Shooting Fireworks Photos

Well, for those of us in the U.S. Independence Day is on its way as well as the fireworks displays that follow. If your considering getting any pictures of fireworks this year, there are a few things that you can do to make great results. You don’t even necessarily need a Digital SLR to take great fireworks pictures, point-and-shoot cameras work as well, it just takes a few more minutes to get the settings right. Although, Ill start with a few things that aren’t camera specific.

- If you live near the location of the fireworks show, go ahead and drive to it the day of, figure out which way the wind is blowing, find a place where you will set up later that night. Its a little easier to get a feel for your surroundings when you can actually see them! Be sure to try and pick a location that will be upwind of the fireworks show so that any smoke buildup that becomes more noticeable as the show goes on is way to the right or to the left of the actual fireworks themselves, so that you don’t end up with hazy fireworks pictures, and rather clean crisp and vivid fireworks pictures. Sometimes thats just not possible, and you have to settle for a below average location to shoot from, so in that respect, be sure to have your camera set correctly to ensure that you can start shooting and not worry about fidgeting with your camera in the starting minutes of the show. Remember thats really only if you can’t get a good location. The starting minutes of the show are smoke free and usually will be the best shots so the last thing you want to be doing is trying to find buttons on your camera in the dark while the show is rolling.

- TRIPOD, TRIPOD, TRIPOD. This is a must, and don’t think about being able to set it on a car or fence because it wont work. Ive been doing reading online and people have tried it, and it doesn’t work! Pick one up from Ritz Camera, B&H Photo, Adorama, or a good camera store near you - as cliche as that sounds. You can buy cheap ones if your only going to use it for that fireworks show and future fireworks shows. The cheap ones will probably be lighter and less stable, but you can help this situation by hanging your camera bag or something heavy from underneath the tripod. It helps steady it. Keep in mind you will be using shutter speeds of more than 1 second.

- Bring a flashlight. It will make things easier when messing with your camera and taking things out of your bag.

- Bring memory cards! Once your camera is setup properly it will sit in that one place throughout the show most likely and you will be shooting one picture after the other, and possibly finding yourself of clicking away for each burst. You will take LOTS of pictures without really knowing it. So bring memory cards!

- Charge batteries and bring backup batteries. At least fully charge your battery before going out. Point-and-shoots will be more of a problem but DSLRs can probably handle the job. (Digital cameras that use LCD the entire time use more power) But, backup batteries can’t hurt and are recommended.

Now for the camera specific settings. Unfortunately, there are so many point and shoot cameras out there that there isn’t one standardized setting that I can offer. Although, most point-and-shoots have a fireworks or fireworks show setting, and you can obviously use that. One thing to keep in mind is to keep your ISO low (200 or lower) if you have selectable ISO on your camera. If you use the fireworks setting that your camera has, I doubt it will let you change the ISO so just go with the scene mode itself. On DSLRs you want to set your ISO low (200 or lower) and set your aperture between f/8 and f/16. I would recommend setting the shutter speed to B for Bulb, which allows you to open the shutter for as long as you hold the shutter button down for. Basically, I hear the fireworks shoot off and I hold the shutter down, let it explode, and then let off of the shutter button shortly after I get a decent stream. Or, you can wait for it to go halfway up in the air and then hold the shutter button down, and just capture the burst with no light streak leading up to the burst in the sky. It all depends on your aperture setting. If you want just the burst and you will be holding the shutter open for less time, use a higher aperture setting (lower number). If you are holding the shutter open for a long period of time, possibly for multiple bursts (while covering the lens in between bursts) to get an image compiled of multiple bursts that happened at different times, then you want to use a lower aperture setting such as f/16. Thanks to the handy LCD screens on our cameras, we can see how our shots are turning out as we shoot them, and from the first few shots you can make aperture adjustments as you go until you get the correct exposure and look that you want. Another difficult thing to do is focus on the firework, especially while their moving. Manual focus is a must. Wait for the first burst to go up, and while in auto focus (or manual focus), focus on that burst and then switch your camera to manual focus so that it stays there for the whole show. Most of the time the bursts will be at the same depth of field, and since your using lower aperture settings, having entire bursts, and all the bursts in focus after focusing on that first one, shouldn’t be a problem.

If your using a cheapy tripod and you move the camera while using the Bulb setting, try using a few second shutter speed and using the timer feature (2 second or so) so that when the camera takes the picture theres no possibility of it moving. This takes a bit more trial and error to get the exposure right but set the shutter speed first after estimating the average times of the bursts, and then change the aperture accordingly, I find that easier than setting the aperture and trying to find the right shutter speed while still having it long enough to get the burst etc…

If you really want to use bulb mode and not touch the camera, you can purchase a cable release or remote and use that to shoot your shots from a distance. This is also cool because after you have the camera setup and pointed in the right direction, you can watch the majority of the show without looking through the camera.

Well thats the short on shooting fireworks, have a good 4th of July!

Any questions or suggestions please email me thediyphotographer@gmail.com