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Capturing firework display on video.
- Thread starter HWCM
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It was a joke, hence the winking emoji.
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Actually just using auto for camera settings is fine too. You can always drop the EV a few notches, but auto makes it easy and looks fine. This is one I did around Christmas time last year. At one point I got a little closer than I wanted to. But if you can't get the fireworks to mostly fill out the screen it turns out pretty disappointing. Again, depending on the size of the shells it's not going to look all that great if you're too far away. Good luck.
I'm actually about 1/2 mile from some fireworks, and was going to take my P3P straight up from a field. Think 1/2 mile is too far away for some decent video?
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At 2,600 feet away it's too far for the fireworks themselves to make an impacting video of them. Overall it may be nice video if there's a cityscape to the video but the fireworks will look too small. Good luck and be very careful.
You want a lower frame rate when it is dark. At least from mygopro experience. I would set it up at 24FPS instead of 60. More time for light to get into each frame. I assume the phantom is the same.
P.s. why the hell would someone recommend you contact the FAA. That is going to lead to nothing denials, NO's, and you getting on their radar should you ever actually do something wrong
P.s. why the hell would someone recommend you contact the FAA. That is going to lead to nothing denials, NO's, and you getting on their radar should you ever actually do something wrong
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...anyone know the "standard" distance a drone should be from the average serious fireworks display to stay safe and legal? - was thinking of shooting an oceanside display from the water side facing inland to get nice reflections and the city behind - there are no TFRs in place, so, maybe 1,000'? - that is the distance the city says the actual viewing public will be from the launch barge, but maybe being higher up dictates a greater distance? - any help,would be appreciated!
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1,000 out you'll be good. If the shells are all smaller you can decrease the distance accordingly. But if the show has 3" to 6" shells, you be good at 1K'. If the show happens to have 8" or 10" shells popping at times, you'll want to move out to 1,300'. Since you have the opportunity to get good shots, just remember to mostly fill your screen with fireworks. Too close and you'll cut off some, which will happen anyway at times. But too far away and it starts to lose the impact. So keep the screen generally filled out with fireworks and avoid getting too close. Good luck and have fun!
EDIT- hold on, they're on a barge? That will be 1K' out. To be at the back of that with the drone looking towards land you'll need to be 2k' out.
dirkclod
Premium Pilot
My wife and I did it on the 4th, just for experience. Went up about 150 feet to clear our trees. We videoed the fireworks show in the distance (4 miles), and also a lot of fireworks around our area from other homeowners. Now next year we may find a vacant area to get closer to the displays. Still it was worth the experience.
Joe
KC7GHT
Joe
KC7GHT
I just flew at some fireworks in Ohio along Lake Erie. The fence line to keep the crowd back was about 750' from the fireworks launch point. So that was my metric - I was going to stay that far back at least.
I scoped everything out the day before. I launched from an open field about 2500' away (no crowd at all). And stayed above (135' AGL) a nearby public wooded area so I never came anywhere near any spectators or private property. I think the closest I was to the launch point was about 1000', maybe slightly more. A neighbor was in the crowd and he said nobody was aware that I was there. The only reason he saw the drone was because he knew where to look for it.
The distance was near perfect as the fireworks generally filled the image. But, the video turned out crap as I don't know what I'm doing with the settings. Oh well.
Here's what my 4th of July fireworks looked like with a Phantom 3 Adv. I think it turned out great. I saw another drone that evening that was actually hovering INSIDE the firework display. I definitely don't recommend that.
If you look close, you can see like 4-5 other firework displays going on in neighboring towns. Pretty cool.
If you look close, you can see like 4-5 other firework displays going on in neighboring towns. Pretty cool.
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That was a good distance from the display. How far away were you? As far as iso, I find auto exposure camera settings works well with the phantom for fireworks. It will have a high iso to try and compensate for darkness but shutter is usually in the ballpark. You can always drop the ev if you want to. But even though that high iso isn't something I'd normally choose, in post edit you can drop brightness down and adjust it nicely. The phantom camera isn't really like a dslr camera. You actually want a brighter video from the phantom in the dark for fireworks. If it's too dark, things like cityscape lights detail in the background will be lost and won't be recoverable in post. You can't recover light in post edit with this, but you can adjust darkness to taste. Auto is the best setting for fireworks to bring back workable video in post edit to clean up.
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