How To Photograph Amazing Fireworks

It's summer and July 4th is fast approaching. That, of course, means some fantastic opportunities to capture stunning images of fireworks. Photographing fireworks can seem a daunting task if you've never attempted it before (or attempted without desired results). Your Photo Tips will help you capture those stunning photographs with style.

Equipment needed:

Camera (of course)
Tripod
Remote Release
Blanket (optional)

Aperture

Contrary to most low light photography, you're gonna want to use a low aperture between f/8 and f/16. The fireworks will provide lot's of light in comparison to the sky that surrounds the display and you'll want to take advantage of that. The darker the sky is, the more those colorful bursts of light will "pop" in your finished image.

ISO

You'll also want to use an ideal ISO for your camera. Most digital cameras are actually at their best at 200 ISO but you can definitely do this at ISO 100. This is so that you get the least amount of digital noise and your images will turn out cleaner.

Shutter Speed

Here is your most important factor in getting great fireworks photographs. My preference is shooting in bulb setting and using the remote release. You'll want to open the shutter right before the firework explodes and hold it open as the explosion occurs giving you long trailing light. If you are wanting to capture multiple bursts you can use a black card to place in front of the lens between bursts. If you go this route know that too many bursts will overexpose the image if the fireworks overlap too much and cause your finished image to look overcrowded or cluttered.

Manual Focus

Cameras can have a hard time focusing in the dark so be sure to use manual focus and set it to infinity. If your camera won't do infinity then use the landscape mode which is essentially the same thing. Another good tip if your using a point and shoot is to set your focus either before the show starts (if you have a reference point) or on the first set of explosions.

Focal Length

Using a wide focal length will help you capture the fireworks' explosions in their entirety. This will help prevent the fireworks themselves from running off your frame. You can of course try some tighter crops by zooming in and get some really great abstract type imagery, but that can be hit or miss as it's hard to tell exactly where the fireworks will actually burst and which direction they will head.

Framing

Vertical or Horizontal? It depends. Most often vertical is going to work best as fireworks are shot up into the air and fall back down. Often times, however, there will be shorter wider series of fireworks that would do good to capture horizontally. Experiment with both so your options are open.

Be Extraordinary

At this time of year, there will undoubtebly be tons of fireworks photographs being uploaded around the Internet (and of course flickr). If you're looking to stand out from the crowd here are a few things to consider.

Know where the wind is headed. If you're downwind you'll get all of the smoke from the fireworks in your pictures and they'll come out hazy.

The first sets of fireworks will have less smoke as an obstacle.

Using a reference point like a building or other structure will add to the magnitude of the fireworks display and add interest in the image.

Try to capture as many different frames as possible. It's really hard to tell which ones are going to look best while your shooting.

Take a few images of the people watching the fireworks as well. The light from the fireworks themselves will create interesting light casts on the observers.

If you're near water use the reflection of the fireworks in the image to create some truly magical pictures.