July is "FIREWORKS and PHOTOSHOP FUN" Month

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Let's help celebrate our nation's birthday this year by reviewing and editing images shot by members at any of the many fireworks displays in the region. To be clear, we're not meeting to photograph the fireworks. This is our regular meeting in the Pittsford Town Hall on Wednesday night, July 9. We'll set aside time during this meeting to review and critique any fireworks pictures that our members upload to the album in our Photos section of our website between now and then.

Not sure how to shoot fireworks? Start with a tripod. Manually pre-focus on some object that you judge to be at about the same distance as the fireworks bursts. Point your camera to the sky where you expect the bursts to occur. Using a remote shutter release, or a 2-second delay if you don't have one, listen for the launch boom, wait a second or so, and push your camera's shutter release button. Check your results each time, and adjust your aim and delay time accordingly. There are lots of camera settings recipes that work (Google "how to photograph fireworks"). The settings for the above shot taken at Conesus Lake two years ago are: 96mm lens. Aperture priority with a small aperture (f/13) for a deep depth of field. ISO set at 200 to minimize noise. With those two settings locked in, the camera in this case chose a 2.5 second shutter, which resulted in the cool streaks you see above. Upload a few of your favorites if you get any this year, but please note that this meeting is open to any member or guest, whether participating with any fireworks picture uploads or not.

We'll also have a few of our usual "popcorn time" how-to videos, along with our previously announced Photoshop tutorial session demonstrating the BIG THREE Photoshop tools: Selections, Layer Masks and Blending Modes. It's Photoshop night this time, so come ready to take notes. As always, don't forget to invite a friend who might also enjoy becoming a member of RPEG!