Photographing Fireworks

Step 6 Conclusion

Use a low ISO and adjust the f-stop to get the shots you like. Play around with the manual settings to see what effect they have on the resulting image.

These same settings can be used to photograph lightning, too!

Have fun, and enjoy the summer.

- Brett @ SaskView

PS: thanks Instructable staff for featuring this!

Comments

[Lithops]

Nice 101 on fireworks photography :) It's not as hard as it might seem nor do you need expensive SLRs... One thing came to mind that i use and is not in this tutorial: if you want multiple fireworks in one shot, usually the other lit parts of the frame are badly overexposed, especially if you use longer exposures than just a couple of seconds... Just cover the lens with something like black foam rubber but just make sure that it covers enough beyond the lens. And be careful not to touch and shake the camera while doing that. Then simply take it away snappy when you see more fireworks shooting up.

[Silence]

Making sure your cameras exposure is calibrated is probably a good thing as well to get true colours etc. I tried fireworks about a year ago with my first DSLR, an Olympus E-410, using I think 10 sec exposure and the self timer at 2 sec or something like that. I was on ISO 800 and cant remember the rest, most were over exposed, but some turned out pretty good, it depended on how big and bright the firework was. Took over 300 shots and picked the best ones out. A cable release is really the best way to go.

[avatar_i]

That is basically what we have been doing for the last 30 years or so, but you can use a can [coffee, oatmeal, etc.] painted black on the inside, or a black baseball cap, to cover the lens for multiple shots on one frame. Just make sure to use a cable release to keep teh shutter locked open. That is one problem with many- if not all- of the entry level cameras: No cable release feature... Most of all, have fun and don't forget to enjoy the fireworks! Same way works for Lightning, too!

[Frivolous Engineering]

Thanks for the tip, I've added it to step 5!