Firework/memorial video & photos??

[Neutrinosoup]

This Saturday my family are having a memorial event for my dad who recently passed. He asked for his ashes to be made into fireworks (there are companies that do this).

Im not a photographer….how do we best record it without it being grainy or some random wobbly iPhone? He has lots of expensive DSLR and zoom lenses, carbon fibre tripods etc (he liked to image wildlife especially Antarctic and Arctic sea wildlife).

Can anyone guide me on how to use his kit and at what settings??

Apologies, I know this isn’t an astrophotography question!!!

Niall

Edited February 6 by Neutrinosoup

[Elp]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

You'd have to test the camera. Most are poor at recording low light video, you may have a shutter setting in video mode to lower the frame rate (or increase the shutter duration) which will help. If you can also adjust the iso level to a higher level that will help but the higher you go the more noise you get, it's simply an amplification factor and doesn't actually acquire more light.

The other option is to use imaging mode, set at manual or bulb mode or, if it has a built in intervalometer or you can use an external one, set it to keep taking images for a set duration per image, say 3-4s per image or longer, aperture on the lens wide open, short zoom, iso around 800 maybe a bit more, the long open shutter duration will allow you to capture the streaking fireworks as lines of colour per image. If the lenses can be set in manual mode, test the focus first manually then leave it, if it's running in autofocus it'll keep searching for target focus and you'll find the images will more likely be out of focus. The camera will have to be mounted onto a tripod, any movement and light sources will zigzagg in the image.

[Neutrinosoup]

6 minutes ago, Elp said:

Sorry to hear of your loss.

You'd have to test the camera. Most are poor at recording low light video, you may have a shutter setting in video mode to lower the frame rate (or increase the shutter duration) which will help. If you can also adjust the iso level to a higher level that will help but the higher you go the more noise you get, it's simply an amplification factor and doesn't actually acquire more light.

The other option is to use imaging mode, set at manual or bulb mode or, if it has a built in intervalometer or you can use an external one, set it to keep taking images for a set duration per image, say 3-4s per image or longer, aperture on the lens wide open, short zoom, iso around 800 maybe a bit more, the long open shutter duration will allow you to capture the streaking fireworks as lines of colour per image. If the lenses can be set in manual mode, test the focus first manually then leave it, if it's running in autofocus it'll keep searching for target focus and you'll find the images will more likely be out of focus. The camera will have to be mounted onto a tripod, any movement and light sources will zigzagg in the image.

Thanks, I’ll test it on Thursday/Friday! 🤞

[Elp]

Actually thinking about it a bit more, 3-4s for firework images may be too long, 0.5-1s may be better, youll get a feel for it when you try it.