Shooting Fireworks

With the Fourth of July holiday being this past weekend I thought it was a good time to post on a question that many student photographers ask, “How do I shoot fireworks?”

Shooting fireworks can be tricky because first of all, you are shooting at night, which many photographers find difficult to begin with. Second, because your shooting at night, your auto focus will be totally useless as will any automatic modes on your camera. In this post I am going to give you my tips for shooting fireworks and they are pretty much the same that any other photographer will give you.

Check your local weather reports. Even though fireworks are generally used in the U.S. for July Fourth, they are often used to ring in the New Year as well. Even though it is July, there is no guarantee it will not rain as we had here in Georgia this year.
Scout your location. Get to your location early and make certain you will have a clear view to the action. If your fireworks are happening across a bay or lake, you may want to shoot from the opposite side as the reflections on the water look amazing!

Shooting over Boston Harbor photo ©Michael Phillips

As far as gear and settings, you want to shoot fireworks as a long exposure usually as this will give you your best shots and make for some really nice light effects when the fireworks detonate.

1.) A DSLR camera that is capable of BULB shutter mode. Some of you may be asking, what is BULB mode. BULB mode is a setting that allows you to press your shutter button and have the shutter stay open as long as the button is pressed. On my cameras, BULB has it’s own mode on the dial labeled with a ‘B’, but on your camera, you might just have to keep going lower and lower with your shutter speed until you see BULB on your LCD.

A nice, red burst captured at Covington, GA Fourth of July show

2.) Since we are shooting long exposure, you will need a tripod. It is not possible to have long shutter times with hand holding your camera as hand-shake will blur and ruin all your images.
Cable release. This is a cable and button or remote that plugs into your camera and allows you to trigger the shutter without touching the camera. Even with your camera on a tripod if you try pressing the shutter button on the camera, you will blur and ruin your shot. Recommended shutter time is 2.5-4 seconds.

3.) Set your ISO. When shooting fireworks you want to use your lowest possible ISO setting. If shooting a Canon it will be 50 or 100, depending on your camera model, if shooting Nikon it will be 200 most likely. You don’t need to worry about low light, the fireworks are bright when they go off.

4.) Aperture. Set your aperture at around F/11-F22. You want your aperture as narrow as possible to let in the least amount of light and get the best final images. Aperture is something you may have to play with on the fly as your shoot, but start at F/11 and adjust from there.


When shooting fireworks, open your shutter when you see the rocket going up into the air and hold it open as it explodes into it’s colors, then release. If you want to make more of a full light effect, hold it open as several of them burt open in a row and you will capture all of the explosions. If your shots look too dark, then move your aperture open more, say F/8, or if they are too blow out then move to F/16 and try again. Also remember to leave your White Balance on auto and you should be fine. If you are looking to make the sky bluer in the background, then use Tungsten or if you want more orange, then use cloud or shade on your White Balance.

Covington, GA Fourth of July fireworks finale

That’s pretty much it, the rest is trial and error, shoot and adjust until you think they look good. Once you have your settings, I recommend turning off your auto preview as it is distracting and slows your camera performance down. Now go shoot some fireworks!

Comments/Questions

How to shoot fireworks!

            So for this week’s topic I think it’s a very relevant one since the Fourth of July is tomorrow.  Lots of people always want to shoot the fireworks. Everyone always asks the same thing, what settings should I use? What’s the best way to capture them? For me I like to go and set up a little bit early this way you know what you are going to have in the way of a foreground. Without a foreground your images might look a little plain.  You will want to make sure you have a sturdy tripod and a remote cable release. I like to set my camera to bulb mode and use a wireless trigger to operate the shutter. This way I can hit the shutter and count how long its open for. If there are a lot of fireworks set off at once it will be a good idea to use a shorter amount of time. I also like to shoot with .8-15 seconds this way I get the trail of the firework going up in the air.  You will also want to make sure the camera is in Manual focus. Then to set the focus I would turn it to infinity and they back just a bit.

Photographing Fireworks!

What you'll need:

Camera with a manual setting.

Remote shutter release.

Tripod

Secure the camera in the tripod composing your shot. Connect the remote shutter release so that it's being used to trip the exposure.

Fireworks settings:

Shooting Mode-Manual

Focus Mode - Manual

ISO 100-200

Aperture F/5.6-F/8

Shutter Speed of 0.8"-6"

Advanced considerations:

Vary the shutter speed slightly using the "bulb" setting according to the event and number of rockets.

Use white balance presets and film emulations that give greater colors and saturation.

Most important, have fun!!!

Happy Shooting,

Thursday Ambassador

Advisor, Advisor, Where Art Thou?

I hope you all had a Happy 4th and caught some fabulous Firework shots!

As a student at AI there is a team of people put in place to help you.  Specifically YOU!  Your Admissions Counselor, Financial Counselor and Academic Counselor make up this team.  Notice they are called COUNSELORS because their job is to COUNSEL, to ADVISE, to HELP you!

coun·se·lor

  [koun-suh-ler] 

noun

1.   a person who counsels; adviser.

coun·sel

  [koun-suhl]  Show IPA noun, plural coun·sel for3, verb, coun·seled, coun·sel·ing or ( especially British )coun·selled, coun·sel·ling.

noun

1.    advice; opinion or instruction given in directing the judgment or conduct of another.

2.    interchange of opinions as to future procedure; consultation;deliberation.

If you do not know who your Academic Counselor is or how to contact him, here is some help.  This is screen shot of my home page.

Notice the big purple arrow on the right hand side?  This is where the name and contact information (phone and email) for your Academic Counselor can be found.

PLEASE take advantage of these men and women!  They are experts!  It is their job to help you wade through the logistics of your educational courses at AI.  Pick up the phone and really get to know them.  Give them a way to remember you (mine is easy, I have 10 kids – no one forgets that LOL). Get to know them a first name basis.

Our Advisors are also our advocates.  If you need something ASK them.  It never hurts to ask, the worst that can happen is youget told, “No,” and then you are no worse off then if you had never asked.  Let me leave you with an example.

I had a particular Instructor that I really “clicked” with.  She was encouraging and challenging and I grew a lot in her class.  I learned that there was another class she taught that I still needed to take and in fact she was teaching it soon.  She and I had been in contact and she indicated she would like to have me in class again. So I called my Advisor.  At first the response was, “Well I don’t know,” but with further explanation and discussions and a bit of persstence on my part, I got in the class with the Instructor I wanted! 

Advisors – they are just a phone call (or email) away.

Have questions?  I am happy to answer.  Or share your experience with your Advisor. 

It’s just another Manic Monday…..

Monday Ambassador

Big Bang Boom! Fireworks Photo Tips

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

In honor of tomorrow's Independence Day celebration, here are a few tips to help you take some fantastic fireworks images:

1. Shoot in Manual Mode!  For fireworks you need to have the greatest control over your camera settings.  Start out at ISO 100, f/11, and 1/2 sec exposure.  Once you have taken a couple of pictures then you can adjust you shutter speed as necessary to get the shots you want.

2.  Focus!  Make sure you set you focus manually before shooting.  Once the pyrotechnic show starts your camera's built in autofocus will not be able to find a contrasting edge to focus on (unless you get lucky).  Find something in the sky or something on the ground that is the same distance away as the fireworks will be.  Once you have set it using manual focus, leave it there and fire away.

3.  Use a tripod!  The slow shutter speeds required to capture amazing shots on July 4th means your camera needs to be stabilized.  If you have an external cable release that will also help reduce camera shake giving you nice clean images.

4.  Check you environment!  Take a look at your surroundings before you start shooting to see what interesting elements there are in the foreground of your images.  Use those natural features to frame your composition.  If you are in a city location, use the city skyline as a backdrop.  And don't forget to keep your horizon line straight.

Well this should get you off on the right foot to start taking fantastic images during your local fireworks shows.  Once you're finished shooting post some of your new images up on the PSPN Google+ page.  I would love to see how they turned out.

Theiss, Mike. "Fireworks, St. Louis." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 3 July 2013.      <http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/photographing-fireworks/#/fireworks-st-louis_37118_600x450.jpg>.