`Tips for Great Fireworks Photos`

The fireworks season is upon us, starting with July 1 st in Canada and July 4 th in the USA and extending well through the summer season into fall.

In Vancouver we have a two-week long festival devoted to fireworks. Hundreds of thousands of people line the waterways to watch and take part in the festivities.

What could be more fun than getting some fabulous photos of the spectacular and colorful fireworks displays.

Here are some tips and tricks that will help you get some GREAT photos (vs. a blurry mess) to share with friends and/or to sell as part of your STOCK photo library.

You MUST have a tripod!

Beg, borrow or buy one … you won’t get good photos without one. You will be doing long exposures and there is no way you can get rid of camera shake without a tripod.

Another useful bit of gear is a cable release. You can release the shutter without touching the camera … again reducing camera movement.

Arrive Early and Scout Out a Location

Arrive early to scout out the perfect location and “reserve” your spot. Find out where the fireworks will be launched from and position yourself accordingly. Try to get a high location or something where people can’t move in front of you.

Find out which way the wind is blowing and if you can, get upwind. Fireworks create loads of smoke and if the wind blows it towards you it can block your shot. If you can get a location upwind you can use the smoke to your advantage when the accumulated smoke creates a background, reflecting light and highlighting your shots.

IF you can, have something in your photos that is recognizable. This may be a building or a cityscape background, a fountain or a body of water in which the fireworks reflections can be captured.

Stay away from lampposts, store front lights, or any other light sources in the vicinity. The ambient light may “creep” into your photos causing lens flare or generally washing out the colors in the displays. Watch for tree branches or hanging wires or signs that will show up as black blobs in your photos.

Quality

Use the highest quality setting on your camera.

Flash

Turn it off. I don’t care what other people are doing … you want great photos don’t you?

Exposure

Your exposure and shutter speed is critical. Normally you will want to experiment with 1 to 4 seconds, which means you will be using the B (Bulb) setting. You need to expose long enough to get the full effect of the display. Too long will result in a washed out image. Use ISO 50 or ISO 100.

Focus

Set your focus to infinity. Some cameras actually have a fireworks mode.

Stuff to Include in Your KIT

These are some of the things it is useful to include in your kit. You will be away for several hours so think ahead and be prepared.

Since you are using your highest quality camera settings you will be eating up memory … so bring extra cards, chips or whatever your camera needs.
Load up on some extra batteries.
It will be dark and a small flashlight will be most welcome.
A small blanket to sit or kneel on.
An umbrella, just in case.
Chocolate bar or munchies, and water or something to drink.

Experiment

Try this fun trick. Lock your shutter open and block the lens with a piece of black cardboard. Watch the sky and remove the cardboard when there is a spectacular burst of color or a special effect. You can literally … build a photo by removing the cardboard several times. This can be a lot of fun … and obviously depends somewhat on luck!

Grand Finale

Fireworks displays usually build to a spectacular ending. Be sure to save some memory for the finale.