Shooting fireworks with film

Over the recent 4th of July celebration here in the USA, I brought my trusty

Canon AE-1 loaded with Fuji 160C and my Pentax K100D loaded with photon

detectors to the Seattle Waterfront. I had never seriously tried to shoot

fireworks so I was excited to mount both cameras on my tripod in turn and see

what how things turned out. I shot both cameras at f16 using 4-6 second

exposures. The K100D was set to a fixed ISO 200. The K100D was operated with a

2 second self-timer delay, for the AE-1 I used a cable release and counted to

4. Both cameras were mounted on the same tripod. I've had great results with my

digital in a variety of conditions, but to my surprise, the AE-1 w/Fuji 160C

turned out the most colorful and sharp photos.... by far. Is this a known

advantage to film? Are there other types of film besides 160C that are good for

fireworks?

All the fireworks submitted here this year look the same to me, and none is worth a second look. I have not shot this subject and am not an expert, but you would think someone could come up with something original somehow. Maybe color large format, like 8x10, which shows the effect of the light on nearby objects and places.

I also get better results using film on fireworks than digital. I've tried both to some extent and no doubt enjoy the film results more.

 

I've been using a slide film, Velvia 100F for this. Using color negative film may make your results more vulnerable to bad lab printing and underexposure of the sky. I scan my slides and print them myself.

 

Next time you might want to try slide film for this application just to see if you might be even more impressed.

Large format is good for swings and tilts and less grain. The scene through the viewfinder of a 35mm camera with a normal 50mm lens would be about the same as the scene on the ground glass of an 8x10 camera with a normal 300mm lens. Using the same film, the characteristics would also be the same.

Thanks for posting this question. I've done very little along the lines of long exposure through my Canon and Nikon digitals over the past few years; and have done a great deal with film.

 

So far, I have to agree that film has an advantage over digital for long exposures. I believe the issue to be sensor noise, but I just haven't had the opportunity lately. I look forward to following this thread to see what others say. I know my film days were dominated by Fuji for long exposure, (I was told- correctly or not- that it suffered less reciprocity failure, so I used and stuck to using it. It consistently produced well.)

 

I preferred Agfa in some slide speed ranges, and for color correctness in negative film- but it seemed miserable in low light in either format.

 

To the first response: I often have passed up taking shots of fireworks because I felt the same way you did- how do you actually create an original work with such a seemingly limited subject?

 

I kick my own behind every time I see a great shot with fireworks as the main subject though. There are still people out there kicking out new, innovative shots with composition, surrounding subjects, and even critical ambient light that varies with the time the rounds are shot off. Maybe sparks just aren't your favorite subject.

I shot fireworks last saturday using Konica Chrome R-100 slide film (never used it before). I used a shutter speed of 1/30, which is the slowest I can go w/o camera shake, and had my lens open to f/4. I've never shot fireworks before, and haven't gotten the results back yet, I hope they look nice. I must say the most difficult thing was getting proper composition not knowing where each mortar would bloom; it's probably something you have to shoot over & over again to master.

I received some feedback on a little bit different fireworks technique. This guy exposed for 45 minutes! The results are pretty cool.

When i shoot fireworks I use Fuji 400H and set the camera to f5.6. Since i mostly shoot

hasselblad i have a mirror lockup in addition to a cable release, but the release is

sufficeint. As far as leingth of exposure goes, i usually just watch the show, open the

shutter for a couple of bursts at a time, in other words try to fill the frame. My exposures

generally range from abouut 1 second to 30 seconds. No doubt film is much easyer to get

stunning results from when shooting fireworks! I have a 20x30 of some fireworks in my

gallery, and it is probably the print that attracts the most attention! perhaps i'll post it on

my website! www.stanrichstudio.com

Good Luck on your next fireworks display!

Josh