I hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend.
I never miss a chance to make an experimental time lapse, so here’s my attempt at capturing a fireworks display. As you can see, the final result is closer to a series of photographs than a cohesive video. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the shutter time was two seconds. Second, the compression time took three seconds due to the long exposure. Shooting in RAW didn’t seem to affect the amount of time between shots.
I recorded my local fireworks display using the “fireworks” preset on my camera. This automatically changed the exposure to two seconds and changed the white balance to a hue suitable only for fireworks or possibly photography on Mars. Unfortunately, it didn’t adjust the focal length to infinity, so some of the shots are a bit fuzzy.
I could tell you what I would do differently, but I think it’s a moot point. After this attempt, I can safely say fireworks go into the “poor time lapse subjects” category. Instead, I’d suggest using a remote trigger and practicing normal photography with fireworks.
