Any tips for shooting fireworks with live composite mode?

Cheezr · Jul 2, 2015

I was thinking of trying this on Saturday, using the 17mm lens?

I have never figured out how live composite mode works so I was wondering if anyone had any tips.

Thanks,

CZR

Cheezr · Jul 3, 2015

No one has any idea? Really?

Martin Ocando · Jul 3, 2015

Cheezr said:
I was thinking of trying this on Saturday, using the 17mm lens?

I have never figured out how live composite mode works so I was wondering if anyone had any tips.

Thanks,

CZR

--
If the images are crap, it’s the camera
If the images are good, it’s the photographer, not the equipment

Hi CZR,

These are a few from a recent show.

As you can see, I set it to half a second exposures, at f:8, and I let it run for a few seconds, until I saw some trails, but not burning. It will eventually burn, if you are not careful. I'd say is a bit of trial and error.

I used the 40-150mm and not a wideangle, since I shot it across the bay. It was pretty far away, although I could have used the 45mm (sadly didn't arrived from Japan in time).

So, I'd say that you are good with the 17mm, if you are somewhat close to the fireworks, but if you are a bit far, expect a bit of more reach.

--
Martin
"One of the biggest mistakes a photographer can make is to look at the real world and cling to the vain hope that next time his film will somehow bear a closer resemblance to it" - Galen Rowell

yyr · Jul 3, 2015

Thanks Martin for posting this - I'm hoping we'll see a few fireworks in London too and I would like to try this out. Did you take the base exposure before the fireworks started or after you saw the first burst of light?

Adjuster · Jul 3, 2015

Check this out from Olympus: http://www.olympusamerica.com/crm/oneoffpages/crm_e_fireworks.asp

Cheezr · Jul 3, 2015

Thanks Martin, I am very close to the fireworks, they are on the other side of a waterway that is less than 500 metres across. In fact debris often rains down on my yard and roof! :-(

I will test tonight with the 45 vs the 17 just to see but I wanted some settings to start from as the manual is poor in this area.

I read the stuff on the Oly site but I didn't see anything on Live composite mode and it seems that it should have good results.

thanks,

CZR

--
If the images are crap, it’s the camera
If the images are good, it’s the photographer, not the equipment

Martin Ocando · Jul 3, 2015

yyr said:
Thanks Martin for posting this - I'm hoping we'll see a few fireworks in London too and I would like to try this out. Did you take the base exposure before the fireworks started or after you saw the first burst of light?

Martin Ocando · Jul 3, 2015

Cheezr said:
Thanks Martin, I am very close to the fireworks, they are on the other side of a waterway that is less than 500 metres across. In fact debris often rains down on my yard and roof! :-(

I will test tonight with the 45 vs the 17 just to see but I wanted some settings to start from as the manual is poor in this area.

I read the stuff on the Oly site but I didn't see anything on Live composite mode and it seems that it should have good results.

thanks,

CZR

Cheezr · Jul 3, 2015

The smoke can get heavy, depending on wind direction. Now I have an excuse to try the new de haze feature in ACR!

Here's hoping it doesn't rain!!

Fri13 · Jul 3, 2015

First you set your aperture and shutter speed as you want your environmental lighting to be. Just use the camera normally in M mode.

After you know your exposure time and aperture (and of course ISO), let's say you got your environmental exposure as 4 seconds, f/3.5 and ISO 400. Then you scroll exposure to Live Composite mode, hit Menu and choose the exposure time that you got, that is the 4 seconds.

Place the camera on tripod, frame your photo and release shutter once to let camera meter the scenery for preliminary frame (that is the 4 seconds with f/3.5 and ISO 400 you chosed) and after 4 seconds you are ready to start stacking photos just by a pressing shutter release button again. Sit down, enjoy from the fireworks and watch the screen to add all the fireworks to same photo every 4th second. Once you have got enough fireworks to one frame, press shutter release button again and repeat if you want more photos.

You don't need to worry overexposure about environment as only new light will be added from each 4 second frame to final image and lighted areas are not overexposed.

Everything that is darker = doesn't raise brightness, doesn't come to photo. This example can be used in light painting where you just need to wear dark clothes and hood to keep you darker than environment and you can walk front of the camera freely just painting with light (just be careful not to paint behind you as you will cast a silhouette of course

)

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www.pekkapotka.com

Martin Ocando · Jul 4, 2015

Cheezr said:
The smoke can get heavy, depending on wind direction. Now I have an excuse to try the new de haze feature in ACR!

Here's hoping it doesn't rain!!

Airmel · Jul 4, 2015

Very nice!

PhotoPMW · Jul 4, 2015

I'm new to Live Comp myself, having tried it for the first time last night. First you want to establish a base exposure for the foreground and background before activating the LC mode. I set M mode, chose f11, and set manual focus to infinity on the 12-40 Pro. Two seconds seemed about right for the shutter speed. Then I activated LC mode (selected from the shutter speed options. Then the camera will prompt you to take the initial exposure. The LCD will go dark for the duration of the shutter speed. Then the camera will prompt you to take an LC image by pressing the shutter button. Then just watch the bursts accumulate on the the LCD. When it looks like enough, press the shutter button to stop that LC exposure.

If you want to change the shutter speed, press the Menu button, and the LC shutter speed window appears.

I tried exposure times from 1.2 seconds to 8 seconds, preferring the shorter exposures. I was quite close to the action, which forced me to point the camera up. Hence, not much foreground, but it was fun being that close. But from my vantage point, all the bursts seemed to be in the same spot, but even then, they didn't blow out.

The attached image was shot at f11, 3.2 seconds shutter speed, but I don't know how many iterations of 3.2 seconds it was. The lens was at 32mm.

My wife was using the fireworks scene mode on her E-PL5, but I haven't seen her shots yet.

RAW image.

Martin Ocando · Jul 4, 2015

I was using a remote cable release. And I advise you use one if is available.

And finally, have fun

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!!!

Paulmorgan · Jul 4, 2015

Cheezr said:
No one has any idea? Really?

Cheezr · Jul 4, 2015

@Fri13

thanks for the info and link. finding any decent explanation of this feature has really been tough.

if we don't have rain, i am going to try it. The zambelli fireworks barge is already in position..

CZR

Cheezr · Jul 4, 2015

Well, I survived. Actually I was lucky, the wind was blowing just enough away from me that I had no smoke!

the main challenge was that a. I had no idea if the camera had focused but I was using the 9-18mm at 9mm and F8 so I figured it should be ok.. and b. The barge is a small source point for all the fireworks and since they do not spread out very wide they blow out very very quickly.

I started with 4 seconds, then 2 then 1/2 seconds.

I brought all the raw into ACR and bulk processed with +.5 exposure, -50 highlights, and -100 black.

Now I am going thru the ones i like and tweaking them. I will post some examples shortly. they are so far really not what i expected but i like them anyway. they look like psychedelic dream catchers.

Cheezr · Jul 4, 2015

--
If the images are crap, it’s the camera
If the images are good, it’s the photographer, not the equipment

Ken Gosden · Jul 4, 2015

Nice. I played with composite time and fireworks tonight as well. I think I might prefer live time mode for some displays. Our fireworks tended to be exploding in almost the exact same spot 7 out of 10 shells. If you let live composite run for more than 3 shells it started to look messy. Plus you are balancing the per spot exposure duration to be long enough to catch the first one at least against when the next round of shells kicks off. About half the time that spacing and timing was not optimal. Also there is a fair amount of post shot processing in the camera and then the need to take the next live composite prep shot. This lead to a number of misses. With live time mode i could kick the exposure off when a shell launched and then time it for one or two more at most. This does run the risk of blowing out some areas.

I think this was my favorite tonight

Ken Gosden · Jul 4, 2015

I like the 3rd and last ones best

Any tips for shooting fireworks with live composite mode?

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