Tips + Guides

How-to: Tips for Photographing Fireworks

Tips for Photographing Fireworks

Well, It’s that time of year again when America celebrates her independence. With it, fireworks across the country will be projected into our night sky in fabulous glory. So here are my tips on how I like photographing fireworks.

Required items:
1) DSLR or a camera that can go completely manual.
2) Tripod or have something stable to place the camera to avoid shaking
3) Shutter / Cable release (optional) – You can use the on-camera timer too. With the camera securely mounted on the tripod.

1) Set the camera to manual:
2) Set your ISO to 100-400 (no more than ISO 400)
2) Set Shutter: 4-6 seconds
3) Aperture to: F11-16
5) Disable the FLASH
6) Set to Manual Focus (The Auto-focus will generally have a hard time to track) Anything within these ranges will yield pretty good results and will depend on how many firework explosions are in the sky at the given time.
7) Focus to INFINITY (REMEMBER to take the camera off of Auto-focus)
8) Watch for the projectiles and take your shot when the projectiles are halfway up or near their apex.
Good luck, be Safe and Happy 4th!

July 4th Fireworks NYC
July 4th Fireworks NYC
July 4th Fireworks NYC
July 4th Fireworks NYC
July 4th Fireworks NYC

The Results:

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1 Comment

  1. Candice Cheung says:

    Very nice.

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