Hopefully everyone got a chance to play with their camera's during the 4th of July. I know I did. While the daughter and grandkids decided to keep up their tradition of lighting off safe and sane fireworks at their house, I continued mine of finding a fireworks display. This year as I looked through the list of firework displays in Colorado I came across one up in Estes Park just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. They shoot them over Estes Lake. With it my first time there, I didn't know what to expect for sure in terms of which direction they shoot them, how high they shoot them, etc. I did find out the location, so I could position myself along the lake shore for that.
So what I wasn't sure of now, was how high they would go. It's a narrow lake, so the fireworks were being shot off maybe 200-300 yards away. Maybe a little further, but not too far. I had 4 cameras set up, 1 with a 14mm to shoot horizontally for video, a 12mm on a crop body again horizontal, and then 1 with a 24-120mm horizontally that I was going to use to zoom in for tighter shots. (Last one was my GoPro shooting video too)
I started with general settings of ISO 100, f5.6 and 4 seconds for the still cameras. I take a couple of test shots as I want the images a little dark. But once the fireworks start, I adjust the exposure based on any highlights I see blowing. So during the course I adjusted one of the cameras down to 3 secs to darken it more, and one of the other ones I just closed it down to f8.
Once it started, I quickly found that the fireworks were right in my face. The 14mm going horizontally for the video could not get the reflections in! So I adjusted it up a little more to totally get the lake out of the shot so I wasn't losing too many fireworks to being cut off at the top of the frame. Even though I wanted to turn the stills into a timelapse (which makes Horizontal the best), I simply had to switch them to vertical so I could get the cool reflection along with the firework itself. And the one that had the 24mm to 120mm I switched it out to the 16-35mm vertical and it was able to catch most of the reflection and firework at 16mm. So I am not sure if I will still use the verticals in a timelapse, or just use them as stills yet. For now, here is one of the stills at 16mm.
PS. I will say this is pretty easily the best firework display I have ever seen, and am aiming for a repeat next year. Maybe by then they will make a 2mm non fisheye for Full Frame so I can get the firework and reflection in horizontally.
Please post your 4th of July fireworks too!
Jim
So what I wasn't sure of now, was how high they would go. It's a narrow lake, so the fireworks were being shot off maybe 200-300 yards away. Maybe a little further, but not too far. I had 4 cameras set up, 1 with a 14mm to shoot horizontally for video, a 12mm on a crop body again horizontal, and then 1 with a 24-120mm horizontally that I was going to use to zoom in for tighter shots. (Last one was my GoPro shooting video too)
I started with general settings of ISO 100, f5.6 and 4 seconds for the still cameras. I take a couple of test shots as I want the images a little dark. But once the fireworks start, I adjust the exposure based on any highlights I see blowing. So during the course I adjusted one of the cameras down to 3 secs to darken it more, and one of the other ones I just closed it down to f8.
Once it started, I quickly found that the fireworks were right in my face. The 14mm going horizontally for the video could not get the reflections in! So I adjusted it up a little more to totally get the lake out of the shot so I wasn't losing too many fireworks to being cut off at the top of the frame. Even though I wanted to turn the stills into a timelapse (which makes Horizontal the best), I simply had to switch them to vertical so I could get the cool reflection along with the firework itself. And the one that had the 24mm to 120mm I switched it out to the 16-35mm vertical and it was able to catch most of the reflection and firework at 16mm. So I am not sure if I will still use the verticals in a timelapse, or just use them as stills yet. For now, here is one of the stills at 16mm.
PS. I will say this is pretty easily the best firework display I have ever seen, and am aiming for a repeat next year. Maybe by then they will make a 2mm non fisheye for Full Frame so I can get the firework and reflection in horizontally.
Please post your 4th of July fireworks too!
Jim
Last edited:
