Lan-Lord
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The 4th of July is just 2 weeks away. I love photographing fireworks. I thought that I would post a couple of tactics and guidelines so that others can get some great firework shots too.
Location:
The first thing to do is find a good location. You don't want trees or buildings between you and the fireworks. Try to figure out a good spot before they start. You don't want to pack up the family in the middle of the show and move 30 yards to the left.
Actually, sometimes buildings, people, or trees can add a nice foreground effect if they are along the edges of the frame of the photo. So keep that in mind in case you have to deal with obstacles.
Another thing to consider is water. Sometimes fireworks are launced over a bay or a lake. If you can be elevated some, you can get great reflections off of the water.
Tripod:
A tripod is a MUST. If you dont have a tripod, you will need to figure out some way to stabilize the camera. I suggest a tripod, but if you forget it or dont have one, think about a way beforehand to stablize the camera.
Camera Settings:
These are extremely variable. The reason why is because sometimes fireworks are launced late at night when it is very dark, sometimes they are launced at sundown when you still have some sun light. Sometimes you have a full moon, and sometimes you have cloud cover. All of these factors compound the complexity of camera settings. And sometimes, you will have all of the above factors changing over the course of the fireworks show.
So here is a 9 step process to getting the camera configured quickly and easily.
[the following steps are for a digital camera]
Preliminary prep.
1.) Place camera on tripod before it gets dark.
Once fireworks are launched
2.) Turn camera on,
3.) Set the White Balance (WB) to the Sunny/Sunshine/Outside setting.
4.) Set your ISO to ISO100.
5.) Set the camera setting to Shutter Priority (S-Mode)
6.) Dial the Shutter speed to 3-4 seconds.
7.) Roughly, when you hear the initial explosion of the launch, count 1-2 seconds and press the shutter.
(this is totally a guestimate, you will need to figure out the best time to start the capture, remember that camera has some shutter lag before it starts capturing)
8.) Take a couple of photos of the fireworks
9.) Review the photos that you just took through the LCD.
if your photos are too dark and/or there is not much of the firework showing up (e.g. you just see dots) bump the shutter speed to 6-7 seconds
if the photos are blown out, (too bright) then set the shutter speed to 1-2 seconds
You will have to make some game time decisions on setting the shutter speed. You may even have to change them half way through. So the best and fastest way to get those camera settings hammered down is to review.
A couple of gotchas:
-When finding a location, try not to get too close, otherwise you might have fireworks exploding outside of the frame of your photo.
-Don't zoom in too much either, they sometimes launch the fireworks in different directions, you want to point the camera in the middle of the sky where you expect the fireworks to be, and hopefully they will stay within the frame of your camera.
-Take a small mini mag light, or press light. It is hard to change the camera settings when it is dark outside. (don't turn the light on while the shutter is open though!)
-Try to locate yourself so that there are not any street lights, house lights, or building lights between you and the fireworks. This is hard sometimes, but if you can limit the amount of light (besides the light from the fireworks) you will have better looking photos.
This was a 20 second shutter speed. It gave an electricity effect.
This firework almost didnt make the frame, I was a little too close (missed a bunch of them) and there was a tree on the left which blocked alot of the fireworks.
A nicely executed capture, the burst of purple is from the previous firework. The white trail going up is from the main firework being launched. If it is windy, you will notice that the trails will start to curve, which is noticed in this one. 4 second exposure, ISO100, F8
4 sec, ISO100, F8
4 sec, ISO100, F8
This one was taken early in the evening, notice that the sky is blueish. 4 sec, ISO100, F4.5
Location:
The first thing to do is find a good location. You don't want trees or buildings between you and the fireworks. Try to figure out a good spot before they start. You don't want to pack up the family in the middle of the show and move 30 yards to the left.
Actually, sometimes buildings, people, or trees can add a nice foreground effect if they are along the edges of the frame of the photo. So keep that in mind in case you have to deal with obstacles.
Another thing to consider is water. Sometimes fireworks are launced over a bay or a lake. If you can be elevated some, you can get great reflections off of the water.
Tripod:
A tripod is a MUST. If you dont have a tripod, you will need to figure out some way to stabilize the camera. I suggest a tripod, but if you forget it or dont have one, think about a way beforehand to stablize the camera.
Camera Settings:
These are extremely variable. The reason why is because sometimes fireworks are launced late at night when it is very dark, sometimes they are launced at sundown when you still have some sun light. Sometimes you have a full moon, and sometimes you have cloud cover. All of these factors compound the complexity of camera settings. And sometimes, you will have all of the above factors changing over the course of the fireworks show.
So here is a 9 step process to getting the camera configured quickly and easily.
[the following steps are for a digital camera]
Preliminary prep.
1.) Place camera on tripod before it gets dark.
Once fireworks are launched
2.) Turn camera on,
3.) Set the White Balance (WB) to the Sunny/Sunshine/Outside setting.
4.) Set your ISO to ISO100.
5.) Set the camera setting to Shutter Priority (S-Mode)
6.) Dial the Shutter speed to 3-4 seconds.
7.) Roughly, when you hear the initial explosion of the launch, count 1-2 seconds and press the shutter.
(this is totally a guestimate, you will need to figure out the best time to start the capture, remember that camera has some shutter lag before it starts capturing)
8.) Take a couple of photos of the fireworks
9.) Review the photos that you just took through the LCD.
if your photos are too dark and/or there is not much of the firework showing up (e.g. you just see dots) bump the shutter speed to 6-7 seconds
if the photos are blown out, (too bright) then set the shutter speed to 1-2 seconds
You will have to make some game time decisions on setting the shutter speed. You may even have to change them half way through. So the best and fastest way to get those camera settings hammered down is to review.
A couple of gotchas:
-When finding a location, try not to get too close, otherwise you might have fireworks exploding outside of the frame of your photo.
-Don't zoom in too much either, they sometimes launch the fireworks in different directions, you want to point the camera in the middle of the sky where you expect the fireworks to be, and hopefully they will stay within the frame of your camera.
-Take a small mini mag light, or press light. It is hard to change the camera settings when it is dark outside. (don't turn the light on while the shutter is open though!)
-Try to locate yourself so that there are not any street lights, house lights, or building lights between you and the fireworks. This is hard sometimes, but if you can limit the amount of light (besides the light from the fireworks) you will have better looking photos.
This was a 20 second shutter speed. It gave an electricity effect.
This firework almost didnt make the frame, I was a little too close (missed a bunch of them) and there was a tree on the left which blocked alot of the fireworks.
A nicely executed capture, the burst of purple is from the previous firework. The white trail going up is from the main firework being launched. If it is windy, you will notice that the trails will start to curve, which is noticed in this one. 4 second exposure, ISO100, F8
4 sec, ISO100, F8
4 sec, ISO100, F8
This one was taken early in the evening, notice that the sky is blueish. 4 sec, ISO100, F4.5
