Here are some techniques I learnt last year while shooting at Tanjong Rhu apart from all that longkang climbing...
Things to bring:
1. Camera (depending on what sort of background you want, you may bring tele or wide lens)
2. Tripod
3. Food
4. Water
5. Insect repellent
6. Black card
7. If you have it, shutter release cord or remote control
8. Torchlight
The reason for food and water is that usually if you want a good spot, you'd need to book it early. And that means camping out for about 3 hours in some ulu place (which happens to be the best place for fireworks) and the insect repellent comes in handy especially when the place is full of bushes and trees. Last year I had an itching good time but that's nothing compared to a few good frames taken.
Torchlight is because usually the spot you'd prefer is somewhere dark where they will not be stray light, and hence you'd need a torchlight for navigation... and if you're still unfamiliar with the buttons on your cam, the torchlight will come in handy. If you want to change film, the torch will also come in handy...
The tripod you bring should preferably the kind that can open it's legs out all the way (erm, like a 3 legged spider) so that you can shoot at the best angle possible and that these tripods can suit better to varying ground levels.
Set your camera to Manual mode, and the shutter to B mode. (bulb mode. Just turn your shutter knob all the way to the slowest end.) The reason for a black card is rather simple. Last year, my settings was at ISO200, F8, 4sec. However, the shutter is depressed for up to 8 sec or more. While anticipating the fireworks to start, the shutter is depressed with a black card in front, and once the fireworks start, just remove the black card and start recording. When the fireworks have finished blooming (in about 4 sec usually), put the black card back in place and count up to 4 sec to wait for the smoke to clear. Open your black card again to expose the cityscape for a while. Thus, you'd be able to get a proper exposure for both the fireworks and the cityscape.
For me, I didn't go with the black board idea because I was using film and film has this problem with long exposures. The longer the film is exposed, the film will "degrade" and hence it will take an even longer time to get the correct exposure, causing inaccuracies in previous metering and calculations.
VIOLA! (If you see Junsen/Chee Howe's shots, they have a brighter skyline.)
P.S. Did I mention JS and Chee were having a shouting match last year? They were competing to see who can count louder.... -_____- ONE THOUSAND TWO THOUSAND THREE THOUSAND FOUR THOUSAND EH YOU NOT SO LOUD LA! YOU THEN NOT SO LOUD LA! SEE LA COUNT UNTIL WHERE LIAO!
