Which film for shooting fireworks?

With July 4th comming up soon I was making plans to possibly see the

NYC Fireworks (the one thats on TV) from Staten Island. If we go, I

was planning on bringing my camera and my tripod (davis and sanford

Traveler). I was planning on pointing the camera skyward, and using

the release cable to activate the shutter. Was considering using

the bulb setting and taking some longer exposures (a few seconds

maybe, but less than a minute.)

 

What film do you think is best for this? Its at night, but the

exposure times will be longer. i usually use Fuji superia or xtra

and have a bunch of rolls left from my honeymoon. I have some 800

press and some 1600 (superia, I think) also in the fridge.

 

So which film do you think I would be better off with? What do you

guys think?

ISO 100 slide film such as Elite Chrome 100, set it around f/11-f/8 and open up the shutter using a remote release for a few seconds at an appropriate moment. It's best to check the background illumination as well, of course.

ISO 100, around f/8, bracket one stop in each direction.

 

If shooting negative film, be sure to tell your lab that those are firework pics and that you

want the background to be black.

would f8 or f11 be enough? I would have thought f16 or f22? Also, you think elite chrome would work? I like using that film, so that would be great!

Elite Chrome sounds like a good candidate.

 

f/8 is the basic "rule of thumb" but you really want to bracket.

Any ISO 100 film will be just fine. Agfa, Kodak, Fuji... it doesn't really matter. :-)

 

I usually use Kodak Gold 100 or Fuji Superia 100. I might try Agfa Ultra 100 this year.

Okay guys, question from someone who'se obviously never shot fireworks before (so be nice):

 

why would we use f/8 instead of f/2.8, for example? My train of logic says that fireworks are tiny specs that are fleeting, so a wider aperture and faster shutter speed should be better. If someone could explain this, several of us could learn a lot about nighttime photography. And thanks in advance!

Ilkka's answer only partly conveyed the idea that fireworks were to be shot with long exposures (bulb), and mine took it entirely for granted.

 

So, here it is: shoot fireworks in bulb, and if there is too much ambient light shield the lens between each burst (the famous black felt hat).

 

Fireworks are moving sources of light, so the shutter speed has no effect on the exposure - a longer exposure means longer trails, but not brighter ones - and the exposure of the fireworks is controlled by the aperture alone. It's similar to flash photography, to some extent. Experimentally, people have found that f/8 at ISO 100 was the "average" correct exposure, and that since f/8 is often the optimal point for many lenses ISO 100 was pretty good (the average exposure with ISO 800 as an example would be f/22, which would cause diffraction trouble and would leave no room for bracketing with many lenses - forcing to resort to ND filters). If you have very good lenses that peak at f/5.6 (e.g. a good 50/1.4) you can try ISO 50 film.

Oh, I forgot to say, this all assumes that you want long firework trails. If you want small dots, use a short exposure (but still around f/8). In that case you'll probably only see the fireworks, not the landscape.

Ah, I see...because they're SOURCES of light. Gotcha. Thanks!

Jean, thanks, I just thought htat f8 wold be to small an apature since the fireworks are so far away. I would have assumed f16 would have been better. But ill try f8 and see what happens.

 

Also, some people have said to bracket. How on earth can you bracket a bulb timed exposure? By the time you go for the second picture in the sequence what the first one took is no longer there.

 

Also, slightly off topic...the only lenses I have are my 50 1.7 prime, a 24 2.8 macro, a 35-70 f 4-5.6 and a sigma 28-200 3.5-5.6 (my vacation zoom). Do you think the 50 is good enough? should I use my 2x teleconverter with it? Or should I try to zoom in with the sigma?

Brian: obviously, if any individual frame isn't properly exposed you won't be able to recover it. But if you expose all frames with the same aperture and that aperture turns out to be wrong, you won't have any single frame. If you shoot 12 frames at f/5.6, 12 frames a f/8 and 12 frames at f/11, there's a good chance that you'll have 12 frames within 1/2 stop of being properly exposed.

I shoot fireworks every year. Velvia 50 at f8 works as well as anything. If I ever have a problem, it is overexposure. A lot depends on how near you are to the display and how bright they are. The really good fireworks are a lot brighter than the smaller ones. So bracket accordingly. I think going so far as f22 would be excessive. The film you like will be fine. Scout the location to get an idea of which lens will give you coverage. I have never shot fireworks with a zoom, so I cannot predict whether internal reflections would show up with one. Also, reflections on a waterfront, silhouettes, and ambient light sources included will round out your compositions. Try to visualize the bursts as they occur. Cut off the exposure when you think you have enough.

Which film - Slide or print? With slide film you get what you see (and they look great prohected). With print you can end up with horrible muddy brown skies unless you let your lab know you want the sky black. Printed well, they still look great. Speed of the film can be a bit of toss-up. A faster film will capture more of the background (if there's any ambient light around) but you may also risk washed out colours of the fireworks due to over-exposure. I tend to use Fuji Velvia 50. The extra saturation gives real punch to the pictures. As for settings, got for something around f8. Exposure is a real 'black magic' affair. Point your camera at the area of sky where the majority of the fireworks are exploding. Set the camear to it's bulb setting and use a remote release. When you see the tracers going up, open the shutter. When you think you've got enough bursts to fill the frame nicely, let it close (It's real by-the-seat-of-your-pants stuff this!) A typical exposure could be anywhere between 2 and 10 seconds depending on just how many fireworks are in the sky at any moment. The most important thing is fire off LOTS of film. You will get a lot of not-so-good pics. You should hopefully get some good ones too. If you're really lucky you'll catch that one-in-a-million shot! Good luck!

This shot was done using fuji 100 asa print film. I darkened the sky using photoshop. I wanted to use Velvia but was unable to find any velvia on short notice. The weather conditions will simliar here in my area this year also, very humid cloudy skies. This year (2004) I'm using veliva to shoot fireworks in Atlantic City over the Borgata Casino with my F-100. I try a few with my D-70. I may also try a roll of Tungsten balanced film. Trying to get a good vantage point to shoot from is important too. You want to have a nice backdrop for the fireworks.

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/48643-lg.jpg" hspace=10 height="512" width="768" border="0">

<img src="http://www.michaelkocher.com/photo/Fireworks_04/04_Fireworks_27.jpg"> <br>

From Atlantic City, NJ 2004. Shot with Fuji Velvia 50 set to 40 asa on a Nikon F-100 with a 20 mm lens.