Basics of Fireworks Photography

Everyone loves to see fireworks, they are a great display of light and colors in the night sky, and because of that they are an interesting subject to photograph too. Photographing fireworks is easy, however in order to achieve good quality images there are some guidelines you should be aware of.

First of all, you should bring a tripod for the camera when you’re photographing fireworks. The camera must remain steady during your shots, especially since you will most likely use a long exposure, so a solid tripod is required. Be careful to level the camera on the tripod especially if you want to include other details and objects in your framing besides the actual fireworks. Also, another useful element that will help your camera remain motionless will be the use of a remote release.

The choice of lens for this type of photography should depend on how close to the show you will be. Almost any type of lenses should be good for this type of photography, but you should make sure that they will provide you with an angle wide enough to capture the show. A medium zoom lens will be a good starting point as it will provide you with enough flexibility.

The next thing you should do when you arrive at the shooting location is to find a good position that will enable you to capture some interesting images using a good composition and framing. A good tip would be to place yourself near some water, for example, because it will reflect the fireworks. Look at the surroundings and try to include in your composition any landmarks or objects you find interesting. Also, don’t include in your framing trees or branches that can obstruct the view from the fireworks.

Once you’ve taken care of the above you should start experimenting with the settings of the camera.

– First of all you should turn the flash off because you will not need it. Also turn on the noise reduction and use a self timer or a remote release when shooting.

– Set the camera to focus to infinity, you can do this by using manual focus as auto-focus will most likely not work when shooting fireworks.

– Use a medium/small aperture. Somewhere between f/8 and f/16 will work best providing you with a large enough depth of field. Although you will shoot at night, the light from the fireworks will be powerful enough so you don’t need to open the aperture too much, especially if you use a tripod and slow shutter speeds.

– The shutter speed is very important in this type of photography and it can be anywhere between 1 or 2 seconds to 15 or more, depending on the explosions and patterns produced in the sky. Many photographers use the bulb setting and keep the shutter open for as long as the fireworks are exploding. In this case a remote release is a good utility.

– The ISO value should be kept at a minimum value, because the high ISOs will add noise to your image. An ISO value of 100 should work great.Fireworks are very interesting to photograph and you can obtain some great images from this type of photography. You can see some examples below:

Photo by nnIKOO

Photo by FrankieAlton

Photo by AcceptedOutcast

Photo by DysfunctionalKid

Photo by sullivan1985

Photo by Niv24