Fireworks on portra?

bastic

bastic

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Lukas
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Will try to catch some fireworks tomorrow evening.
Only film I have is portra 400.
Lightmeter won't do (I think)
So would need to play it by the ear...
And as am not good at that, am looking for advise :)
Please help :)
 
Depends on the sky, ambient light, city lights, moon, price of chips.
If ya put a gun to my head I'd go f/11, black sky 3 mins, f/11 black sky city lights 2mins, f/11 dusk.....??.....1 min
I don't worry too much about long exposures at night, just go Extra Large with everything..:)


http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1
 
3 mins????
 
bastic said:
Will try to catch some fireworks tomorrow evening.
Only film I have is portra 400.
Lightmeter won't do (I think)
So would need to play it by the ear...
And as am not good at that, am looking for advise :)
Please help :)
Click to expand...

I'm hoping you have a tripod?

I don't think that Kodak Portra 400 is amazing in the reciprocity department, so it wouldn't be my first choice for fireworks, but you can overexpose it to death, which is a bonus. Consequently, I'd just do what @joxby said and go EXTRA LARGE with your exposures.

Did I emphasise extra large?
 
I have a tripod lol
And you guys are serious with such a long exposure....
 
The one and only time I did fireworks it was on the D3100 and I think pretty high ISO and still 8-10 seconds but that was without reciprocity. Don't let us tell you not too but you'll probably just be taking a punt on the night!
 
I'm just guessing, I wouldn't be shooting 400 print film, I'd be shooting 100F slide at 6 mins with a black sky and minimal city lights/pollution.
Just been outside and its not that dark even at this time, if there's cloud cover that reflects ambient so shortens exposure, it really is guess work without actually seeing the conditions.
The Fred Parker exposure calculator is as good a set of guidlines for conditions you might expect on any given night.
 
bastic said:
I have a tripod lol
And you guys are serious with such a long exposure....
Click to expand...

Yes.

The image below was f/13 and about three or four minutes exposure with Fuji Pro 160NS, which likely is a faster film than Portra 400 in long exposure situations. I'm not sure how similar this would be to the light levels for the fireworks though.

 
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Surely 3 mins would be far too long for fireworks, it'd just be a complete mess. That long won't be too bad for car lights because everything is uniformed going in the same direction/place. I personally wouldn't go any longer than 10-30 seconds.
 
thorton said:
Surely 3 mins would be far too long for fireworks, it'd just be a complete mess. That long won't be too bad for car lights because everything is uniformed going in the same direction/place. I personally wouldn't go any longer than 10-30 seconds.
Click to expand...

Interesting point.

I had a quick google and there were some folks advocating as short as 12 seconds, whilst others were going for a minute or two. Many seemed to be around 20-30 seconds though. It's just going to depend on the fireworks display itself, the scene, the light, and want you want to capture, I suppose.
 
Kodak don't give any reciprocity tables for Porta.
I've read about that guy who shot some 5x4 porta 400 and got virtually the same exposure for 30 sec as he did for 90.
And somebody else that increases exposure times metered at 30 seconds and over by a factor of 12, so....give us a clue :)
 
I've heard times around 30 seconds; as suggested you wouldn't want to go much longer unless the display was quite slow paced. Clearly the exposure for the actual fireworks is much less than trying to pick up some light from the surroundings...
 
Last time I shot fireworks it was about 8 seconds per exposure but you might have to start earlier than the actual firework to get any background details. You won't need to worry so much about the highlights as you would on digital.
 
Tomorrow is the day ;) will have 12 frames to test different times ;) thanks for all replies :)
 
Hope they come good for you Lukas, it wouldn't be so bad if the subject was static in that you could try a range of exposures from a few seconds to minutes, but I don't suppose the display will last long enough.
Thats a tough assignment....good luck :plus1:
 
So...display was utter carp...low attitude and only few high ones...to to mention nice looking ones...got few frames with different times...I've been guessing so time will tell ;)
Fingers crossed ;)
 
steveo_mcg said:
Last time I shot fireworks it was about 8 seconds per exposure but you might have to start earlier than the actual firework to get any background details. You won't need to worry so much about the highlights as you would on digital.
Click to expand...

Well I agree most of the shots I have seen are about 8-15 secs, the longer time might be for a Catherine wheel.
 
skysh4rk said:
I'm hoping you have a tripod?

I don't think that Kodak Portra 400 is amazing in the reciprocity department, so it wouldn't be my first choice for fireworks, but you can overexpose it to death, which is a bonus. Consequently, I'd just do what @joxby said and go EXTRA LARGE with your exposures.

Did I emphasise extra large?
Click to expand...
A bit late for Lukas but here is some info on reciprocity failure for Portra 160/400 sheet film.
 
wickerman said:
A bit late for Lukas but here is some info on reciprocity failure for Portra 160/400 sheet film.
Click to expand...

Yikes, I definitely expected Portra 160 to be a bit better in the reciprocity failure stakes. I've always used Fuji Pro 160NS or 160S for my longer exposures though.
 
Haven't scanned negatives for a while and either I forgot how to do it or scanning fireworks is a different process lol
 
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