Portland Fireworks, where to shoot?

[BobH]

I may be in Portland for the Rose Festival fireworks show on Friday night.

If I do attend, I'm wondering where the best location to shoot the show would be. Typically you don't want to be in too close, you can actually get better shots from further away so that you're not shooting straight up.

Anyone know any good venues? Ideally the place would have a good view, and also be a safe location. Any suggestions?

 

[PhilGil]

I think the best place to shoot would be from the east bank looking toward the city. The fireworks show usually draws large crowds on both sides of the river (especially if the weather is dry), so I doubt safety will be an issue.

I've been considering staying in Portland on Friday evening to watch the fireworks - email me if you decide to come down.

 

[BobH]

Phil,

Yes, I was planning on the east side to have the city as a backdrop, but wonder where I should shoot. If nobody has any solid suggestions, I'll just scope it out when I get there, but I was hoping maybe somebody would know a good spot.

 

[NinaS]

I'm not sure where the fireworks are, but assuming they're on the Willamette near the festival, I would suggest the eastbank riverwalk, near OMSI ... there is a few miles of riverwalk, you can park at OMSI, at the sternwheeler dock, under the Hawthorne bridge ... heck, even at my studio and walk a couple of blocks LOL

 

[BobH]

Phil and Nina were right. Eastside Riverwalk was exactly what I was looking for! If my photos are sharp, I'll be very happy with some of them...

 

[PhilGil]

I had originally set up on the Hawthorne Bridge (not knowing the bridge would be closed to pedestrians during the fireworks show). After being run off I found a place on the east bank that worked out great.

I'll post a few more when I have a chance to process them.

 

[TheTurk]

^Nice shot Phil...

I shoot some fireworks last year at 4th of July. Had a hard time finding a cool spot but was able to get couple ok shots. I think this was at Fork Vancouver...

 

[PhilGil]

Those look great, Turk. I especially like the rich colors of the 3rd shot

 

[BobH]

I had originally set up on the Hawthorne Bridge (not knowing the bridge would be closed to pedestrians during the fireworks show). After being run off I found a place on the east bank that worked out great.

Gee, Phil...

As long as you were standing next to me and taking the same shots I was, you could have at least said "Hi!"...

View attachment 554

This is exactly the kind of shot I was hoping for... Downtown Portland and a bridge in the background, with fireworks. I actually would have preffered to have been just a bit further away, but that wasn't an option given the geography. Still, I'm quite pleased with what I got.

 

[BobH]

Here's a few more. They start to look a lot alike, so I'll only post a few.

View attachment 555

View attachment 556

View attachment 557

View attachment 558

 

[piewacket]

portland fireworks

hi guys Great Shots !! now a bit of background please ... techniques would be helpful as one who is climbing the learning curve... when it was film era i would just open the lens and secure the camera from movement and bulb away... now the dSLR era were you letting the camera do the work in choosing settings or were you setting things before hand ... thanks in advance

73'
piewacket

 

[Leia]

Great shots of the city. You guys obviously chose a great spot. Too bad you didn't get to say hi to each other.

 

[BobH]

...techniques would be helpful as one who is climbing the learning curve... when it was film era i would just open the lens and secure the camera from movement and bulb away...

Exactly...

Use a tripod, and put the camera on manual mode. Set the aperature to a nice mid-range setting, say f8 or f11. Don't use a setting like 2.8, you want good depth of field, so bump it up to a reasonable setting.

Set your ISO to a nice low setting, you're doing time exposures, and you don't want graininess. I used 200.

Now, choose an exposure time, and snap away. My shots ranged from 30 seconds (way too long) to 5 seconds (too short)

It's part skill and part luck. As an example, all three of these were identical settings:


View attachment 570
Looks pretty good.


View attachment 571
This one's OK, but not great.


View attachment 572
Rather over-exposed.


The difference? The amount of light put out by the "flash", i.e. the fireworks. You can't control that, or even predict it. So you shoot lots and sort 'em out later!

For an extreme example, check out this one:

View attachment 574

The new Nikon SB-9Billion Ultra flash. Need to illuminate 10 city blocks? We've got the flash for you!

 

[BobH]

Great shots of the city. You guys obviously chose a great spot. Too bad you didn't get to say hi to each other.

Thanks, I was pretty happy with the location. It's essentially what I had in mind when I went to shoot, which is rather rare. Usually you end up with something other than what you visualize, for one reason or another.

I was talking with another photographer and we were discussing our location. He said he'd ended up there last year almost by chance, due to the crowds, and liked it a lot. I trying to get back a bit further so I'd have the city backdrop, and chose the same spot. When he mentioned he'd shot there last year and was pleased with what he'd got, it reinforced my hunch that it was a good location.

Both of us discussed going up on one of the bridges. Phil mentioned they'd closed one to pedestrians, but I think the other one stayed open. It seemed like a good idea initially, but after some though I realized it would have made it harder to get reflections.

As it was, I had to go as wide as my lense allowed (18 mm dx format) and still ended up shooting vertical to get any reflections in the shot. Being up on the bridge probably would have made it even more difficult.

 

[BobH]

So why didn't I do a meet-up for this one?

The plans were all last minute. We have a family friend in the hospital, and so I really wasn't sure if I'd be going until Friday morning. I booked my hotel (waiting until the last minute worked in this instance, I scored a room at the Red Lion for only $70.) and headed out. By that time it was too late to really announce anything, and since I hadn't been to the site it wasn't possible for me to even say where I'd be shooting from. So with the tenative schedule, and extremely vague location, I didn't think this would work well for a get together. Maybe next year...

 

[PhilGil]

Thanks all for the comments!

Gee, Phil...

As long as you were standing next to me and taking the same shots I was, you could have at least said "Hi!"...

I don't know, Bob, maybe I was there incognito .

now a bit of background please ... techniques would be helpful as one who is climbing the learning curve...

I used shutter priority mode - started at 15sec and ISO 200 (which I had used successfully in the past). I quickly discovered that I needed to reduce my shutter speed and settled at about 1/8 sec at ISO 400.

Here are a couple more...

 

[BobH]

There are no easy answers for this stuff...

Here's an identical shot to one Phil took. Note that I've got more of the fireworks "blooming", showing more of the classic shape, but that most of the color in the firework has washed out of my shot.

Phil's shot has the color, but not as much of the shape. I don't know if it would be possible to get both? Oddly enough, I'm thinking you might want a neutral density filter to slow down the shutter speed while also keeping the colors. I have no idea if that would actually work though.

View attachment 575

 

[PhilGil]

Some of it is controllable, I "developed" my RAW files for color and detail over brightness, then brought the brightness back up later in my workflow. Mine don't have the punch that some of Bob's have, though.

An ND filter might work, Bob, as it would give you longer exposures without blowing out the details.

 

[arlinescott]

Wow guys, great shots!

 

[piewacket]

fireworks

thanks for the tips and will post a pic when i have a chance to shoot some...

thanks again all

pie.