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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Hunting through the Camera Eye > Photographing Fireworks - Fourth of July Special
Photographing Fireworks - Fourth of July Special
Chris Fullilove - JHO ProStaff
- Texas
July 02, 2004
Simple Guide for Photographing Fireworks
Photographing fireworks is one of the easiest and carefree things to photograph. You never know what the photograph is going to look like, but it is sure to be interesting. After you do some preliminary preparation, all you will need to do is press the shutter and hope for the best! The preparation is very important but not painful at all. Here are the basics to bringing home some interesting and exciting firework photographs.
Location:
The first thing to do is find a good location. You don't want trees or buildings between you and the fireworks. Try to figure out a good spot before they start. You don't want to pack up the family in the middle of the show and move 30 yards to the left. Sometimes buildings, people, or trees can not be avoided though. They can add a nice foreground effect if they are along the edges of the frame of the photo. So keep that in mind in case you have to deal with obstacles. Another thing to consider is water. Sometimes fireworks are launched over a bay or a lake. If you can be elevated some, you can get great reflections off of the water.
Tripod:
A tripod is a MUST. If you dont have a tripod, you will need to figure out some way to stabilize the camera. I suggest a tripod, but if you forget it or dont have one, think about a way beforehand to stablize the camera.
Camera Settings:
These are extremely variable, because sometimes fireworks are launched late at night when it is very dark and sometimes they are launched at sundown when you still have some sun light. Sometimes you have a full moon, and sometimes you have cloud cover. All of these factors compound the complexity of camera settings. And sometimes, you will have all of the above factors changing over the course of the fireworks show. The main key is to use the Shutter Priority setting. The camera will guarantee that the shutter stays open for the span of time that you indicate, and it will adjust the other camera settings to properly expose the photograph for you.
So here is a 9 step process to getting the camera configured quickly and easily.
[The following steps are for a digital camera]
Preliminary prep.
1.) Mount the camera on the tripod before it gets dark.
2.) Set the White Balance(WB) to the Sunny/Sunshine/Outside setting.
3.) Set your ISO to ISO100.
4.) Set the camera capture setting to Shutter Priority (S-Mode).
5.) Turn the flash off (force it off).
6.) Dial the Shutter speed to 3-4 seconds.
Once the fireworks are launched,
7.) Roughly, when you hear the initial explosion of the launch, count ~1 second and press the shutter button. Now this is a total guestimate. You will need to figure out the best time to start the capture, remember that camera has some shutter lag (~.5 sec) before it starts capturing.
8.) Take several photos (3-5) of the fireworks.
9.) Review the photos that you just took through the LCD.
If your photos are too dark and/or there is not much of the firework showing up (e.g. you just see dots), then increase the shutter speed by +2 seconds.
If the photos are too bright (blown out), then reduce the shutter speed by -2 seconds.
If the photos are just right, then keep on shooting. Have spare memory cards handy because you can fill them up fast if you have a big firework show.
You will have to make some game time decisions on setting the shutter speed. So the best and fastest way to get those camera settings figured out is to review your photos after a couple of shots. Usually a 4 second shutter speed is pretty good, but always double check after a couple of shots.
A couple of gotchas:
-When finding a location, try not to get too close, otherwise you might have fireworks exploding outside of the frame of your photo.
-Try to locate yourself so that there are not any street lights, house lights, or building lights between you and the fireworks. This is hard sometimes, but if you can limit the amount of light (besides the light from the fireworks) you will have better looking photos.
-Don't zoom in too much either, they sometimes launch the fireworks in different directions, you want to point the camera in the middle of the sky where you expect the fireworks to be, and hopefully they will stay within the frame of your camera.
-Take a small mini mag light, or press light. It is hard to change the camera settings when it is dark outside. (don't turn the light on while the shutter is open though)
-Try not to shake the camera on the tripod when you press and release the shutter.
The following links are to images in the JHO Photo Gallery. They will open in a new window.
http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/11274DSC01736.jpeg
This was a 20 second shutter speed.
http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/11274DSC01693.jpeg
This firework almost didnt make the frame and there was a tree on the left which blocked some of the fireworks.
http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/11274DSC06334.jpeg
A nicely executed capture, the burst of purple is from the previous firework. The white trail going up is from the main firework being launched. If it is windy, you will notice that the trails will start to curve, which is noticed in this one. 4 second exposure, ISO100, F8
http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/11274DSC00309.jpeg
4 sec, ISO100, F8
http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/11274DSC00308.jpeg
4 sec, ISO100, F8
http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/11274DSC00277.jpeg
This one was taken earlier in the evening. The camera was on shutter priority, so it maintained the 4 second exposure, but adjusted the F-Stop (to 4.5) to compensate for the extra light and still pulled off a nicely exposed photograph. 4 sec, ISO100, F4.5
Chris Fullilove
http://www.whitetail-photography.com
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