I’ve discovered something about myself in recent years. I’m a wuss. I don’t think of myself that way, but every fourth of July I have to admit I’m a coward when the fireworks come out. I cringe and duck, I worry the whole time about burns, I watch every spark to see where it lands and if it’s going to start a fire, I struggle the whole time to not plug my ears and I am secretly glad when they are over. I do not enjoy fireworks. But, I really really really enjoy taking pictures of them. They combine all my favorite things in one picture: the joy and excitement of my children experiencing something memorable, family interactions as loved ones gather together, and interesting light that lets me get creative and experiment with settings.
When taking pictures of fireworks, you need to remember a few things:
1. Your light is constantly changing and you need to adapt to it. Chances are, you’ll start taking pictures at sunset or thereabouts and continue until it’s dark. In those twilight hours, or I should say minutes, the light changes so rapidly that you need to be constantly checking and adjusting your settings. You can simplify things by setting your dslr to shutter speed priority mode. The name for this mode will differ depending on your camera. It may show up on your dial as something with an S in it (mine is just “S” but my old camera was “SP” and I have seen other variations) and I think Canon uses something like TV. What this mode does is it allows you to choose your shutter speed, and then the camera chooses the best aperture to go with that in order to expose the shot. Remember, the longer the shutter is staying open, the more light it will let in and the more movement it will record, which usually results in blurry pictures so we try to avoid it. But with fireworks, a slow shutter speed can be desirable to show trails of light. (especially fun with sparklers)
Note that the shutter speed in the above picture is 3.0, not 1/30. That means the shutter is staying open for a whole 3 seconds, an eternity in photographing people. Remember to use a tripod or something stable to put your camera on so your own movement doesn’t add more blur to the picture.
2. Don’t forget the people watching the fireworks! Yes, fireworks are pretty, but how many pictures of fireworks do you honestly want to look at later on in life? Turn around and catch the expressions of the people watching the fireworks.
3. In photography, light is so important, it’s (almost) everything. When you’re taking pictures of fireworks, it’s generally pretty dark. You might be tempted to use your flash. Remember, the flash is only going to illuminate what is right in front of it so it’s not going to help light up the sky any better. It will light up the people on the ground. That can be great if that’s your goal, and if you want to experiment with off-camera flash you can come up with some amazing pictures of people with a fireworks background. But it won’t be helpful for pictures of just the fireworks themselves. To let in more light, go slower on your shutter speed (see tip #1). And even if you want to capture people, you don’t necessarily need a flash. The flash will change the light of the scene and it can ruin the whole mood of the moment. Look around and see where your light is coming from. Porch lights? Flashlights? Twilight? Don’t forget your main source of light, the fireworks themselves! They can actually be used to light your subjects’ faces, and they will give you an ever-changing, interesting light source that is so fun to play with. When the fireworks go off, the can light up an entire area that was dark a few seconds earlier.
4. A good way to catch both the fireworks and the people watching them is by doing a silhouette. When doing a silhouette, you’re exposing the fireworks correctly so the people end up completely dark. Just remember that if you want the people to show up, they have to be in front of a light background or else they will just blend right in to the the shadows.
5. It’s not just your settings you can play with. Try playing with your focus as well and see what you come up with.
And of course I’m going to challenge you to get out and try this. You have a couple weeks to practice. So get some earplugs and have your fire extinguisher on hand, and don’t forget to share what you catch in our new flickr group! (if you don’t have a flickr account it’s easy and free to sign up)
Anyone want to guess what my shutter speed was in this picture? I’ll give you a hint: my ISO was 1250, my aperture was 1.4, it was after sunset and fairly dark.
Good luck, have a great Fourth, and I hope no one starts a forest fire!
There are some really fantastic photos here, Jodi! Thanks for the tips!
thanks! and you’re welcome!
aaa
Wow….wow wow wow. Absolutely amazing. I’m not sure the fireworks last long enough for me to get a picture that good! But I’m surely going to try!! Thank you!
thanks! I’d love to see what you come up with!
Awesome! Thanks for the post! I will totally try this!
good! you should!
Oh, and I guess 1/500.
It was a little too dark for that fast of a shutter speed. If you look at his hand, you can see that it has a bit of blur to it, which means it’s a slower shutter speed than that. Want to guess again? :)
How about…1/60?
very close! it was 1/80.
Sweet! I’m super excited for the 4th!!!
These are really great tips. Can’t wait to try them out with my DSLR camera this 4th of July. Thank you!
http://www.themidwestmaven.wordpress.com
thanks! hope it works out!
Beautiful pictures and wonderful tips! I love that you included your camera settings as well, very helpful.
glad it was helpful!
Super helpful–thank you! This should lift my photos above blurry mess mode. Your silhouettes and reflection-on-the-water shots are gorgeous. Well, they all are really!
thank you so much!
I am scared of the manual mode LOL.
don’t be scared. It’s just another way of using your camera. Check back again and I will be posting lots more info on how to do this!
Will check back for sure! I hate using auto mode but have only gotten to slightly tweaking AV and TV…
These are brilliant. Thank you for being so open and sharing your trade secrets! Lovely photos.
thanks so much!
That is quite frankly the best photography piece I’ve seen FP’d since I started blogging in January. Well done. And great DSLR tips. I will put them to good use.
thank you, I appreciate that!
it’s great seeing such a new take on firework photos – you really do an inspiring job with them! thanks for sharing :)
thanks! Glad I could inspire!
Great tips. I love the one about people’s expression. It makes a lot of sense, but so easily forgotten. I have loads of (poorly done) firework photos from years ago and of course I don’t even care about them now. I find myself asking why I even took that picture and who did I go with. I think this year, I might just skip the picture of the fireworks completely and just focus on the expressions.
I always find that the photos of people are more interesting in later years than the scenery, although some scenic pictures are nice to have!
Thanks for the tips! I have always had trouble capturing fireworks pictures. Tripod is definitely necessary with longer shutter speeds as I have taken a ton of blurry pictures sans tripod.
I am usually too lazy for a tripod and just use a rock or something, but definitely a steady surface makes all the difference.
thank you for informative post, i love your pictures my favourites are the ones with the people in silhouette, but i must confess much as i adore my cmera and take a thousand pictures a day, (thank god for the invention of the digital camera!,) i am as scared of trying different settings on my camera as you are of fireworks^_^ i exhibit same feelings of trepidation ,and in the end all the different figures etc just make me go on the autmatic setting at least that way i get the focus right ^_^ but i remain inspired by yours and look forward to seeing more ,
thanks! Isn’t it great that the digital age allows us to experiment without paying for our mistakes :)
I love your silhouette photos! Thanks for the excellent tips. I must admit, I’ve never actually taken pictures on the Fourth of July (too buys being a pyro), but I’ll definitely give it a shot (haha) this year. :)
thanks and I hope you give it a shot :)
One of the best tutorials and advice I’ve read and I’ve been researching this topic all day!! Thank you for coming to my rescue. Now let’s see if I can actually do it lol
glad I could help out!
Thanks for posting these tips! :)
I love taking photos and playing around with different settings on my camera. I’ve always been a little… intimidated by fireworks photos. Last year I made my first attempt to photograph the fireworks — the photos were okay, but I’m hoping to do better this year. :)
practice makes perfect :)
Wow, I’m so excited by these tips with Canada Day just around the corner and the fact I am taking an intro DSLR class and totally love shooting moody night scenes and fireworks – but have had limited success so far. Thanks for this great post – especially for taking the time to include the specs for your pics! Very helpful! :-)
I love moody and dramatic night shots as well. Have fun playing around with it!
This is a beautiful blog! I will definitely try that next time :)
thank you! Give it a try :)
Reblogged this on Open Source Daily Source Code.
Reblogged this on No Fixed Plans and commented:
As Independence Day approaches
This is great. I love reading how-to photography posts. I am going to give these tips a try. My fireworks shots are always so bad. The one of the kids on the dock is awesome. They are so funny when they get excited like that.
thanks, and I hope you’re able to capture some of the excitement this year!
Great tips, especially getting shots of people watching fireworks. Like you, I don’t like fireworks much – they are too loud and I’m reminded of war, which is not my thing. I’ve taken some pictures of fireworks, but they usually turn out with a whimper and not a bang. Will have to study your tips. Thanks.
There’s no shame in ear plugs :)
Thanks for this wonderful tutorial! Great pics!
thank you!
;)
I like the boat just in the shadow of the pink firework.
thanks!
Thanks for all the tips!~ This makes me want to take my camera to the next firework show!… I’m going to guess the shutter speed on the last photo is 1/100…it can’t be much slower because his hand is moving but isn’t all that blurred…your aperture is huge so between the light from the sparklers and the fireworks going off to the left (if that’s what that blue light is) I think 1/100 is enough…..what was it what was it?!!
You’re very very close. It was 1/80. Just pushing the limits of being able to catch the shot without too much blur. Good eyes!
thank you and great shot!
Reblogged this on Texas Poetry and commented:
I am just now getting into Reblogging. This article which I thought was right in line with the coming holiday was well done. Hence why it was picked for the “Freshly Pressed” award posting on WordPress……Enjoy!
thank you so much! Hope it’s helpful!
Stunning photos! Excited for this year’s fireworks. Thanks for sharing.
http://www.slickclickphotography.com
thanks!!
Thanks for the tips! I’m still trying my hand at photography… I don’t think the current (and only) lens I’m using is a lot of help though. Anyway, I would like to try taking photos of faces during fireworks displays… they do make more interesting subjects. Capturing the wonder in their expressions I bet is worth missing a few minutes of the display :D
My guess is 1/200!
Watch how the faces light up with the fireworks and use that to your advantage. The shutter speed was a bit slower than that. I used 1/80 to let in a little more light.
You’re awesome for sharing these tips! I love the one about capturing the people watching the fireworks… never really thought of that. Many thanks!
thanks!! glad I could help :)
Some fantastic tips and photos – thank you – Pam
thanks and you’re welcome!
As everyone else, I just want to say thank you for the tips! there’s no fireworks going on in Mexico for a while but I’ll try my luck on something different in the meantime. Your pictures are just fabulous, I hope I can someday succeed in something similar…
Congrat’s on being “Freshly Pressed” also and happy picturing!
Julie
If sparklers are available and legal (?) those are always fun to play with! Thanks!
Fantastic photos and great tips! Thank you!
thanks for dropping in!
It is amazing. You are nice for sharing these tips.
These tips are good to take beautiful photos.
I think if i adopt these tips I could take good pictures.
thanks, hope it works out!
nice picture..:)
thanks for stopping by!
Nice photos. I was able to photograph fireworks twice last year. Alas, it doesn’t fit into my plans this year. It’s a great experience, even if it is unpredictable. You can get some fantastic shots.
It is unpredictable, and a lot of fun. Thanks!
very usefull tips
I’m glad!
Amazing pics all, but the children silhouetted on the dock is a classic. Thanks for posting!
that is one of my favorites :) Thanks!
Your “jumping for joy” photo is one of the best firework pics I’ve ever seen! Love it! .. I’ve played with these settings, and your post motivates me to get back at it … the sparklers await. … Great idea to turn around and capture the faces of the onlookers. Thanks for taking time to post all the details. :) … **~Happy 4th!~**
happy fourth to you! thank you!
amazing pictures! thanks for sharing and teaching!
no problem! thanks!
Awesome pics! Will follow your tips :)
good, hope it works out!
Love!
thanks so much
I love the silhouette shot of the kids of the end of the dock. Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing such great info. You Matter! Smiles, Nancy
I appreciate it! thank you!
I have to practice!!
yup, practice is the only way to figure it out! Good luck!
great pictures and thanks for the tips!
thanks, no problem!
Love the post. These are some great tips and some amazing photographs. I’m scared of fireworks myself so I usually stay away from the action, but I love photographing them. Thanks for all the tips – will use them :D. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
thank you! Glad I’m not the only one :)
Amazing photos. Very helpful blog. Thanks for sharing your tips. If you don’t mind me asking what camera do you use?
I use a nikon d300. thanks for stopping in!
Wow, your pictures are incredible!
thanks, I appreciate it!
Gorgeous photos – makes me wish I could be back in the States for the 4th! (I’m in China – luckily they like fireworks here, too:)
we lived in Taiwan for one Chinese new years and found out that they sure do love fireworks!
Wow! Some fabulous shots, here! Love them!
much appreciated!
Really cute and amazing photos. I loved all of them and they looked so bright! Thanks for the tips. And congrats on being Freshly Pressed! :)
very nice of you, thanks!
Fantastic photos! They look like they’re from a magazine, or should I say, they should be in a magazine!
I love the second tip, although I’m not really into photography myself. When we say Fireworks, people would usually think of fireworks but it’s rare to think of people watching fireworks and actually taking a photo of those people as they enjoy the night sky.
Amazing!
so kind, thanks!
I love fireworks. Luckily, here in the UK there are not only the New Year’s fireworks, but we also have plenty of fireworks displays each 5 November: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/bonfire-night-2010-blackheath/
good times!
Great tutorial! I only could add ‘have fun and practice, practice, practice. And never lose the joy of photography’
My guess for the last picture would be 1/80. The only question is: How did you reduce the noise that much even though you had such a high ISO value?
My camera has pretty good iso capabilities, so 1250 really isn’t much of an issue. It doesn’t start to become a problem until I get above 2500, and then I have a trick for handling it (not in post-production). I may do a post on that in the future… hmmm….
if you can share your trick, that would be wonderful :) Still without the explanation, the shots remain awesome :)
1/80 of a second? Either that was a very good guess or she read the answer above. I vote for the latter… :-)
I was going to guess 1/60 but I imagine there would be a bit more blur – especially when the ISO was 1250. Good article. I will post the link on FB.
thanks! And yes I think 60 might have shown a tiny bit more blur on that moving hand. Photographing in these conditions is all about pushing limits :)
fantastic capture of not just light but color and motion. I was going to guess SS 200 when I read the question and later saw it was 80, which would allow for the most illumination. Thanks so much for sharing!
thanks! I do love that fireworks paint a scene with all kinds of colors.
Wow! Those are fantastic – here in Montreal it’s the fireworks competition! I’m excited to see who will win this year!
Great photos!
Katie
http://katieraspberry.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/how-to-get-traffic/
oh that would be exciting to see!
Wow, thanks for an awesome guide and photos. I can’t wait to find some fireworks to practice on!
me too :) thanks!
I never knew there was so much involved! Thanks for sharing…I love the pictures of the people watching the fireworks! Cheers!
it is a lot to think about, but I love the challenge. thanks for your comment!
I really appreciate these tips…and understand that they are for shooting fireworks. When I am trying to capture subjects that are happening in succession I find it difficult and awkward to keep changing settings. Any advice?
Using the modes that are available on most DSLRs is very helpful. Portrait mode, sports mode, night mode, etc. are basically just different kinds of auto with specific situations in mind. If you understand shutter speed and aperture at all and you know which is more important to you for your particular picture, then you can choose shutterspeed priority mode or aperture mode, so you choose the one setting and your camera makes the decisions about what settings to pair up with it. I may do a post about this in the future and explain in more detail, but for now play around with those two modes and see if they help simplify things.
beautiful photos!
thank you!!
amazing photos! i just completed a digital camera class learning about ISO, shutter speed and aperture. love the sparklers shots. i can’t wait to see what i can capture next week.
thanks very much! Good luck :)
These are great tips! I especially like #2. I have SO many photos of fireworks, but hardly any of people watching fireworks. I’m planning on checking out the July 4th fireworks in Disney World next week, so I will definitely have to remember your advice.
Just don’t blind the spectators with your flash :) thanks for commenting!
Great snaps jodi !!! jus cant stop sayin WoW!!!!
thanks a lot!
Nice works….
appreciate it!
TIP # 1 – is very useful! TIP #2 – I never thought about! Thanks! Perfect timing for the long weekend coming up! HAPPY JULY 4th!
glad I could be some help! thanks!
Reblogged this on Goooblog’s Weblog.
Perfect tutorial. I do have a question though. What kind of lens were you using? My lame little kit lens definitely can’t go that low aperture wise.
I was using a variety of lenses, and you can see on the settings below each picture how wide my aperture was set to. The F1.4 ones would be my 50mm1.4 lens which is my fastest lens. On some of the pictures however, the shutter speed was set so slow that the aperture was actually very narrow. (check the sparkler pics)
Thanks for the tips! I’ll keep this in mind for the 4th! :)
great! thanks!
Amazing Photography Thanks
no problem :)
great pict! thanks for the tips
thanks for checking in!
Reblogged this on imsyi.
Step 1: Buy a highspeed shutter camera. Discard bad frames. Keep the good ones.
Step 2: Repeat step 1.
I agree with discard the bad and keep the good. That’s good advice for life in general :)
Thanks for the cool tips! By the way, I LOVE your photos! Great Post!
CHECK OUT MY BLOG: lovablekitties.wordpress.com
thanks for stopping in!
Great. thank for sharing u <3
you’re welcome :)
What a lovely post! Your images and your writing transfer a certain mood, that speaks to me. Congratulations on being freshly pressed
thanks so much, that’s very kind of you! I’ve never been pressed before, freshly or otherwise :)
Great shots, I’ve used sparklers in my wedding photography before and it works a treat combined with off camera flash. I love the soft focus fireworks, I’ll be remembering that next time i get a chance.
I’ve seen some great shots with sparklers using OCF. I have never tried it personally. Would love to delve into that area of photography!
Thanks for the great tips. Last year I had no idea what I was doing so hopefully I’ll get more decent shots this year. I love the photo of the silhouette of the kids on the dock; the colors in it are gorgeous.
thank you! That shot was just after the sun had set so the sky still had some residual sunset colors.
Great tips and pictures! Every year I get my camera ready, but, I always end up caught in the moment that I forget that I have a camera with me.
it’s ok to get caught up in life, that’s a good thing :)
Just exactly what I’ve been wanting to learn. Thank you so much for the great tips! I’ll surely be checking it out, now. ;)
good! thanks!
Beautiful photos and thank you for the wonderful tips. I love fireworks so much that I feel like they go by too quickly for me to adjust my manual settings that much! Maybe one of these days I will experiment. My current camera has an actual “fireworks” setting though which has turned out some pretty interesting photos. I guess it’s my little cheaters way to snap some great shots while really focusing on enjoying the show. :)
How interesting! They have all kinds of modes these days, don’t they. I’m curious what kind of settings it comes up with to create the perfect fireworks shot. I’m always too much of a control freak to let my camera decide what is best :)
I’ve had this camera for about 7-8 years, believe it or not! It’s a Nikon Coolpix 4800. I bet if you do a bit of searching you can dig up some info on how they come up with their settings. It has options for Fireworks Show, Portraits, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night Landscape, Close Up, Museum, Copy, Back Light, Panorama Assist, Image Mode (4M), and an “action” setting.
Depending on where I am and what I’m doing I will switch back and forth between manual settings (which I’m constantly trying to learn more about as I feel like I still know next to nothing) or some of these fun pre-set options.
Wow those are beautiful. I wonder, do you pros do the same techniques when you take shots of lightnings?
I’ve never taken pictures of lightning, but that would be a very interesting challenge! I would think the timing would be harder than the camera settings!
Reblogged this on Keshiamfowler's Blog.
Great post as Ijust start my photography workshop next week hopefully I can get some tips here. Love the letters.
Check out my blog if u get a chance for more inspiration http://arhitekturaplus.wordpress.com/
Have fun with the workshop!
Fantastic photos! I’m the same about fireworks on bonfire night in November, I never want to stand as close as everyone else to the fire :D
FireworksPhobics unite! I wonder if there’s a word for fear of fireworks…
Arsonphobia or Pryophobia is the fear of fire.
But the proper name for fireworks or close fireworks is Kovtapyroergasoiphobia.
According to a google search :D
Very Good tips its necessary for photography.
glad it’s useful!
Great tutorial. Every year I attempt to take fireworks photos and they never turn out. I will try some of your techniques this year.
Have fun with it!
Great tips and beautiful pictures! Last year, I went to the firework festival held near my place, but I’d never thought of taking pictures of people actually watching the firework! Interesting :)
I think the people are the most interesting part sometimes :)
Best tip was definitely to take pictures of the people watching the fireworks, I truly hadn’t considered that. But, I will definitely do so this 4th! Thank you!
If you have the time, please tell me what you think of my post on using the color red in your photography! It’s not as lame as it sounds!
http://allnewmaterials.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/the-passion-and-power-of-color-part-one-red/
Link isn’t working for me right now but I’ll try again later. Thanks for stopping in!
Thank you for the very helpful tips…
you’re welcome!
Thanks for posting this one. (:
no problem!
Reblogged this on Panzer & Ballett.
Great tips! this is very helpful.. i’ll try it later :)
good luck with it!
This is cool :D
http://journeythroughhtml.wordpress.com
very kind of you, thanks!
Thanks for the tips. Just in time for our Disney trip too! – Steve & Ashley
oh that should be amazing. Have fun!
wow.Great!! Nice capture. But u forgot to mention about your CAM. Btw great tips too :D
Do you mean my camera? I’m using a nikon d300. Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks and I can’t wait to try these great tips. Your photos are inspiring
thank you, have fun!
I’m always looking for ways to take great fireworks pictures. You have given me some good hints on how to do it. Now all I have to do is find the setting on my point and shoot Nikon.
that’s a little bit trickier when you’re using a point and shoot because it doesn’t allow you to control things like shutter speed. But you could probably still get some good shots, no harm in trying :)
What an amazing post! Thank you so much for an insightful and detailed article.
Thanks for the great post and tips!
Reblogged this on Makais Blog and commented:
good tips!
Just came across this and I love it! Thanks for sharing all your tips and settings! I’ve never been successful at firework photos…now many I have a chance! Thanks again!
Reblogged this on Social Media CDN and commented:
Your photos are absolutely fantastic! Your pictures and your tips on taking photos of fireworks must be shared!
Brilliant post! Images look brilliant
Reemlookstylist – part of fashion website http://www.reemlook.co.uk
Very awesome! I wish I had read this last night…lol
Beautiful place! Amazing photos!
this is my favourite of all your posts, the photos are stunning and beautiful!
Wow, amazing photography. Made me really miss seeing fireworks this year. Vacationing in Colorado = NO fireworks. I will have to keep these tips in mind for next year (haha, riiiight.)
I can not wait to use these tips next year on the 4th (or maybe on New Year’s Eve)! Thanks for the awesome tips and the beautiful photos to enjoy!
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