How To Photograph Fireworks

I hope all of you enjoyed our Independence Day this weekend! We had a great one here in Harrisburg, Oregon.

This year I thought I would try my photography skills on fireworks. Those beautiful busts of lights in the sky. I don’t really think I have ever tried to get any images of fireworks in years past. Actually, I am sure I have tried at least once to get a shot with a point-and-shoot, and becoming disappointed at the results like everyone else, decided it wasn’t worth the time.

Before I get into the steps of shooting fireworks, let me say this… I found that THE hardest thing of all in this process is trying to get “tack sharp” focus on those suckers. This was by far the biggest challenge I had. I had to try and try. I think I had to throw out at least 37 images due to bad focus. That being said, here we go…

If at all possible, setup where you can set the focus on infinity and forget about it. It will save you mass amounts of time trying to focus on these explosions of light. Unfortunately, this was not an option for me due to my location. Because I had to focus I was constantly stressed that I wasn’t acquiring tack sharp images. I would then refocus.

Also, make sure you turn that autofucus off. You may be saying, “No duh”, but that is how I blew the first 20 or so images.

There is no way you are going to hand hold a camera and expect to have any image sharp. Enough said.

These explosions are quite bright and you really don’t want or need a fast lens for them. I chose an aperture of f/8.

What speed should you use? This seems like it would be the biggest question. We all agree that you would need to hold the lens open for a few seconds. You could put the speed to bulb and use a release, but the point-and-shoot people would be out of luck. What I did is I set it on the tripod, set my timer to 2 seconds, and set the speed to 5 or 6 seconds. I tried my first shot at 10 seconds and that was way to long. Almost all my good shots were taken at 6-seconds. You can set your point and shoot to manual and achieve this I believe.

Since the camera is open for so long, your hand can blur the picture setting off the shutter. I used the self timer feature of the camera. What I did is trip the shutter when I saw the stream of the firework being launched. This started the 2-second countdown on the timer, after which opened the shutter for 6-seconds. I was able to avoid the camera shake this way. Timing is everything!

Here is a good question. What should the ISO be set to? I chose 100. Why? Because the lower the number the finer the detail.

I don’t think I need to say this, but please… turn off the flash. Not only is it not doing ANYTHING, but you are setting your self up to get punched by some drunk guy who was blinded by your flash. Maybe the blinding will save you from him tossing your camera in the river.

I decided this year that I was coming back with some great images. I wasn’t sure what to do and had a lot of questions. I went out and tried and error until I got it and that is what you see below. Once I got it, It was smooth sailing.

Just so I made it to ten… If this has been helpful in any way, please leave a comment.

[View with PicLens]