How to photograph fireworks
Oh my, it’s nearly That Time Of Year again, so perhaps it’s a good idea to brush up on the ‘ole fireworks skills, yes? Indeed…
So have a lovely celebration folks, if you’re of the drinking kind, then try to stay vaguely upright until midnight, at least, and give 2009 a becoming welcome!
Rock on…
Many a budding shutterbug has attempted unsuccessfully to photograph fireworks by merely pointing their film camera to the sky and shooting, resulting dark useless prints. With the advent of digital photography, photographing fireworks has become easy, just by following some basic steps…
Find a location away from the crowd and power lines. An elevated location on a hillside might be adequate. You might even want to scout out your perch beforehand.
Set your camera to use standard quality pics. Having too high quality settings will result in too long of write speed, thereby making you miss shots.
Set the shutter speed to 1 second or longer. Don’t be afraid of underexposing your photos, though. You won’t.
Use a tripod. If you can’t find a tripod use a nice steady base.
Turn off the flash. This might seem like common sense, but remember you are photographing lights, so you don’t need to add more light yourself.
Point your camera toward the sky and shoot. A key to getting a good shot is anticipating when the firework will explode. Initially you will have many hit and miss shots. As the show goes along, you will be able to perfect your timing thereby getting excellent shots.
Can’t get enough? Well, try the guides, tutorials and tips from Better Photo.com, Garry Black, about.com, calphoto, DPchallenge, and Smithsonian institute!
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Insights, suggestions and comments
I took some fireworks pictures on Canada Day over here a couple of months ago, but I used a larger f-stop and longer exposure length (most of mine were for 30 seconds) so I got a blend of a whole bunch of fireworks together.
This is how mine turned out:
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/niqqer/Image056.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/niqqer/Image052.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/niqqer/Image049.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/niqqer/Image045.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l73/niqqer/Image044.jpg
I also tried some fireworks shots this last Canada and was very pleased with the results. I was using mostly 1-5 sec shutter speeds with f 7 - 11. Here’s one of the shots that I was pretty happy with…
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/35677007/
I also took some shots recently - think they turned out pretty well.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=fireworks&w=91513118%40N00
Perfect the hint to try anticipate the firework explosion. I discovered it only after some tests! :(
But, I think you don’t need 1 second or longer to get interesting shot, not always at least.
2years ago I had no tripod, no steady base, and I was surrounded by many people (and I am only 160 cm “tall”…), but I wanted to do something anyway so I set the camera on 1/60 sec with enough high iso and here what I got:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightowl87/2395613336/in/set-72157604009130568/
Maybe it is not a perfect and clean shot but I liked the result. To my eyes it seems even more realistic :).
Forgive me if I am not “normal” ;)
I wish an happy and wonderful 2009 to everybody!
Nobody around here had a really good display this year .. I’m going to have to wait until July I guess.
Yeah, here neither - I didn’t actually see ANY fireworks at all this year! I’m a bit sad about that…
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