A Guide to Photographing Fireworks
A Guide to Photographing Fireworks
Just in time for this year’s 250th anniversary fireworks shows, I have a guide to help you get great shots. Taking great photos of fireworks isn’t very hard, and once you have the right settings, you’ll be able to capture stunning results. Overall, the settings are a means to get the right exposure for your shot, and your shutter speed will be a big factor in the final result. Shutters ranging from 1/5th of a second to 60 seconds may look good depending on the desired amount of fireworks you want to capture and the effect you want them to have.
There are two methods that are the most popular for catching great shots of the fireworks. The first method is taking long exposures of 1/2 second to 30 seconds or longer. The second is a bit unconventional, using a black card to cover and uncover the lens during a bulb exposure. Let's take a closer look at both methods below.
Method 1: Long Exposures
The first method is the most commonly used and one that most would figure out on their own. Simply taking a long exposure of the fireworks works great. You simply need to find the right exposure settings to get the best exposure and the right amount of fireworks in the shot. I recommend arriving well before the show starts and taking some test exposures prior to the show starting. The photo above and below were both taken at F/11, ISO 100 and 8 second exposures. These settings allowed me to expose the foreground correctly and get the right amount of fireworks in the shot. You could take a shorter exposure of 1 second or a longer exposure like 30 seconds. The length of exposure will change the look of the shot. Here are some tips to help you get your exposure right:
Equipment needed:
Camera: A DSLR or Mirrorless camera with the ability to change Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO manually.
Tripod: A good sturdy tripod is mandatory to take longer exposures. It isn’t possible to handheld any shot over 1/25th of a second without something to stabilize the camera.
Cable Release / Remote: A cable release or a smartphone app (like Canon Camera Connect) is highly recommended to fire the shutter remotely, helping you avoid camera shake and keep the shot sharp.
Nighttime Essentials: Bring a small flashlight or headlamp to see your camera dials after dark, and a small, clean hand towel to wipe condensation or sweat off your gear.
Before The Show:
Scout the Wind: Get there early and find a good vantage point with no obstacles blocking the sky. Pay attention to the wind direction. You want to be positioned upwind or crosswind. If you are downwind from the launchpad, you’ll be shooting through a thick veil of trapped smoke after the first few bursts, which completely ruins your image sharpness and color saturation.
Pre-Focus to Infinity: Don't let your camera's autofocus hunt blindly in the dark sky. Switch your lens or camera body to Manual Focus (MF) before the show starts. Turn the focus ring to infinity, take a test shot of a distant building or horizon in Live View to ensure it's razor-sharp, and then lock it down. If you are using back button focusing you can leave your camera on Auto Focus. You don’t need infinity focus if you have something to focus on, like the Queen Mary in my examples.
Use the time before the show starts to get your exposure right. Take some test shots at different settings so you can quickly move back and forth during the show.
Getting Best Exposure:
A good exposure for fireworks will be one that is bright enough to expose most of the foreground elements without overexposing lights.
Take exposures before the show and note the settings that give you the best results.
Refer to your histogram in live view and after the shot in the preview as well. Your histogram should be heavily weighted to the left because the sky is dark, but it should not have much black clipping. Some black clipping is OK and might look natural to your location. Ignore the camera's built-in light meter scale—if you try to center the meter, it will try to turn the night sky into a muddy gray.
Best Settings:
Make sure you are shooting in Manual Mode to have full control over the camera’s Aperture, ISO, and Shutter Speed.
Turn off Auto ISO: Lock your camera manually at ISO 100 or 200 to keep the digital noise completely out of the dark sky.
Disable Highlight Tone Priority (HTP): While highlight protection features are great for daylight, during a fireworks show they will artificially pull up your base ISO and can trick your camera into muddying up crisp, vibrant light trails.
Short Bursts: For short bursts of fireworks use a shorter shutter speed, lower Aperture (f/4 or f/5.6), and slightly higher ISO.
Several Bursts: For several bursts, try exposures that are in the 4–10 second range. An aperture of f/8–f/11 and an ISO of 100 should get you this result.
Tons of Bursts: Take longer exposures such as 15 seconds to 60 seconds. Stopping down the lens to f/16 will help keep the highlights under control and give you thinner, deeply saturated light streaks.
Keep an eye on the brightness of the fireworks. If you are blowing out the bursts and they lack color (appearing purely white), your exposure is too bright. Stop your camera down further to bring the colors back.
Experiment with different settings, short and long exposures to see what result you like the best. I found that an exposure of around 8 seconds worked best for me. The picture above was an 8-second exposure, f/11, ISO 100.
Method 2: Bulb Exposure with Black Cover
The second method to taking fireworks shots is a bit unconventional, but can provide some very interesting results. This for this method you need something to cover your lens during a bulb exposure. I recommend a black matte square of about 8-12 inches of construction paper. This is used to cover your lens in between firework explosions. This method does take a bit of practice and if you haven’t done it before you could risk the entire show trying to get this right. Using the following tips to execute this method.
Equipment needed:
Camera: DSLR or Mirrorless capable of Bulb (B) mode.
Tripod: Sturdy support is absolutely required.
Locking Cable Release: Crucial for this method, as you need a remote button that can slide into a locked position to hold the shutter open continuously without your finger transferring vibrations to the camera body.
The Black Cover: A black matte (non-reflective) piece of construction paper cut into an 8–12 inch square, or a dark, opaque baseball hat.
Settings:
CRUCIAL - Turn Off Long Exposure Noise Reduction: If this menu setting is left on, the camera will automatically force a "blank frame" processing step after your long exposure that matches the length of your shutter speed. If you take a 30-second stacked bulb shot, your camera will lock you out for an additional 30 seconds to process—meaning you will completely miss the grand finale while your camera screen reads "BUSY".
Find a length of exposure that you like in Manual Mode. Note the F-Stop, Shutter Length, and ISO that are used.
Place your camera in Bulb Mode and use the same Aperture and ISO from your manual test mode. You will be using your total manual shutter speed as the target duration for how long the black card is removed from the lens.
Gently hold the black card directly in front of your lens (without touching the glass or moving the barrel), and click your remote to lock the shutter open in bulb mode to start the exposure.
When fireworks are about to explode, quickly but gently lift the card away to expose that group of fireworks. Count the seconds out loud while the card is down. When the firework burst fades, cover the lens again and pause your count.
When the next group is about to go skyward, remove the card from the lens again and resume your count from where you left off.
Once your cumulative "lens uncovered" count has reached the total exposure length you tested in manual mode, unlock your remote shutter button to close the shutter. Your stacked image is done.
Adjust the exposure or count time as needed. You may need to adjust your F-Stop and ISO if you want a shorter or longer overall exposure window. I will admit that this method is the most difficult to execute, but it can also give the absolute best results because you get to choose exactly which bursts make it into your final frame. Be patient, avoid mixing too many bursts on one frame (which leads to a messy jumble of white light), and experiment!
Conclusion
Whichever method you choose to use, be sure that you experiment with your shutter speed to get different looks. Try shorter shots like 1/5th of a second or 1/2 a second to freeze the action, then try longer shots like 4–30 seconds to paint long light trails. Adjust your settings to make sure you keep the exposure just right and you don’t blow out the fireworks in the histogram.
Keep an eye on your battery life as well—holding the shutter open in bulb mode drains power much faster than daytime shooting, so make sure you head out with a fully charged cell (and a spare in your pocket if you have one!). With any luck, you’ll come home with some great captures to share with everyone. Best of luck, stay safe, and hopefully you found this quick tutorial helpful while shooting your local show!
Want to master night and long-exposure photography in person? Check out our California Group Workshops or Private Masterclasses.
