Kristen Duke Photography

Kristen Duke Photography Farewell Post

Dear Idea Room readers,

It is with heavy heart that I must bid farewell to my regular photography tips and techniques series on here. I LOVE Amy and her blog…it is what got me all excited about being crafty a year and a half ago…but, I have had to slow down a bit from my fast forward mode, and this was the first thing that I thought of to do that. Even though its only twice a month, I spend many hours on each post. I would still love to come back occasionally, so let Amy know if you have a specific photography need!

My own blog has taken a life of its own as I post about my sessions, workshops, and my e-book. I will post occasional tips and tricks over there. You can also join me on facebook where I share full size landscape images once a week on Facebook Freebie Friday. As a farewell, I wanted to offer my favorite Idea Room readers a big discount on my e-book if you have not purchased it yet, or have been thinking of purchasing it for a friend. On my site, for just 24 hours, it will be available for half off–$5. Discount paypal button will be in my footer on the right at the very bottom of my site, it says Idea Room discount, $5.

Photograph in manual settings

Don’t forget about the master list that I made a few months ago with the summary of all of my posts here. I keep meaning to update it, but click for Past Photography Tips with Kristen Duke here to see the list. Don’t cry, friends, it will all be o.k. ;) Amy continues to have some of the best content on the web, I will still be checking in!

Photography is such a passion of mine, and I think it is so wonderful that so many people see value in a beautiful photography vs. just snapshot. It IS attainable. You can have beautiful portraits of your family. Be patient with yourself, and if you have questions…just google it…there is SO much out there on the web (maybe too much, it can be overwhelming). It has been such a joy for me to hear feedback from all of you that my simple explanations have been beneficial. I am not a book learner, so I did my best to explain things in the non-book-way! Now go keep documenting those unique moments in your families, enjoy the candid moments, and record the people you love in a way that will bring you back to this precious time later in life. It is important, and you will be thanked later!

~Kristen Duke

5 tips for Photographing Fireworks this 4th of July

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{Source} Fireworks with reflection in the water

Unfortunately, I won’t be photographing any fireworks in Texas, because we have a burn ban in our area due to extreme drought conditions. But I can still offer you tips with images I found online with their sources. #1 Use a tripod. To capture evening light, you need to leave your camera shutter open for at least a few seconds, and no matter how still we think we are, we move, and then the image moves. It is helpful to have a remote to trigger the shutter on that tripod, because when you press the shutter, it will move, but you can still try this without a remote. Your camera timer is an alternative, but it would be tricky to time that, but with a big firework display, it could work.

{Source} Fireworks from above, capturing the scene of the land below (with a little silhouette)

#2 Manual focus. This is something I don’t often do because of vision issues, but in this case, you can’t use the cameras focus when the fireworks go off because a) they are too fleeting and b) with your shutter open a few seconds and multiple fireworks going off, the focal point will keep changing. The auto abilities will go haywire and you’ll keep missing the shot. You will need to look for something in the distance to focus on, or just focus on the open sky. You will likely be able to set the focus once and not need to change it during the fireworks, so set that before the show begins.

{Source} Double firewworks here! For this affect, you will need a constant light source on the couple while using the settings I have suggested for the fireworks behind.

#3 Set your ISO–Though you are shooting into a dark sky, fireworks are pretty bright, so shooting at ISO 100 works well,

and will produce the least amount of grain as well.

{Source} Awesome silhouette of people watching fireworks in the distance off of a pier on the water. #4 Set your Aperture–Shooting at a low aperture (higher number) is ideal. Something like f/8 or f/11 would work as a good place to start, and will have the landscape in focus.

{Source} I love the skyline in this shot. This shutter was longer because you can see the falling fireworks dragging downward. #5 Set your Shutter Speed–Last but certainly not least, how long to keep your shutter open. You will have to experiement a little, and it depends on the effect you are going for. At least 1 second (1"), but up to 4 seconds (4") I would try. The shorter amount (1 second) will be crisp lines while the longer (4 seconds) will produce the streaks more. Like when you are using sparklers to "draw" something.

{Source} I have one of these that I can’t seem to access on my external hard drive, but you gotta try to hold still while "drawing" with the sparkler in the air.

{Source} This is shooting up to the sky, just capturing the fireworks, which is nice to fill the frame with them. P.S. Don’t use your pop up flash. Have a great 4th of July! ~Kristen Duke