Photographing Fireworks

Photo Gallery:

Bonfire Night	Bonfire Night
Bonfire Night	Bonfire Night
Bonfire Night	Bonfire Night
Bonfire Night	Bonfire Night
Watching the Bonfire	Bonfire
Fireworks	Fireworks at Middleton Park
Fireworks at Middleton Park	Fireworks
Green Fireworks	Fireworks

This is the third year that I've attempted to photograph fireworks and I think I'm improving each time so that's pleasing.  Like a lot of amateur photographers I wanted to get some shots but was expecting it to be pretty tricky, actually if you have the right kit and follow a few simple rules the basic technical elements are pretty easy and once you've mastered that you can start thinking more about the composition.

How to photograph fireworks

Equipment -

• A camera with Bulb mode (ordinary long exposures are OK but much less flexible)
• A tripod (I've seen some good handheld firework shots, but I can't imagine you'd get many keepers from an evening)
• A remote shutter release
• A small penlight can be useful

Location - before the fireworks start find a good place to stand as far away from any light source as possible, where you have a little bit of clear space in front of you.  I then strategically place my, shorter than a tripod, children in the space to keep it available.  This is going to be very difficult to do at anywhere other than an organised event, standing in the back garden trying to photograph the neighbours ten fireworks is likely to be a frustrating experience.

ISO - set up the tripod and then the camera settings, you don't need or want a high ISO for these shots as it will just increase the noise so select ISO 100 if possible.

Mode - put the camera in 'B' or Bulb Mode.

Aperture - to determine the Aperture to use do a couple of test shots, I try to get it so that with the ambient light I can keep the shutter open for between two and five seconds and still get a pretty dark sky, if there are people or trees in the foreground it's nice to be able to just make them out in the darkness.  This will vary according to the ambient light but I've found I usually get good results between f/10 and f/18.

Focal Length - this will depend on how far you are from the action, I usually like to include a little bit of foreground detail to give some sense of scale.  You'll need a fairly wide angle to begin with, especially if you aren't sure exactly where the fireworks will be, get a few bankers (you can always crop later) and then experiment with zooming in closer.  Remember there's usually a fairly brief but spectacular finale, you may well want to be ready to zoom out a bit for that.

Focus - remember to turn off autofocus, usually you can use infinity focus but if you have got a little foreground interest you can get better results using the hyperfocal distance, as this will change according to the Aperture and Focal Length you'll need to do a bit of research first and perhaps use it for a few shots where you've got a bit of time to set up.

Now wait for the show to begin, some fun can be had trying to catch shots of the crowd moving around, sparklers, light sticks etc.  I find it rather unpredictable but have had some interesting results.

Once the fireworks start, make sure the camera's pointing in the right direction, then step away from the camera so you can't move it at all and use the remote release to open the shutter, wait until a few fireworks have exploded and then release the shutter.  Have a quick peer at the screen to see what you got, it could be another year 'til the next display so you need to get some feedback on how you're doing and adjust through the evening. 

The composition's the hardest part, you can never be sure exactly when and where the fireworks will explode so some luck, guesswork and cropping later are necessary.  Don't try to get too many fireworks in one shot, it'll over expose and lose the lovely colours.  If you're lucky enough to be at a big display where they use really different areas of the sky it'll be less of a problem.  The best thing is that once you have the camera set up how you like it you can stand back and enjoy the show as you don't need your eye pressed to the viewfinder.

If anyone uses these instructions and it helps, or you can improve them, or you just want to link to your firework images, then please feel free to leave a comment.