New Year's fireworks ?

[rbiemer]

For the past 5 or 6 years, my small town has held a New Year's celebration on Main Street. Last year I took my Arax 60 and 30mm lens and took some photos. They did not turn out well for two main reasons: The 30mm lens is 180 degree wide and simply took in too much of the scene--and the street lights are not turned off for the six(maybe eight) minutes of the display. And I didn't have an especially good vantage point.
This year I have a different idea. First, I may be able to get a spot on top of a building so I can simply keep most of the street lights below the frame.
Second I'm going to use my Bessa R and a pinhole lens. I've modified a metal body cap and I have a set of 39mm thread macro rings so I can get various focal lengths.
So, what I'm thinking is: Camera, effective 50mm focal length pinhole and "lens" hood, cable release, and tripod. On top of a two story building(which will get me above the street lights). Kodak 400 UC film.
I'm thinking I'll get two exposures of about 4 minutes each and multiple bursts of the fireworks on each frame.
The other thing I'm thinking about is to set up two cameras so I can "bracket" the shots. This will require me borrowing another tripod and timing two different cameras. In other words I'd shoot two 4 minute exposures with one camera and 4 2 minute exposures with the other or maybe one 8 minute shot?
What do y'all think? Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions appreciated!
Rob

 

[airds]

New Year Fireworks

New Year Fireworks

my small town has held a New Year's celebration

A wee bit off topic but here's my effort.

http://snipurl.com/l4a7 - thought it may have been from my Fuji 6x7, but the unfortunately original slide is older than expected and from a Mamiya 6x4.5 :-(

 

[remrf]

I made a similar mistake this year for the 4th of July fireworks. I scouted earlier in the day for a good location and made it there just before sunset. I was shooting with a 4x5 using a Schneider SuperAngulon 90 mm and Ektachrome asa 64. I was too close and used too wide a lens for the location. I got the fireworks but they occupied about a 35 mm sized area of the 4x5 transparancy with lots of sky above them. It still worked out okay and I got a few usable prints but when I shoot again at the New year's event I will be farther back with longer lenses.

I shot at f-16 for between 10 and 30 seconds for most shots.

Your exposures seem a bit long for asa 400 but I have not done any pin hole work and my internal light meter does not compute f-164 or whatever a pinhole works out to be.

Good luck with your shoot.

 

[hiwatt]

Isn't the pinhole going to be too wide anyway?
Next decent fireworks display I'm going to get some background as well...these were taken on iso100, 4 to 6 sec. f11 to f13. One on velvia with pentax 645, two on...ehm...digital (SD10)

 

[rbiemer]

Love the examples folks!
(eventually I'll figure out how to quote multiple posts)
--airds: very cool! Don't think my town's fireworks will be quite so scenic!

--remrf: I'd actually rather be much closer taking photos of the guys setting the fireworks off and the bunker where the launch tubes will be. I'm basing my long exposures on a couple of things: the actual f number is f250 or so and I'm going to try to get several bursts on a basically black sky. Each fire work should act like a single "flash" and they will be in different parts of the frame(probably with some overlap). I do need to check with Kodak about reciprosity(SP?) failure though and maybe adjust my exposure time.

--hiwatt: the angle of view is determined by the distance of the pinhole from the film. I have decided that I will set that distance at about 50mm so I will end with aproximately the same field of view as a 50mm lens(on 35mm film). This will let me use the VF of my camera to frame the shot(s).

To be honest, if I knew what I'd end up with on the film for this I probably wouldn't bother.
Rob

 

[remrf]

--remrf: I'd actually rather be much closer taking photos of the guys setting the fireworks off and the bunker where the launch tubes will be. I'm basing my long exposures on a couple of things: the actual f number is f250 or so and I'm going to try to get several bursts on a basically black sky. Each fire work should act like a single "flash" and they will be in different parts of the frame(probably with some overlap). I do need to check with Kodak about reciprosity(SP?) failure though and maybe adjust my exposure time.


The way they are done in Tucson I could not get near the firing line. They are shot from the top of a small mountain ("A" Mountain) to the west and slightly south of Tucson. I was very near the base of the mountain and the 90mm was far more coverage than needed. The 210 mm would have been better( Better as defined by using a larger portion of the 4x5" image area for the subject).

At asa 64 and f-16 I was getting exactly the effect you describe. In retrospect I think the shots with fewer and larger displays were better than the ones with multiple "flashes" as it were.

I'm looking forward to seeing your results. And I will be shooting a new series at New Years as well. Shooting from a different location and trying to get some foreground detail for context. I like what I got but they hang in space with no dimensional context.

 

[rbiemer]

At asa 64 and f-16 I was getting exactly the effect you describe. In retrospect I think the shots with fewer and larger displays were better than the ones with multiple "flashes" as it were.

Hmmm, I might need to refigure my exposure times...
The fireworks companies typically won't let any civilian anywhere close to the firing line. With my town's mostly "anti-scenic" setting for this I'm not too concerned with getting the background on film.
Rob

 

[hiwatt]

Rob,
just a feeling, but, isn't f250 going to be way too dark to get anything decent on film? My guess is that, if you're lucky, you'll just get some single dots (at the locations of the initial explosions, the brightest points) but nohing more.
Never shot pinhole, but I understand that in normal lightning conditions you have to have looong exposures; the problem (?) with fireworks is that they last for a very limited time, hence a 5 minutes exposure may leave no trace of what you want to get on film.
Just my two cents (and I hope to be wrong).
Cheers, Gus.

 

[rbiemer]

I got my film back today and the results weren't good. In fact they were pretty awfull! One thing I wasn't happy about was that I didn't have any UC 400 film. The only color film I did have was one roll of Kodak Max 800 :bang:
This is the "best" of the 4 frames I shot(and it's UGLY.)
this is the "full frame" scan from the CD I got. The print doesn't look any better.
I probably could get something better out of this neg but the time involved for what little improvement isn't worth it.
Still, I am glad I tried this insane idea(well obssesive idea anyway).
Rob