!) as soon as you're finished with your photography.
Over the last couple months, I've bought a few new items for photography shoots, including a set of Scrabble letters. I create a lot of styled shoots for different seasons and holidays for 
Finally, I created a little wedding setup with a couple Playmobile figures. My husband and I used this set for our wedding cake topper, so I'm a little biased in my preference for this shot. BUT I'm really happy with the overall composition and the lighting on the figures.
Again, a DIY heart shaped bokeh background is so versatile. It allows for endless fun possibilities for creative photography. I've included a couple more red non-heart bokeh background examples. The first one features the Canon FD 28mm f/2.8 lens, which I use with a Canon AE-1.
The second one features one of my husband's Warhammer figures. You'll have to make up your own story as to why he's riding a tank with a red bokeh background behind him.
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Dust on the sensor typically doesn’t show up unless you are shooting at smaller apertures. Bigger bits might show up starting around f/8, but it is really above f/14 and up to f/22 where you see the dust. If you are shooting lots of landscapes, this can be an issue. If you are shooting lots of portraits, with apertures below f/5.6 you can stop reading and go back to enjoying life. It is unlikely you will see any dust impact your image.
The first step in cleaning is to determine how dirty your sensor is. A quick way to test is to take a picture of a clean white piece of paper at f/8, f/14 and f/22 - don’t worry about your shutter speed - the dust spots will be sharp even if you shoot at slow shutter speeds, but you do want to keep your ISO fairly low to avoid noise confusing the issue. You could also photograph the sky on a clear day.Now pop that image in Lightroom and in the develop module there is a nifty option to Visual Spots located under the Spot removal tool. 
Rollover the image below to see the before and after Visual Spots with my Sony a7RII sensor at f/22[himage]
[/himage]If your sensor looks like Sony a7RII sensor does after just a few weeks of use - you probably want to clean it.Many DSLRS and Mirrorless cameras have a sensor cleaning mode - some run every time you turn the camera on or off and some run when selected. This is the first option you should try. With many of the systems, it is recommended to either hold the camera normally or facedown with the lens off so that the dust falls out. The Sony A7RII I have violently vibrates the sensor for a second or two and did absolutely nothing to reduce the amount of dust on the sensor. Hopefully you will have better results. Test again after using the in camera method.
The next step is to use a rocket blower - NEVER use compressed air or air in a can dust off products. Again hold the camera in such a way that the dust will fall out and give a few puffs directed at different areas of the sensor. They do sell sensor loupes - little magnifiers with led lights that make it easier to judge your progress. I used a tiny LED bike light to help see the sensor but it is clear that a bit of magnification will help too as some of these dust specks are invisible to the naked eye.$17 
printer doesn't quite have a decent enough sensor or the negative scanner for what we’re looking for in this case for a good result. Now something like a Epson V600 ($209 
Professional Negative Scanning
Using something like a light box (
height to the minimum focus distance of your lens for the largest possible copy.
be via 
White BalanceUse the white balance selector (W) to select a white point 
to get in the ballpark. Because of the inverted curve above it will be around 2600-2200K with -30 tint instead of what you would normally think of for a photo as in 5500K. ContrastWhile there are many ways to go about it to get the negative to a decent contrast level the tone curve can also do the heavy lifting for the basic panels fine tuning. Click in the grid and add a point to the top and bottom, close to the edges of the background histogram. This expands your levels adding more contrast and evening out your contrast.
DustAt this point it would be prudent to zoom in to check for any stray dust and use the spot removal when necessary.Flipped SettingsNow due to the inverted tone curve your panels are reversed in Lightroom, up is down and down is up. At this point auto won’t work as its a bit confused by the new setup, while reversed the controls do work normally for the most part. While you can get a perfectly decent copy of your photo from this point, if you export a PSD and re-import it that will fix issues with the controls.
While the basic panels are affected the colors are as well. When you apply any color changes using the color picker helps find the right color with the shifted palette. Due to the orange cast of the negative the sliders have trouble with the warmer side of the palette. That means if you have a photo with a lot of warmer tones you would like to adjust you will have to re-import the file to have more control over the warmer end of the spectrum.
And finally, after a bit of tinkering you're done! Fortunately thanks to Lightroom you can now sync the settings to multiple photos, or make a preset, saving a ton of work in the process. Workflow shown below, as you can see versus the printed photo it was a bit dark and cropped when printed.
