How to Shoot Fireworks
With the 4th of July coming up tomorrow (The 4th is Independance Day in the US, and we celebrate with Fireworks), I thought I’d run a quick blurb from Vol. 1 of my book, The Digital Photography Book on how to shoot Fireworks (like I did last year around this time). Here ya go:
You’ll need to shoot fireworks with your camera on a tripod, because you’re going to need a slow enough shutter speed to capture the falling light trails, which is what you’re really after.
Also, this is where using a cable release really pays off, because you’ll need to see the rocket’s trajectory to know when to push the shutter button—if you’re looking in the viewfinder instead, it will be more of a hit or miss proposition.
Next, use a zoom lens (ideally a 200mm or more) so you can get in tight and capture just the fireworks themselves. If you want fireworks and the background (like fireworks over Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World), then use a wider lens.
Now, I recommend shooting in full Manual mode, because you just set two settings and you’re good to go:
- Set the Shutter Speed to 4 seconds
- Set the Aperture to f/11. Fire a test shot and look at the LCD monitor on the back of your camera to see if you like the results. If it overexposes, lower the shutter speed to 3 seconds, then take another shot and check the results again.
TIP: If your camera has “Bulb” mode (where the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the shutter release button down), this works great–hold the shutter button down when the rocket bursts, then release when the light trails start to fade. (By the way; most Canon and Nikon digital SLRs have bulb mode). The rest is timing—because now you’ve got the exposure and sharpness covered.
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Here’s wishing you all a safe and happy fourth, and I hope you capture some great images this year!
Earlier this week I pulled The Digital Photography Book Vol. 1 too see that fireworks tip again. Having never shot fireworks I am thankful for the instruction! Now I have to figure out where I will set up my tripod. By the way, I followed your advise from the same book and bought the Really Right Stuff ball head (the 55), and I am very much in love with it! I even bought the wedding flash bracket from them, and I think it is brilliant to build it so you can go into portrait mode with the flash bracket on! Since no other flash bracket allows for a tripod mount (that I know of) it is another great argument for the best ball head out there. Of course anyone who tries it out needs no convincing!
OOh scott great post, however I use a different technique,
ISO 100, f22, camera with a electronic release cable on bulb. Mirror locked up, you need to compose prior. and a sheet of black card,
place the black card foamie is quite good as light cannot get through it over the lens and fire of the shutter, as the fire work goes up remove black card, you can vary the timings quicker or slower to taste. Then place black card over lens. Release the shutter.
This method means that you dont get shutter lag, you control the exposure directly. With the mirror locked up means you dont get feathering (mares tails) on the light trails. As in your example.
To put my money where my mouth is here is an example,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardsimages/2580171014/
Composition is also important as many people forget the place is just as important as the sky.
Many thanks for allowing me to comment,
Rich
Here’s a final tip for film users — tell the developer NOT to cut your negatives. Photographing a whole roll of night sky makes it difficult to find the line between frames. Unfortunately, I learned this rule the hard way.
Scott — Love the techniques!
What I love about photography — is that you can have f/22 as a starting point, f/11, or f/1.8…. I have to dig it up – but shot a lovely bridesmaid, under streetlight, with fireworks in the background…. A lovely E-Session tip perhaps…
Scott, thank you for posting this today. We have our big Fireworks “Rhythm and Booms” in Madison, WI last weekend. I pulled out your Digital Photography Book and took a quick look to get the settings. You were spot on and my fireworks photos came out great. Only problem I had was that I forgot my cable release so I could not use bulb mode. If anyone is interested, you can see one of my shots here: http://wetzelphoto.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/booms/
Thanks for the great post!
While this should be obvious to most, it hasn’t been stated, but put your lens on manual focus and set to infinity. Otherwise your camera will spend more time getting the focus than actually getting the shots.
I got great shots at WDW using your technique Scott.
Andrew, I see this tip often but have never understood so I am going to ask, how do you ’set to infinity’?
Set your lens to manual then turn the focusing ring to all the way to the infinity symbol. It looks like number 8 on its side.
Thanks, Scott! I’ll give this a try!
Thank you for this! ..will have tripod and Rebel out tonight to keep trying till I get it right!
Thanks so much for the refresher course, Scott. I’m in Portland and left my (your) book at home. What would we do without you?
Thanks Scott….I have gotten pretty good results with the ‘hit or miss – and mostly miss’ technique I have used in the past. This will be WAY better! Thanks also to Richard C – I will be trying your technique too.
Thanks for the advise here Scott. This was my first year shooting fireworks and what you had to say really helped as a starting point. 4 seconds was too long, and even 3 seconds was too long. I shot mostly at 1.6 seconds! But I recognize that you are just giving a starting point suggestion and it is up to us to dial it to our liking. Thanks again man!
F/11 worked great for me. I used my tripod & cable release and just shot trial & error at the start of the show. I learned which fireworks required a shorter (1 or 2 second) shutter speed and left the lens open for up to 13 or 14 seconds for others. I was disappointed at the end of the show because I was getting the hang of the timing! Thanks for the pointers!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chompers66/sets/72157620841161631/
I saw this post prior to going out to shoot our local fireworks display. It was most helpful.
Because of the setting, I wanted to capture more than just the fireworks. I made a black card so that I could capture multiple bursts on a single exposure. I set the shutter on bulb and used a cable release. I quickly learned not to expose the moment of ‘explosion’ on a rocket as it created a large ‘blow out’ that was distracting. The multiple explosions produced suffieient light to slightly illuminate the USS Alabama and create a nice glow on the water of Mobile Bay. Most of my exposures were at least ten seconds but that is misleading because of my covering the lens with the black card.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skepticaldad/3693863541/
I got a bunch of great fireworks shots on Saturday night. Most of my shots were between 3 and 5 seconds long and around f11. I’ve tried using Bulb in the past but when the fireworks display is massive such as the ones in Pittsburgh there’s really no way you can time the fireworks because they’re shooting like 5 of them off at nearly the same time– it’s not 1 by 1 like little firworks shows. I basically just find an exposure setting I like and let it rip for the entire show.
I didn’t have a cable release either so I just used the 2 sec timer, worked great.
Here are some of the keepers I got.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcgrew/sets/72157620990281134/detail/?page=3
Dustin,
What do you mean mean by your comment:
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Thanks.
I’ll have to keep f11 in mind and try it out tonight. So far these have been some of my results: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyleringram/tags/fireworks/