Anyone have good camera settings for fireworks?

cplmac · Jun 5, 2017

I have about a half dozen shows to shoot in the next six weeks and I'm looking for the best settings. I took mine out tonight after dark and shot some video at 800 ISO and 60 shutter speed that look pretty good but filming stationary lights on the ground at night isn't quite the same as filming shells breaking. Another quick question, how do you set manual focus to infinity? Thanks in advance for your help!

Lt Shanks · Jun 5, 2017

I am sorry to say that I believe both flying at night and filming fireworks with a drone are sadly frowned upon here in the US.

harryb · Jun 5, 2017

I would say ISO 100 or 200. 1080p @ 60. No filters . 1/60 and greater will give you sharper images.

cplmac · Jun 5, 2017

I would hate to have to film under 4k. I don't think filming fireworks is an issue but the night flying might be. I may have to look into getting a variance for the shoots, I have safe places to hover for all the locations and none will require flights above 400'.

stratos · Jun 5, 2017

I think you need a good noise reduction filter for your video editing software.
But I am looking as well for good setting for dawn , sunset fireworks.

DroningOn · Jun 5, 2017

Lt Shanks said:
I am sorry to say that I believe both flying at night and filming fireworks with a drone are sadly frowned upon by Internet Drone Cops

Fixed it for you ;-)

Mako79 · Jun 6, 2017

Video settings for fireworks.
Use 4K @ 24fps. The lower the frame rate, the more light is let in.
Set your ISO to 200. Any higher than 200 then the footage will be grainy and full of artifacts.
Use Cloud and do NOT use AWB as this will cause some of the footage to turn purplish.
Find the right EV and lock it.

And finally, you should record in 4K and then downsample to 1080p in post. This will minimise artifacts/grains. Think of it as watching 1080p youtube content in window mode. Notice that the video looks so crisp in window mode compared to full screen on youtube?? This is similar to downsampling 4K to 1080p.

cplmac · Jun 6, 2017

Mako thanks I'm going to try those settings this weekend. What is Cloud? Is that one of the white balance settings? Also what is the EV? Is there a way to lock in focus to infinity or do I have to select a point in the distance and just tap to focus on that spot?

nickmavic · Jun 6, 2017

1. What is Cloud? A white balance setting

2. Also what is the EV? Exposure Value

3. Is there a way to lock in focus to infinity or do I have to select a point in the distance and just tap to focus on that spot? You can do either. Press the focus square icon in the top right that says "AF" in it, and it'll bring up a slider on the right side to choose from Close to Infinity. Or just tap on an area to focus.

Lt Shanks · Jun 6, 2017

DroningOn said:
Fixed it for you ;-)

Are you making fun of me? lol

Lt. Shanks

Mako79 · Jun 6, 2017

I forgot about focus. Auto focus will have trouble at night. Everything will be blurry. Turn off AFC and use MF. I turn the iso and EV high as possible. This will make everything visible. Use focus peaking and focus. Once focus is found, drop back the iso and ev.

Bandit287 · Jul 5, 2017

When the news announced that the city of Boise, Idaho would be launching their fireworks from a location very close to my home, because the usual location was flooded, I thought this would be a great opportunity to shoot some video. I was concerned that about the legality of possibly flying after nautical twilight, but figured I could get away with it if I just flew straight up from my backyard and shot from there.
As it turns out, after I launched up 120 feet, I couldn't get a decent picture. Not sure why. What got my attention, was a warning on DJI GO4 that I was receiving RC interference and that loss of control was probable. I looked up and counted no less than four other drones buzzing about. So I put my MP on the ground and joined my family to watch the show. Sitting there I counted at least six drones in our quadrant. The skies are getting crowded out there.

cplmac · Jul 5, 2017

I was able to shoot a little of two of the fireworks shows I was doing for different cities and found the MP would shoot the Pyro well in default auto mode on true color. Mako's settings were also good!

Joely-Bird · Jul 5, 2017

cplmac said:
I was able to shoot a little of two of the fireworks shows I was doing for different cities and found the MP would shoot the Pyro well in default auto mode on true color. Mako's settings were also good!

Looking forward to seeing the results! Will you share them here?

MrStark · Jul 5, 2017

I had my drone set up to (ISO: 1600 and Shutter: 50). Looked great. All I did after it was airborne was focus it on the tiny dots on the street (street lights) and it worked out great! Nothing was distorted or had any flare ups.

I did, though, had a small error message when i got close to another drone (don't remember what error message I got though). I believe it was a Phantom based on the lights and I was able to see it earlier during twilight. As soon as I moved away from it, everything was fine. I was flying at about 300m up then went up another 30m.

Mr. Salty · Jul 5, 2017

Here's mine:

White balance set to cloudy, 4K at 24 fps, ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/40th of a second. I had trouble with tap-to-focus working, so focusing was manual.

cplmac · Jul 6, 2017

Joely-Bird said:
Looking forward to seeing the results! Will you share them here?

Absolutely as soon as I get the time to download them to my PC and upload them to youtube. They are both partials as I failed to install a large enough memory card in time. That has since been fixed, still can't get the MP to record to my tablet's memory card so I can't record a sound file.

Skrems · Jul 7, 2017

I went with default settings...seems ok.

Skrems · Jul 7, 2017

Mr. Salty said:
Here's mine:

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White balance set to cloudy, 4K at 24 fps, ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/40th of a second. I had trouble with tap-to-focus working, so focusing was manual.