Vegasrails Loc: Southern Nevada

I'm shooting with a Canon 6D mkII 100-400L Lens mkII on a tripod, distance from the show will be approximately 10-11 miles. It's the annual NYE celebration along the Las Vegas strip. Some have suggested that I just set the camera up for time lapse and let it go. I'm used to using a camera release. Opinions/ suggestions

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

A distance of that far will be challenging but may make sense if the size of layout the firing zone is huge. Dont think of this as time lapse, because assembling the images that way wont make a lot of sense. Might as well shoot video.

Instead think of it as intervalometer if you want a steady stream of shots. You will have to get a feel for the shutter speed duration. Held open too long and a busy show will just accumulate into a mushy zone of burned out lights without detail. Given how busy the show is you are likely looking at 1/15 to maybe 1/60 as a range.

Maybe be thinking about one image every 5 secs. If the camera has a built in intervalometer use that. Or use an external one. Or just use your regular release and firing as often as you feel like it. Prepare for a lot of images once done.

As you go look at what the review screen shows you are catching and make adjustments on the fly.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Shoot manual. The time-lapse interval will not likely match the shooting interval. You might end up with shots that stop just after launch or between shots. I usually shoot with a 2-5 second exposure so I get the "full" spread of the arcs of the fireworks with a remote wired trigger. I start the shot at launch, so I get a shot of the the full arcs.

Check your shots when starting for ISO/shutter speed, etc.

User ID

Unlike lightning, pyrotech bursts last so long that 1/2 second lost to human reflexes is of no consequence. IOW you can easily just trip the shutter manually while you are observing. Ten miles away wont look like much anywho, even at 1000mm FL. Theres no perspective. You will acoarst have a visual document of what could be seen, but no images of an actual event.

Ten miles away or CGI, same-same.


An event seen in perspective.

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User ID

Good suggestion. At ten miles theres no sense of a third dinension, but video will still capture that "fourth dimension". On playback one can see the launch and then watch the bloom and decay. The finale should be really good video even at long distance. Just imagine the grand finale in 120fps slomo !

Acoarst, at ten miles, shooting stills will likely produce postcards, but no wall hangers. Video would be more realistic and impressive. If the terrain is open the explosions might create a helpful audio track.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Yep, when I was shooting a DSLR I shot bulb mode just using the shutter, any shake is inconsequential. Now I use my OM-1 in Live Composite. I can start the shot and watch the image build on the screen and stop it when I like what I see.
And yes, 10-11 miles is way too far, even with a long lens.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

I have seen fireworks from 35,000'. You will need much more than 400mm to make it worth your effort. At least try it once before the show and see how tiny things will be.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Find a building/object/tree about 300-400 feet high, roughly the same altitude the rockets go up. Drive about 10 miles away and get out your zooms to see what the fireworks would look like. You might decide it's not worth the effort.

Vegasrails Loc: Southern Nevada

First off thank you all for your suggestions. I am a bit confused, from some of the comments feel the distance is too great to accurately capture the action. I'm basing it on the attached photo of the area I'll be photographing; the photo was taken approximately 12.6 nautical miles point to point per Google Earth give or take a tenth of a mile. I feel since this photo has been cropped that I can capture from just above street level to the height of the fireworks. I chose this area since it provides a general area of the show, with nothing major blocking the view. The photo subject will shift to the left and up.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Not quite 35,000 feet, but about 10,000 when I was flying into Logan one 4th of July. It looked like a war zone down below.

Tdearing Loc: Rockport, TX

I'm hoping that you will he pleasantly surprised and would love to see some of the results. Happy New Year.

tdozier3 Loc: Northern Illinois

I always shoot fireworks in Bulb mode long exposure and use a wireless Pixel shutter release.

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joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Awesome, and a couple more days and they will be exploding again 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

tdozier3 Loc: Northern Illinois

jcboy3

I think most of the commenters do not have experience with the Las Vegas NYE fireworks show, which involves fireworks from 9 casinos. Your plan will produce some excellent photos of the overall show. The higher up you can be, however, the better the perspective will be, as shown by the photo you provided in a subsequent post.

I have done both timelapse and manual exposure. In fact, I shot a fireworks show a couple years back with three cameras; one shooting video and recording sound, one on timelapse with a wide angle lens, and one with a telephoto lens using manual shutter with a remote.

I have used Olympus live composite in the past, but stopped of late due to changes in the nature of fireworks shows. I used to shoot very long exposures, but recent shows I've been to have had so many multiple/back-to-back fireworks that I switched to shorter exposures of only a couple of seconds. For Las Vegas, you may want longer exposures, until the finales where shorter exposures are better. However, if you change exposure times, you will want to change the timelapse intervals, and that's not easy with most intervalometers. I use a Pluto, which can be controlled by phone app, and which is easy to change parameters.

You don't want to blow out the city lights, so that should give you a limit on time. That is where something like Olympus Live Composite helps; you get a baseline exposure and then the camera just adds to it. But it's more complicated, because you have to press the shutter button three times per exposure. If your overall exposure time is long, that's not too much of a problem. But if it gets short, the shooting just gets too frenzied and the advantage gets lost as well.

If using one camera, I would just use manual shutter control, and fire them off at whatever frequency is appropriate for the action. If you use bulb, then you can stop when enough has happened.

One note; make sure in camera noise reduction is off. You don't want the delay that imposes after each shot.