Autumn Fireworks
Inspiration Richard Kempton This photo conveys a sense of the autumn feel because we associate fireworks and bonfire night with the cold and wrapping up warm. There is no rule of thirds or any other compositional techniques incorporated in this photo. The firework takes up most of the frame in this shot. It is probably 2 or 3 fireworks that are actually in this shot but the will have exploded in the same spot so that Richard would be able to put them all in the same final image which would give the impression or illusion that it was one very large firework. I think that he used a long exposure time of a round 20-30 seconds and an ISO of about 3200 so that the entire motion of the fireworks would be captured and they would be well lit with the sky being pith black instead of stitching together 3 different photos in Photoshop. In my opinion this was a very successful shot because of its raw simplicity and the very rich colour contrasting with the deep blacks of the sky.
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Outcome
Self Review Subject matter: I feel that I achieved very well the feeling of autumn in this final shot because I decided to use a wide-angle lens so that I could capture the people in the foreground watching the fireworks with hats and scarves on which conveys a sense of cold to the shot. It also shows the amount of people that are watching the fireworks display. Formal elements: In this shot I tried to use the compositional technique of the rule of thirds even though the photographer in my inspiration section didn’t, I just felt that it made the shot more appealing because it shows that I have thought about how the composition will work with the final edited image. I think that my compositional efforts paid off. There is a slight orange tone in the corner of the image, which was from the bonfire that was happening at the same time as the fireworks. Admittedly it does look a bit out of place and does contrast with the cold feeling that was intended for the image. If I where to go out and do this shot again I would definitely not make this mistake again and I would do this by using a slightly narrower lens to just get the fireworks in or just go somewhere that wasn’t having a bonfire. The colours in this image came out very well even before editing which I was very pleased about because I was expecting to have to have the sky slightly lit in order to get the full colour of the fireworks. The sparkles where another surprise, I didn’t think that they would show up at all which they didn’t very much before editing but they came out well after editing, I was a bout cautious not to over do it on the editing to make the sparkles show but I think it was very subtle. Process: In the end I didn’t stitch any photos together in Photoshop, the fireworks where perfectly the light intensity so that I could have an exposure time of 30 seconds but still be able to keep an ISO of 3200 so that the fireworks came out very well. there is no depth of field in this shot because I was shooting at F/11 just to balance the exposure and ISO but unfortunately his meant that I wasn’t able to achieve any depth of field. I didn’t find this to be a big problem because at an exposure of 30 seconds the people in the foreground where always moving so you wouldn’t notice any depth of field.