July 4th fireworks help

[Tyler Besh]

Since the videos I found with the Epic MX and fireworks are from many years ago, the comments don't seem to be noticed.
https://vimeo.com/29962525
https://vimeo.com/70342570

Trying to prepare for a one-chance-shot of the fireworks over the water here in Ludington, Michigan. The ferry boat does a shoreline cruise while they go off behind it. Could be an amazing shot for this film we're working on.

I have no way of practicing, so was looking to get some advice from people who have done this before.
HDR? Will it blur the motion too much? High iso? Fix it in post?

I'm just worried about the extreme dynamic range between the highlights of the fireworks and the black of the boat, but it does seem to be lit pretty well because of the high volume of fireworks (from pictures I've seen).

Any guidance would be lovely.

[Justin Batchelor]

Had to hunt down some of my own footage for some fireworks. I wasn't near water so everything was pointed "up" and I turned up just as they were finishing.

I was shooting on a Red Scarlet X, 4KHD, ISO 800 and an f Stop of 2.8 to 4.0 on a 70-200mm Sigma. Also, some shots at 4KWS, at 48fps (or something around there). Bonus is the ISO adjust with the footage in post. I would say should at something around the 5.0 mark. Sometimes, if you get a massive bloom firework it can push the highlights way high.

My two cents.



Husavik-153.jpg by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/113899047@N06/]

J086_C013_0101EN by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/113899047@N06/]

J086_C012_0101JW by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/113899047@N06/]

[Tyler Besh]

Had to hunt down some of my own footage for some fireworks. I wasn't near water so everything was pointed "up" and I turned up just as they were finishing.

I was shooting on a Red Scarlet X, 4KHD, ISO 800 and an f Stop of 2.8 to 4.0 on a 70-200mm Sigma. Also, some shots at 4KWS, at 48fps (or something around there). Bonus is the ISO adjust with the footage in post. I would say should at something around the 5.0 mark. Sometimes, if you get a massive bloom firework it can push the highlights way high.

My two cents.



Husavik-153.jpg by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/113899047@N06/]

J086_C013_0101EN by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/113899047@N06/]

J086_C012_0101JW by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/113899047@N06/]

Very helpful thanks Justin! I wish I had the chance to test HDRx to see what would happen. I wonder if anyone here has in this scenario.

[Mark Phelan]

I would not use HDRx for this scenario, it'll blur. Are you trying to expose for the fireworks or everything, including the background? I've used HDRx and from what Michael Cioni at Light Iron told me, might have been the only one in the past nine years. Used it on a shot that had extreme exposure issues and it worked out well. But there definitely was motion blur because of it. It didn't affect that particular shot, but I wouldn't use it for fireworks, they're nothing BUT motion. And the greater the disparity of stops, the worse it'd get.

Technically, HDRx won't blur per channel, but the combination of them would. So you'd be left with the choice, do you use the A channel or the X channel? Then you're right back to where you started from. However, if you wanted to rent a Monstro for the shot, its 17+ dynamic range would be the ticket. Then you wouldn't have blur from combining two channels but would have great dynamic range, possibly more than what you could get with HDRx.

[Tyler Besh]

Appreciate it guys going in on it tonight we'll see what happens

[Karim D. Ghantous]

Very nice photos, Justin. I wonder if/when digital will match film when it comes to capturing light sources. If it does... well, I don't want to think about that!