OK, so let me preface this by saying I am a total n00b amateur weenie that is just trying to get the best video of fireworks he can. I am still using iMovie 5 and 6 (depending on what plug-ins I need and which ones will crash iMovie) but intend to move to FCE relatively soon.
Basically what I do is travel around the Northeast taping various amateur and professional fireworks shows. I mention amateur shows because they make up the bulk of what I tape, AND, since 1.4g/”Class C” fireworks tend to be smaller and not as bright the settings would be different than what you may use for your local town 4h of July show (depending on a number of factors including how much “B” vs “C” they use in their show)
I recently picked up a very nice DVX-100b outfit from here and have used it on 2 shoots, the first was a product demo shoot (something like 120 devices). I spent a fair amount of time the first night playing with settings trying to get it “dialed in” using the same pair of devices each time. The major issue is getting the deep blues and golds without blowing out the brighter reds and greens. By the end of the night I still wasn’t real satisfied with what I had, so sorta played with them so more the next night (which was the actual demo). By the second night I had settings that I was, if not happy with, at least thought didn’t suck.
Settings for this where:
Chroma Level: +4
Gamma: Cinelike
Knee: Auto
Matrix: Enriched
Progressive: 24P
All other settings 0 or Default
These where shot from about 700 feet away, which was good for the 1.4g stuff but not far enough for the 1.3g to get it from lift to break. For the demo videos people want to know “how high, how big, how long”, so they want it lift to break, preferably with some point of reference (or a grid, like these have).
Iris was “Open” and 6db in both cases. I have found that anything short of “open” and it just doesn’t get enough of what is happening. I am not sure why, logic (and Barry Greens book) tells me that 2.8-3.4 should be what I want. Always manual focus.
A pretty representative video of this first set of settings can be found here:
.
This is in the smaller class of devices and is all blue and gold. I know this one pretty well (and, of course, saw it shot in person) and can tell you that the blues where “lost” pretty early after the break and the golds in this are whiter than they should be.
The second was a set of shows done by members of my club. This time I THINK I have the settings where I want them, but want to see what people that know what they are doing can tell me.
Settings for this where:
Detail Level: +4
V Detail Level: +4
Chroma Level: +4
Gamma: Cinelike V
Knee: Auto
Matrix: Cinelike
Progressive: 30P
All other settings 0 or Default
Any of the shows from the MAFF shoot on that page will work, but the best one would be this one:
those gold willows in the NLPC splash screen and during the finale are all 1.3g/”Class B” so they are stronger than you would find in a 200 gram 1.4 device like in the first example, but there is plenty of 1.4 in that video and I have to say that they came through pretty good based on what I saw in-site.
The shows where shot across a 500’ front and people (at least the ones I do these for), again, like to see “lift to break. I was about 600’ back and it wasn’t far enough to get everything. Moreover, I am only a so-so (at best) cameraman, so I didn’t do as good a job as I liked getting everything.
So, if folks could give me some feedback on the following:
1) What do I want to look at for “tweaking” the settings for this. I expect I will basically need 2 or 3 scene files depending on what I am shooting. The second one looks pretty good to me but I am sure that it could be better. What I am more concerned with is bringing out the blues and golds on the smaller devices without blowing out the reds and greens (which tend to be stronger due to the composition used to produce the stars) or introducing to much noise.
2) What can I do better for composition. There are several places where even I can see I needed to be centered, etc, so those I am clear on. There are some that I was trying to get a firing position that I knew was there but either the shooter had problems with the firing system or some other technical problem so the scene is unbalanced, but is representative of what SHOULD have been going on.
Third, and stupid question: Is there some kind of grid overlay for the viewfinder/lcd that I can turn on and just can’t find?
And now an excuse – I love fireworks, and the fact is, in some of the places where there where composition issues (mostly centering related) it is because I was paying more attention to 700+ feet of lit up sky and marveling at how awesome it was and wishing to someday be as good at it as some of these guys than paying attention to my camera work. Excuses, excuses, I know, but I am trying…
Anyway, thanks for any pointers…
Basically what I do is travel around the Northeast taping various amateur and professional fireworks shows. I mention amateur shows because they make up the bulk of what I tape, AND, since 1.4g/”Class C” fireworks tend to be smaller and not as bright the settings would be different than what you may use for your local town 4h of July show (depending on a number of factors including how much “B” vs “C” they use in their show)
I recently picked up a very nice DVX-100b outfit from here and have used it on 2 shoots, the first was a product demo shoot (something like 120 devices). I spent a fair amount of time the first night playing with settings trying to get it “dialed in” using the same pair of devices each time. The major issue is getting the deep blues and golds without blowing out the brighter reds and greens. By the end of the night I still wasn’t real satisfied with what I had, so sorta played with them so more the next night (which was the actual demo). By the second night I had settings that I was, if not happy with, at least thought didn’t suck.
Settings for this where:
Chroma Level: +4
Gamma: Cinelike
Knee: Auto
Matrix: Enriched
Progressive: 24P
All other settings 0 or Default
These where shot from about 700 feet away, which was good for the 1.4g stuff but not far enough for the 1.3g to get it from lift to break. For the demo videos people want to know “how high, how big, how long”, so they want it lift to break, preferably with some point of reference (or a grid, like these have).
Iris was “Open” and 6db in both cases. I have found that anything short of “open” and it just doesn’t get enough of what is happening. I am not sure why, logic (and Barry Greens book) tells me that 2.8-3.4 should be what I want. Always manual focus.
A pretty representative video of this first set of settings can be found here:
.
This is in the smaller class of devices and is all blue and gold. I know this one pretty well (and, of course, saw it shot in person) and can tell you that the blues where “lost” pretty early after the break and the golds in this are whiter than they should be.
The second was a set of shows done by members of my club. This time I THINK I have the settings where I want them, but want to see what people that know what they are doing can tell me.
Settings for this where:
Detail Level: +4
V Detail Level: +4
Chroma Level: +4
Gamma: Cinelike V
Knee: Auto
Matrix: Cinelike
Progressive: 30P
All other settings 0 or Default
Any of the shows from the MAFF shoot on that page will work, but the best one would be this one:
those gold willows in the NLPC splash screen and during the finale are all 1.3g/”Class B” so they are stronger than you would find in a 200 gram 1.4 device like in the first example, but there is plenty of 1.4 in that video and I have to say that they came through pretty good based on what I saw in-site.
The shows where shot across a 500’ front and people (at least the ones I do these for), again, like to see “lift to break. I was about 600’ back and it wasn’t far enough to get everything. Moreover, I am only a so-so (at best) cameraman, so I didn’t do as good a job as I liked getting everything.
So, if folks could give me some feedback on the following:
1) What do I want to look at for “tweaking” the settings for this. I expect I will basically need 2 or 3 scene files depending on what I am shooting. The second one looks pretty good to me but I am sure that it could be better. What I am more concerned with is bringing out the blues and golds on the smaller devices without blowing out the reds and greens (which tend to be stronger due to the composition used to produce the stars) or introducing to much noise.
2) What can I do better for composition. There are several places where even I can see I needed to be centered, etc, so those I am clear on. There are some that I was trying to get a firing position that I knew was there but either the shooter had problems with the firing system or some other technical problem so the scene is unbalanced, but is representative of what SHOULD have been going on.
Third, and stupid question: Is there some kind of grid overlay for the viewfinder/lcd that I can turn on and just can’t find?
And now an excuse – I love fireworks, and the fact is, in some of the places where there where composition issues (mostly centering related) it is because I was paying more attention to 700+ feet of lit up sky and marveling at how awesome it was and wishing to someday be as good at it as some of these guys than paying attention to my camera work. Excuses, excuses, I know, but I am trying…
Anyway, thanks for any pointers…