Shoot Fireworks (or at least photos of them)
By Alexander Haglund
25 June 2007
Fireworks seem like streams of fire to us, but in reality, during a single brief moment, say 1/125 of a second, fireworks are just sparks in the sky. In other words, it's not just the fire of the fireworks, but the movement, the outward expansion of the bursting shells that makes fireworks what we love to see.
To show the aforementioned motion and capture it in an essentially still media, we need to stretch that moment out. The tripod is what lets us do this and have the photos remain clear. And generally, the bigger the tripod, the better.
Another point to consider when shooting is that fireworks are often a lot higher up than it seems like when you are just watching them from the stands.
Your tripod should be able to securely hold the camera pointing at least near to straight up, with a minimum of jerry-rigging.
Also to get items in the foreground in when you are pointing the camera nearly straight up, you may have to go wide with the lens and low with the position. Like maybe to ground level or near it. One of the digital cameras with a pivoting live preview screen might be good for this if the image quality and exposure controls are satisfactory.
To begin your preparation, see how slow the shutter speeds on your camera go. Thirty second exposures are good, but being able to do bulb or time exposures for each picture is the best way.
The problem with many DSLRs isn't that they won't do bulb exposures, it's that they make you hold down the shutter button to do them, which can cause blur.
A cable release is the best way to deal with this, and hopefully, your camera has one, available for around $20.
If you don't have or can't afford the cable release, I would recommend using a longer exposure and stepping away from the camera after you hit the shutter.
If you keep getting blur with that method, set the camera to timer mode so the vibration from you pushing the button has ten seconds to dissipate before the shutter trips.
The problem with using the timer or long exposures is that you lose some precision in your timing. A cable release (or air, or radio, or infrared) allows you to time each exposure to catch the fireworks burst you are photographing.
Using the long shutter technique might also make it hard at dusk or when other light isn't totally gone. You can catch the burst without too much trouble, but what if your exposure time is only one second? It gets a lot harder, and the shake from pressing the shutter is during the whole exposure, not just during the first 2 seconds.
So use a cable release, or try to, in some way, limit your contact with the camera.
As far as timing is concerned, it might also be a good idea to get a position where you can see the launch point of the fireworks. I'll often start my exposure as soon as I see the shell leave the tube, and I'll hold the shutter open until the end of the burst.
Keep in mind that while showing more than one burst can add to the authenticity of the photograph, keeping the shutter open for too many bursts could overexpose your image.
With the way the fireworks can overlap, particularly at long distances, the bursts might just go one atop the other rather than coming out as separate bursts. If you want this can be a desired effect, but if your trying to see individual fireworks, it's no good.
A note on exposure: While not particularly important beyond getting the right exposure over the time you need it to get the bursts in, it still helps to dial in your image.
A good start with my setup, a Nikon D70 with an 18-35 lens and an infrared remote, is around 5-10 seconds at ISO 200 at f8. I try to keep the shutter open only as long as I need it, and I keep the aperture at f5.6-f11 for sharpness.
If you want to shoot the fireworks with something around them for context or scenery, the problems with exposure get trickier.
Try to get the areas around the fireworks lit with something else, like streetlights or lanterns. Remember that the light of the fireworks can affect your exposure, especially at long shutter speeds.
This also brings up the point of setting the camera at ISO 200 (the slowest for the D70). With almost any night photography, your contrast may not be exactly where you want it straight from the camera.
Shooting in a RAW mode as opposed to shooting JPEGs can get you a little more latitude. If you still need to lighten things up in Photoshop though, shooting at a lower ISO will give you a lot less noise when you raise the levels of shadow areas up.
The fortunate thing is that people tend to stay relatively still while watching the fireworks, but don't expect to take a picture of someone's face and have it come out tack sharp after 5 seconds, let alone 30.
Finally, with regards to camera positioning, remember that staring through a dark tube, at a dark sky, during a dark night is not likely to give you the most framing clues. If all else fails, screw the viewfinder and slap a level to your camera for straightness, and go wide to catch all the action. With 8+ megapixels, you can afford to crop a bit.
On a final note, I would say that the best way to take great firework pictures is to make the photographic experience of fireworks as fun as it is to watch the fireworks or shoot them off yourself. Relax, take experimental leaps, ignore this article, whatever. The big fireworks holiday in the U.S. is Independence Day, but there are fireworks shows in different spots throughout the year, so if you screw the photo up, just remember that there may be another chance sooner than you think.
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