Does anyone have any advice on what settings I might expect to use at a wedding next week with a fireworks finale at 10:00? Thanks for any help.

Bruce

I did some fireworks last year and as it was just for the pub IPTV site and chucking it down with rain I did the unthinkable and just set it to auto! There was also a 20 watt sony light for the non firework shots.

Have a look at the bonfire night clip on here:- 14-4-2009 (http://www.theblackhorsebar.co.uk/)

Flash banding will be a big problem with the bigger flashes, I have a panasonic 301 now so would be interested how the flash band compensation works.

Thanks Gary. Looks like the fireworks are going to raise hell with my cmos. Had not thought about that. Your fireworks look good though. Thanks again.

Bruce

I shot several years of international fireworks competitions for Blackpool( big seaside resort in the uk ) tourist board both on a Sony DSR 570 and a Sony HVR S270E. I found the best results came from "pre set tungsten lighting" which is 3200 Kelvin on the 570 and the 270.This also gave greater sensitivity on the 570 as you add a glass filter for daylight balance and that reduces the amount of light going into the chip. However I now use the 270 mainly on auto white balance unless I know that will cause problems. Having the colour LCD to confirm (approximately) correct colour balance is such a luxury after years of black and white eyepieces.
Exposure can be a problem as there are sometimes vast changes in illumination and you can get caught out zooming in if the fireworks suddenly appear in different parts of the sky. At least focus should be more or less constant!
The problem comes with less impressive displays in making the pix look spectacular ( say on a cheapskate wedding) but that can be improved in editing by simply doubling up on shots and addinga bit of distracting music.

Thanks for the help. I shot the wedding and fireworks last weekend and I think the fireworks turned out great. Just put the camera on manual focus, manual everything actually and no gain. I think they look great.

Bruce

Hi Bruce - I've got a wedding with fireworks coming up soon as well. Any ND? Can you remember F-stop? Cheers.

Hi Bruce - I've got a wedding with fireworks coming up soon as well. Any ND? Can you remember F-stop? Cheers.

No ND John and I pretty much had the iris wide open. Make sure you have manual everything though, especially manual focus. I had mostly a fairly wide shot. Everytime I zoomed in, the fireworks exploded out of view. Good luck.

Bruce