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Night Photography - Photographing Fireworks

Getting good results photographing fireworks

The winter nights are drawing in (well here in the UK anyway) and finally this gives photographers an opportunity to get out and about for a fumble in the dark! Suddenly those early morning sunrises, late night sun sets and middle of the night long exposure expeditions become all the more easy.Over the next few articles we are going to lay the plans for a couple of winter excursions. With Christmas, New Year, Thanks Giving (US), Guy Fawkes (UK) just around the corner we thought we would kick off by getting some scribbles down regarding the best way to get photographs of fireworks.

This article refers to photographing fireworks with a digital SLR (DSLR) although point and click photographers can draw from it too. So, here are our top tips for photographing fireworks displays:

A stable platform – The tripod

As with any long exposure photography you're going to need to steady your camera. While dragging a tripod around can be a cumbersome experience it is by far the best way of steadying the camera to catch those trails. A monopod does make a slightly more maneuverable platform if for example but may not always give the best results. Tripods allow you to set a stable, level platform and remove the worry about leveling your background horizons

Use a Remote shutter release

Again with long exposure photography a camera remote release make an excellent investment. A remote release is basically a lockable extension switch to your digital SLR's main switch and eliminates the vibration that may be caused by pressing the button on the main device. When your camera is set in 'bulb' mode the locking ability of the remote shutter release really comes into its own. Be wary of cheap remote releases which don't tend to last very long. In our experience camera manufacturers own products tend to be a little more expensive but last a lot longer.

Getting everything lined up

Not so important for the airborne variety of firework but a massive consideration for ground based display, wind direction is an important factor when lining up your shots. Set your camera upwind so that smoke trails do not drift across and blur your image. Get the first part of the display, before residual smoke has had chance to hang around, is also a good idea.

Set up your camera

Any night photography takes a little planning. Whether its long exposure star trails, light painting or fireworks scoping out your location in the light pays dividends. Your location, what's around you, potential obstructions, focal lengths, vantage points etc are all things to consider beforehand and not when you're ready to shoot.

Mode

Night photography and auto focus are not the best of friends! Setting your lens to manual mode and your camera to manual is going to give you the best results. Fortunately the camera will only really need setting up once for a whole evenings photography.

Focal length

Setting focal length at night is always more difficult and takes a little practice. For night photography finding an object on the ground that is about the right distance helps but in firework photography this won't help. Generally setting the camera up to a wide focal length and taking a couple of practice shots will ensure good, crisp photos. Fortunately fireworks do not often appear in isolation so there is normally more than enough activity to get the focal length set correctly.

Shutter Speed

Taking photographs of fireworks is similar to trying to photograph moon shots. They both give off a surprising amount of light and keeping the shutter open too long results in an over exposed image. Depending on the type of image you are looking to create the 'bulb' setting will be a good place to start. Click the remote shutter as things get going and release after the bang, pop, ooooooh noise

As you get more confident you can keep the shutter open longer to capture multiple bursts. Place a black object in front of the lens (Be careful not to touch the camera too much or you'll get blurred, shaky, images) to stop long exposure images getting over exposed.

Aperture

As fireworks are quite bright smaller apertures are perfectly acceptable. Consider f8 a safe starting point.

ISO

Night photography needs a low ISO to get the best images. Start with ISO 100, which should be fine.

Flash

Sorry, flash photography is not going to help! Save your batteries and turn it off. Leaving it on is going to illuminate everything close to you and not the fireworks.

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