Photographing Fireworks

Taking a really good firework photo, in my experience, requires only three things....a good zoom lens, a tripod and the ability to manually adjust your shutter speed while the camera takes care of the aperture. This facility is known as the shutter priority and is normally indicated by an "S" on your camera controls.

To begin with I would recommend finding yourself a high vantage point where you are unlikely to have people walking in front of the lens and set yourself up nice and early when it is still light and you are able to see what you are doing without any pressure to get your camera settings right as the display starts.

While it is light you will be unable to test your camera settings, but I would recommend a shutter speed of 10 seconds as a good starting point and then playing from there....you will find anything higher then about 15 seconds will allow in too much light and you will loose some of the "drama" of the shot while anything less then about 8 seconds won't let enough light in and you will just get little specs of light on a huge expanse of black sky.

One of the most difficult aspects of this kind of photograph is getting your AF to focus when the sky is black, my recommendation here is to wait for the flair to go off, track it and hit the trigger....this will take practise as you need to get the timing spot on, too much movement once the shutter is open will result in blur and without the flair your camera will never focus. On your first time out if you get 25% of your shots right that will be great, use the rest to learn what works and what doesn't and just have fun playing around with timing.

On the topic of blur, it is almost impossible to obtain a nice sharp firework photo without a good stable tripod...the tripod needs to be stable enough to absorb your movement on the camera without wobbling and allow you to keep your finger on the trigger constantly - I tend to anchor my tripod with one hand while using the other to take the shot. It is a good idea to use a remote trigger if you have one, but it takes a bit of practise so this probably shouldn't be the first time you use it.


The most exciting thing about photographing fireworks is that every single one is different and no two photos will every be the same, I LOVE this aspect of photography and trying to capture the magnificence of the display....it takes time and practise but for me is so worthwhile in the end and if it is your thing you will get many happy hours playing with your settings.