Settings for fireworks
Fireworks photos need a small amount of technical photographic knowledge; not much, just enough so you can get the photo you picture in your head:
If your firework photos look more like this then read on to find out what you are doing wrong:
Firework photos can go wrong for five main reasons:
Too dark.
Camera shake.
Not in focus.
Uninteresting composition.
Distracting smoke.
Read on for tips on dealing with these issues.
Help with the basics
If you need more help with terms like “exposure”, “aperture” and “camera shake” then join Emma’s online beginner’s course – A Year With My Camera – here. It’s free by email. Join here and get started today:
Settings to use to start with
Fireworks photos are made at night and if you have your camera on auto-exposure mode it will struggle to work out what the correct exposure should be. You can’t wait until the fireworks go off and leave your camera on auto – that’s not enough time for the camera to focus and expose. You need to go onto manual mode, or at the very least aperture-priority or shutter-priority mode, and pre-dial your settings.
(Join my A Year With My Camera course above if that paragraph makes no sense.)
These are some suggested settings to start with. Review your images and adjust as needed on the night. The long shutter speed presupposes you have a tripod or can safely leave your camera on a wall or other stable object. If you are hand holding then you will need to reduce the shutter speed to 1/60th, let the ISO climb as high as it needs to, and have very quick reactions to catch the firework as it explodes. You can try using burst mode to be sure of catching a couple of good shots.
Pre-focus manually using something on the horizon around where the fireworks will go off to guess the distance.
Use an aperture of f8 or f11 to ensure you have a deep enough depth of field.
Use a low ISO (100 or 200) to keep the image quality good.
Use a shutter speed of 30 seconds to “collect” a good few bursts of fireworks as they go off. Or, if you have a cable release, set the camera to “Bulb” mode and leave the shutter open for as long as you need to. The long shutter speed won’t matter because the sensor will only pick up the flashes of light as they appear.
Review your first image at 100% on your LCD to check it is in focus and that the image is not over- or under-exposed. Adjust the aperture or shutter speed if needed.
If you have more time
Watch out for smoke, especially if it is a misty evening; the smoke will build and distract from your images. Try and point your camera to the higher displays as the smoke will hopefully drift downwards (although it depends on the wind direction).
Try and build a composition by watching where the fireworks go off and aiming to overlap multiple fireworks within the single frame. If you are quick you can move the camera between fireworks. For even more advanced compositions try to keep something on the ground in the shot to give a sense of scale and place, even if it is silhouetted.
Photoshopping
Manage your expectations. Many images you see online will have been photoshopped; either the fireworks will be overlaid from one frame to another, or they will have been created in Photoshop itself. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of these approaches, I just encourage you not to take inspiration from shots that will be impossible to recreate in real life, if you are trying to work in real life. This one, for example, looks suspiciously perfect;
