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

Night Time Long Expsoure

 So this week I thought I’d write about night time long exposure as it’s one of my favorite photographic styles. This type of photography can be lots of fun but you need to be careful, especially shooting along roads at night and police will often stop to see what you are doing late at night along a highway.

    I have had a lot of students ask me how to do night time long exposure and it’s really pretty easy and some trial and error. You will need the following equipment:

1. DSLR camera with a charged battery and memory card installed
2. Good, sturdy tripod
3. Remote shutter for your camera, I recommend a cable release or Triggertrap
4. A good, sharp lens, aperture doesn’t really matter but I prefer something like the Canon 40mm STM Pancake lens with F/2.8

    Now, just find a good location at night, I prefer to shoot after 11pm myself but your mileage may vary. Set your camera up on your tripod and hook up the cable release. You will need BULB mode on your camera as your shutter setting. Now, set your lens to as wide as possible and set your focus to manual mode and your ISO to 100.

    They way I do it, I wait until a nice stream of vehicles are coming and then press the cable and hold it for 20-30 seconds and you can get some pretty cool warp speed effects that makes the cars look like they are streaking by. The image below is one I shot I call Wall of Light. This image was actually chosen by AI to be in a school publication last year.

    Night time long exposure is not limited to shooting traffic along the road, you can use the exact same settings to shoot landscapes as well, say a nice home in your area or just about anything. I am also including one I did of a local lake at night I call this one Twilight Lake. This image was chosen by an independent judge to be in AI’s Veteran’s show last year in the Second Life gallery. As you can see, you can make some fantastic images at night, so don't think daytime is the only time you can shoot.

    Go on out there and try it for yourself!


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