Time lapse, of fireworks, at night, with a 7D... Suggestions?

Started by Pileot, August 20, 2013, 05:28:44 AM

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Pileot

Howdy!

Firstly, thanks to everyone helping get the 7D on the map, LOVING what ML is doing to my camera!

I have a situation where I want to make a time lapse video of a fireworks display however I am not sure how I should proceed.

I COULD set my camera to, say, take a picture every second or so, as I would with normal time lapse videos however fireworks are kind of flash n gone so one second apart is, I think, too long. Perhaps two or three frames per second would be better. Problem is I'm taking about 2 second exposures and even on the "like crazy" setting (0 second delay) It still takes a second or two to process the picture and move to the next one.

I *COULD* set the image quality down and tape a rock or something on the shutter button and it would take pictures like mad, however that is going to be a HELL of a lot of actuations, I really dont want to torment my camera like that for an hour or so.

Now if I were on, say, a T2I i'd set the video mode and using FPS override however I dont yet believe that is available (although things are added weekly so perhaps I missed it?

Anyways, I'm kind of at a standstill, I dont know what I can do. If I could have it lock the mirror up and just suck the sensor data that would be optimal, no need to move the shutter up n down anyways, since im taking pics like mad. Modifying the video mode to slow down from 30fps to, say, 2-5, that would be ideal IF i can get the exposure right for fireworks.

As it stands I'm likely going to try to record the video on my G12 (it does pretty good in low light) and see what I can do just taking stills, but thats kind of boring.


Any support would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Dreamer

You don't need a fast lens/aperture for fireworks.  They're bright, and can overexpose easily the longer the exposure.  f8-12 is a good place to start.

Keep ISO low, generally 100 is fine.

Use a tripod.

Shutter speed is the hardest to nail down.  I know many people just use a remote shutter + BULB mode to decide when to start the exposure and when to stop it.  This gives you full control over how many fireworks fill the frame and the brightness level.

If you don't want to be next to the camera to maintain control over the shot, your best bet is probably around 2-4 seconds exposure.  Turn on ML intervalometer and let it go.

From there, it's trial and error.  You'll get a feel for it.  Good luck.

Pileot

I appreciate the reply however I think you failed to read the post over. My problem isn't with the exposure so much as it is with me not wanting to increase my shutter count by several thousand. On my T2I I could have done this using the video tweaks however since I only have a 7D now I'm not sure how I can achieve this effect.

Pelican

Timelapse usually is a tool for show slow motions in a faster way like clouds moving on the sky, etc.
Fireworks is totally the opposite it's fast and not necessary to make it faster, I can't imagine what a timelapse can do with it.
You can film it or make single shots...
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Walter Schulz

I have to support Pelican's dis. This feels just wrong in my stomach (no, I'm not joking!).

Film the thing and after that you have options for PP.

Ciao, Walter

Dreamer

Quote from: Pileot on August 20, 2013, 05:28:44 AM
Modifying the video mode to slow down from 30fps to, say, 2-5, that would be ideal IF i can get the exposure right for fireworks.

If you want a timelapse straight out of camera, then do what you said here.  You would likely need an ND filter.

dmilligan

As far as ML pretty much the only good option is going to be FPS override which you say is not available yet for your camera. Well, all I can say is you'll just have to be patient.

You might could try this if you have After Effects:
Just film the fireworks in regular video mode at the lowest fps (24), and get your shutter as close as you can to 360 degrees. Don't worry if you have to bump up the ISO to get the exposure right, the post processing method should effectively reduce noise. In AE use the CC Time Blend plugin and also speed up your footage (goto Interpret>Main and set the frame rate to 60fps, additionally use Time Remapping to speed it up even further).  The combination of these two things should have then end result of basically stacking several video frames into one output frame, this will be somewhat equivalent of using FPS override in camera and slowing down the FPS. You'll have to play with the parameters of the Time Blend plugin to get it to look right. You also need to make sure that you speed up the footage after the Time Blend is applied, so you might want to do the Time Blend in a pre comp and then the time remapping in another comp.

I do have to agree with some of the other comments, IMO fireworks are not a particularly interesting subject for timelapse or video.