This was a week for experimenting with fireworks. Safety first though – I was photographing them, not playing with them personally. This is one of those events where living in a relatively urban area worked in my favor – there were fireworks someplace close by almost every night of the week so I had a lot of opportunities to practice.
I used a digital camera where I could manually set the ISO, f/stop, and shutter speed, a 24 – 105mm lens, a tripod, and a wireless cable (shutter) release. I tried to find a location where I’d be close enough that the fireworks would fill most of the frame but there would be few obstructions (no wires, street lights, trees, etc). Because I could get pretty close to the event, I chose to shoot in a vertical (portrait) format rather than horizontal (landscape) format so I had the option of capturing the firework’s ascension along with the burst.
Photo specifications: ISO 100, f/22, 3.2 seconds, 100mm
I used the manual mode on my camera so I could adjust all the settings. Fireworks are very bright compared to the ambient background light so you can use a slow ISO (e.g., 100) and a small f/stop (e.g., f/16 or f/22) to allow for a shutter speed of at least a few seconds. I picked a shutter speed of 3 – 4 seconds. That length of time allowed me to capture the full burst or multiple bursts. Some people like to use a long shutter speed (30 seconds) and then just briefly cover the lens (with a hat or similar object) between bursts to get several bursts of many types in one shot. I chose to capture each “sequence” (sometimes a single burst, sometimes they shot of two or three right in a row) as a separate image.
Photo specifications: ISO 100, f/22, 3.2 seconds, 105mm
I had a lot of photos by the end of the first night. What I learned was that the timing was good but about 40% of the photos were off center and an edge of the burst was cut off (mostly because I was zoomed in a tad too much). I headed out for a second night where I used the same ISO, f/stop, and shutter speed settings but a much wider angle to so the entire burst fit in the frame. I also let a few bursts go by so I could look through the viewfinder and adjust my point of view on the fly to better center them in the frame. I took a lot of pictures again but there were fewer cut off edges. All in all, I ended up with some cool images and I was happy with the outcome. Plus I got to go to fireworks twice this year!
Photo specifications: ISO 100, f/22, 3.2 seconds, 24mm
Did YOU take any pictures of fireworks this year? What worked for you?
Nice shots! These colors are awesome.
Thanks!