Lesson: Capturing Jaw-Dropping Fireworks Shots

This year's Independence Day was a blast and it also provided a great learning experience for me that I'm really excited to share with my readers.  I had never taken fireworks photos before but I'm really happy with how mine  turned out.  Below, I'm going to highlight my keys to success.  

1.  It all starts with a firm base: Use a tripod

A tripod is an absolute necessity for taking pictures of fireworks.  Shutter speeds will be at least a second (I'll go into my camera settings in a bit) which makes steady hand-holding impossible.  I also highly recommend using a ballhead to allow you to quickly move and reframe your shots as you follow the fireworks into the night sky.

  

2.  Camera Settings...  these are settings I used and/or recommend as well as a few ideas for differing shooting from different perspectives.  

ISO - It is a necessity to keep your ISO as LOW and possible.  I shot at the Nikon default low - 200 but going down to 100 or even 50 isn't a bad idea.  Reasoning?  High ISOs lead to more noise (graininess) in your pictures.  Add long exposures in and high ISO is a recipe for disaster.  Bottom line, if you want your pictures to stay sharp, keep your ISO low.  

Aperture - I highly recommend an aperture of f/8 or f/11.  Reasoning?  The fireworks are going to be fairly far away, certainly far enough away to be considered at infinity on your camera.  As I've read in many books and learned from experience, f/8 or f/11 are perfect "who cares" apertures that will allow you to keep everything at infinity in sharp focus.  Stick with either of these values and you won't go wrong.  

Mode - Keep everything in manual mode!  I know that sounds scary in the world of thoughtless program mode or even aperture or shutter speed priority but it's not as bad as you think.  In some ways, shooting fireworks is a guessing game or an exercise in trial and error.  The good news is you already know where to keep your ISO and aperture so the only thing left for you to adjust is shutter speed.  

Shutter Speed - There is no "right answer" on where to set your shutter speed.  All of my pictures below were taken at shutter speeds between 1 and 2 seconds, usually around 1.6 seconds.  To get the full shape of the firework you're probably going to need at least a one second exposure.  A good recommendation is to pick a speed and check out your pictures.  If you want more movement in your fireworks or you'd like to incorporate multiple bursts, just adjust to a longer shutter.  Another helpful recommendation is to shoot in bulb mode which allows you to control exactly when the shutter stops.  

Flash - Don't use it, ever.  Just don't do it.  You'll wash out your foreground and your images will look like junk.  There's nothing else to say about it.  

3.  Lens Choice

Lens choice will be completely situationally dependent.  I actually took fireworks shots on two consecutive nights this holiday.  The first night I only brought my 70-200mm lens and I experienced a letdown because I was too close to the fireworks to allow me to capture the scale I was looking for.  The second night I used my 18-200 and I was thrilled with the results.  If I wanted a close up of one explosion, I could get it.  If I wanted a wider perspective that allowed me to capture multiple bursts at once, I could get that too.  So, consider where you'll be taking pictures from and how far away you'll be from the fireworks.  Decide how much flexibility you want and the perspective you're looking for.  

No matter what lens you choose, one thing is important.  Also focus manually to infinity.  ALWAYS!  Set your lens to infinity and keep it there.  You'll never need to give your focus a second thought.  

4.  Other Considerations...

Remote Release - It may be helpful to use a remote release in order to ensure your camera stays as still as possible during long exposures.  I have one but didn't use it and was still very happy with the results.  I was really close to the action at both locations and as a result, was constantly reframing and tracking the fireworks through the lens.  I also strongly prefer to view through the lens to constantly know where I'm at.  Sometimes using a remote release just makes me feel too far from what's going on.  That being said, if I were shooting fireworks from say a half mile away and my composition was fairly constant, I'd use the remote release in a second.  

Framing - This is all about personal preference.  I used portrait for all of my shots because I was so close and portrait orientation allowed me to capture the firework going into the sky and then falling back down to Earth.  If I were further away I may have switched to landscape.  It's all up to you so try both and see which you prefer!  

Location - Try to find a great backdrop or an interesting foreground (like my pictures with the car).  Another important thing to consider is wind.  Try to stay upwind from the fireworks.  It may seem like a minor detail but when it's the middle of the grand finale and your shots are blocked by clouds of smoke you'll think of me and wish you would have picked a different seat.   

Just Keep Shooting! - I took about 150 pictures in 30 minutes.  Shoot the entire time!  The more you shoot the more you can hone your methods and the better chance you'll walk away with "the shot".  

For my first time, I'm really happy with the results.  One of the pictures below earned me my first-ever publication and the honor of being a finalist for photo of the month for a Chicago area newspaper.  If you'd like to purchase any of my pictures please check out my smugmug account.