Filming a Water Fountain

I have been filming a water fountain that we have in my town and it looks good but want to improve my video skills. I have been using the standard setting of fireworks filter on my canon ax10. I was surfing youtube and found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ9s_096gIg I love how it looks and would like to be able to shoot video that way if possible with my camera. Question what setting should I set the camera too? Is there a filter that could be put to make it look that way if so which one is it?

I just started doing this last summer recording the fountain and would love to improve my video since I upload them to youtube. Here is a sample of my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t-Jfc1Jf_w&list=UU_6meQxlb_5GMEwUQHyMZ0w I get alot of motion blurr due to camera focusing. and the picture looks wash out. I have all this winter to improve my skills

Any pointers would be helpful.

Again thank you in advance for the help.

If this is not the place to post sorry about it let me know
 
The first video looks really good. Good camera for night it looks like. The second video does look like it has some blur, but there is a difference between motion blur and focus blur. Focus blur is when it's out of focus (obviously), and motion blur, is when the shutter speed too slow to capture all the speed of a moving object. However, this may be a good thing, cause in a lot of situations you want motion blur, and not having it can look more choppy or unnatural, depending on what you are going for.

Looks like focus blur though. As for the picture looking washed out, do you remember what 'picture profile' settings you used?
 
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Yes I meant to say focus blur. The setting I used was the firework setting with manual setting. I didnt change anything else. you know on the camera when you go i guess to light setting it gives snow, sunset, and other settings well I choosed the firework one.

my goal is to get it as close as i can to the first video. lol.

thank you for replying back.
 
Hmm okay, I haven't operated a camera with a firework setting before. What changes exactly does the setting do? I would say the best way to shoot things like that, color fireworks, and fountain lights, would be to play with your color temperature, aperture, shutter speed and gain, to see what looks best to you.
 
It makes lets less light come in. it closes the Aperture. maybe i should do it the other way around. open the Aperture and shoot at maybe f2 with a 1/30 shutter speed? do you think that might help? Its still amazin how the 1st video came out its just mind blowing lol.
 
The best results will be from manual settings and experiment.

The framing and position of the camera in the sample you want to emulate is very different than your framing and position. The sample has more lights in the background, lots of interests and you'll note not everything is black. You will want to get much closer with a wider lens.

Also, the sample only holds the same shot for a few moments, your video is the same shot angle for the entire time.. In short your video seems to want to document the entire performance, the sample video wants to show us what is beautiful about the performance.
 
hmmm didnt think about having a wider lens. thanks for the info. yeah ill play around with it and will post what i discover since the fountain is out of season I am going to try something different with some speakers that have dancing lights.

again thanks for the info.
 
I think it's a combination of a few things.

Composition: the fist video is framed really well, the buildings add nice lines as well as creating a sort of visual stage for the show. You video is just a water show with a black background. It's not bad but it's not as visually interesting. Focal length plays a big role in getting the image that's in your head, too. So play around with different lenses.

Coloring: The number one thing I noticed about your video was that the blacks aren't black. The first video is partly so striking because it's not muddied at all with grays. It provides great contrast to the whites and sharp colors by having the blacks be true black. Add to that the contrast (in a different sense) of the warm lights and glow from the buildings, and you've got a better look.

Technical: Your video is pretty noisy. Which generally means that your ISO is set higher than you want it. Other people who are better with tech specs can help you out more with that. But I'm guessing it's going to include a faster lens, or a camera that performs better in low-light/high ISOs.
 
thank you for the info it helps ill mess around with it and see if i could get a better image. this camera is pretty good in low light. but i see what you are saying slowing down the speed might help. I am going to try it and will post what i did.

Again thanks for the help and critic.
 
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