P3D Re: Shooting Fireworks

[Greg Erker <erker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I used two Nikon F bodies with 50mm lenses, the cameras mounted on Bogen
>tripods 10 feet apart.  Why 10 feet?  From all the comments I recieved,
>that just sounded like a good place to start.  The fireworks were from
>the city display in Drexel, MO, the small town where my parents live.
>We set up in their back yard, about three blocks from the display
>site.   We aimed the cameras at the spot where last year's fireworks
>were, which I had photographed in 2d.

  Three blocks seems a little far away but if you
are getting good 3d (even if not a lot of depth)
the good for your. On my (Saskatoon SK) city map
the shortest blocks are about 100m (~=100 yards)
long. So that would put you 900 feet away along
the ground. So the distance to the fireworks
might be around 1000 ft (the hypotenuse of the
triangle) depending on how big these town block
really are.

  I've shot 3D fireworks three times. The first time
I was about 750 ft from the bursts (based on speed of
sound estimate) using an 8' bar. The second time
was about 600' using the 8' bar. And this year about
600' using my 10' superbar.

  My first attempt didn't have much depth due to
the distance and not capturing any big or multiple
bursts. But last year and this year were just fine
thanks to closer distance and capturing big bursts.

>I used Fuji Sensia II, 100 ASA, f8 at B setting and held the shutters
>open for several bursts.  I fired one camera and my Dad fired the
>other.  Syncronization was by verbal signals.

  I used Ektachrome EPY which is a 64 speed tungsten
balanced slide film. Give better color rendition of
the fireworks IMO. I used f9.5 aperture. The sky
was very overcast this year so maybe f8 would have
been better. The previous time I used the same film
at f8 and the bursts were a little washed out. But
the sky was brighter than this year.

  I stood at the center of my bar and fired the two
Ricohflex's (6x6cm TLRs) with two 40' cable releases,
one in each hand.


>But I discovered that in my last
>minute adjusting, one of the cameras was aimed slightly lower than the
>other, so the images were too low on one set of slides for good
>mounting.  I managed to get two decent shots mounted in Realist mounts
>by lowering one slide and raising the other almost to the sprockets.

  I pretested my bar (which had mounting plates for the
cameras) to make sure they are aimed in the same direction.
I use two tripods on my bar so it is still possible to
twist the bar and have one aimed higher than the other
but I was careful while adjusting and didn't have this problem.

>The resulting 3d effect of those two slides were pretty good.  At least
>I know what f-stop, etc to use.  There were some tree tops in the bottom
>foreground , in our yard, which were much too close for the separation I
>had.  A distraction, but the slides are still pretty neat, for me at
>least.

  Our fireworks display is out in a big park near the
river. I was close enough that I was aimed almost 45
degrees upward, so there was no problem with foreground
clutter.


>I had fun, I have a couple of neat slides, and I've learned some tings
>to better my stereo photography.  Hope some of this helps someone else
>in their journey!

  I enjoyed your report. Below is the report
I posted on the MF list:

---start---

Canada Day '99 Fireworks report

  On June 30th the forecast was for cloudy
and 60% probability of rain for July 1 (Canada
Day). But the weather turned out much better
than that for most of the day. Sunny all
afternoon but clouding up towards evening.

  My brother Pat came to Saskatoon to go to
the fireworks and take photos. I offered
to let him share my big bar for his pair of
Pentax Super Programs if he mounted them
over my two tripod points (5' separation)
and didn't fire during my shots.

  It started lightly raining 5 minutes before
the start of the fireworks (at 10:30). But
stopped just before the fireworks began
(or mostly stopped).

  I managed to take 11 of my 12 shots before
the 12 minute fireworks show ended. Usually
the show goes about 15 minutes but they seemed
to be shooting bigger volleys during the
finale than previous years. Pat got off about
15 or 17 shots. Both of us were slowed by the
other, but we did okay.

  Dropped off the rolls on Friday and picked
them up after work yesterday. Preliminary
indication is that I did better than '95 but
not as good as '97.

  I was shooting at f9.5 (1/2 stop smaller than
97) to get better colour in the fireworks. But
the sky was darker this year due to heavy clouds
so perhaps I should have stayed with f8.

  Two shots (with nicely centered bursts) are
super dim with only the center of the burst
very visible. They might still look okay in my
well blackened viewer but I was surprised how
much darker they were than the rest of the shots
on these rolls.

  I lost shot number one because the left camera
didn't fire. Poor cable releasing on my part I
guess.

  I also have mysterious lens-flare-like blobs
in some of my right camera shots, but not all.
The best I can figure is that I got a rain drop
on the RH camera lens (inspite of the lens shades)
and on some bursts the light is such that the bead
of water can focus some light into a blob on the
film.

  I'm kicking myself a bit for not checking the lenses
for water before the fireworks, though it may have
happened after they started and we aimed the cameras
up at 45 degrees.

  I think I'll have about 5 or 6 decent shots if you
can ignore the retinal rivalry from the blobs on some
of them. Two or three flaw free ones, though they may
not have the best fireworks bursts.

  So, was it worth 15 or 20 evenings of cutting and
filing and about $100? Yes. 2001 here we come.

---end---

  You can see my old 8' bar on my web page at:
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/erker

  I'll have photos of my new 10' bar with the
five cameras up in a few weeks.

Regards - Greg E.


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