Shooting Fireworks

esc2476 · June 29, 2007

Now that Independence Day is almost here, I was wondering what everyone's tips/settings are for shooting fireworks? What is your favorite lens when shooting fireworks?

dlscott56 · June 29, 2007

I'm going to give it a shot this year. My plan was to start out with my 17-50mm lens, iso 200, f/22 ?, and 4-5s shutter speed. Hopefully that's enough to get the firework shooting up into the sky and just enough of the expoding firework to fill the frame.

Just a guess though. I haven't tried it so am not speaking from experience. Should be a fun experiment.

BeachBill · June 29, 2007

esc2476 wrote:

Now that Independence Day is almost here, I was wondering what everyone's tips/settings are for shooting fireworks? What is your favorite lens when shooting fireworks?

PC World just ran an article with tips on shooting fireworks.

I actually did most of what that article talks about last year when I took the following photo and I was pretty happy with the results.

Tripod mounted @ 50mm 2 seconds f/22 ISO400

pathfinder · June 29, 2007

My first thought is why ISO 400 over 100? Surely the fireworks are bright enough to capture at ISO 100.

And why f22? Why not somewhere between f8 and f16. The subjects are at infinity - the is not really a need for great DOF is there?

I think I would start at f8 ISO 100 and chimp a few frames histograms and decide from there. But that is just my way of working this through. I am sure Kodak had great tables for shooting fireworks on film at Disney before film went the way of all flesh.

A shutter speed between 2 - 10 seconds seems reasonable as the fireworks themselves are the functional shutter. You could even cap and un cap the open lens on bulb to capture the light of the fireworks. That is how the old view camera folks used to do it.

saurora · June 29, 2007

Here's a thread and some links to a magazine discussion from last year:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=36268

ajgauthier · June 29, 2007

from last year
Just wanted to relay my experience from last year b/c I read a bit on here, came up with a plan, and then wing'd it

I was pleased with the results, being the first time shooting fireworks!

I was about a mile away or so, so I was using a telephoto zoom lens. After reading articles and such, I decided to set my ISO to 100...I wanted to capture the brilliant color, but not blow anything out and end up with 'shocking white' fireworks. My lens had it's limits, and it looks like most of my shots were at f/5.6 I barely got any blown out and the color I got absolutely floored me! There was no real time to change settings after the fireworks started...so I took a quick look on the LCD of the first few and thought they were fine and continued on.

One thing I was very aware of was "painting the fireworks image" in my mind. It's basically light painting. If I wanted to get the 'root' of the firework going up in the sky, I'd start the exposure when I saw the "pfooot" on the ground. I'd then track in my head what was going off and when...how long did I want the trails to be? What else was going off next to it? Would it be too 'busy' and everything washing over everything else?

I started to play after a while --- and some of the tail ends of the fireworks looked like palm fronds. I made a few pics of AFTER it exploded to get the end-trails.

Here's my gallery from last year, I was happy with it for a first try

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1636218#79844709

Once thing that may help, that I wished I had done, was to seek out ANOTHER fireworks show the day before so I could practice. For instance, if you are going to be in Boston or NYC and want great shots, then seek out another smaller show in a nearby town the day before "to play" so you have a better idea going into a bigger show the effects you want to capture.

Good luck! It was fun for me...I used a cable release which helped alot (no inadverdant camera shake)

Adrienne

BeachBill · June 29, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

My first thought is why ISO 400 over 100? Surely the fireworks are bright enough to capture at ISO 100.

ISO 400 probably because thats what the camera was set on and I didn't bother checking (one fault I've since corrected, I hope).

I took this shot last November when I first started playing with all manual mode (including manual focus). I played around with the shutter speed and aperture until I ended up with this shot.

As a side note, it's nice to live in an area where you can shoot fireworks any night of the week, any day of the year.

photodoug · June 29, 2007

ajgauthier wrote:

Good luck! It was fun for me...I used a cable release which helped alot (no inadverdant camera shake)

Adrienne

outstanding job AJ

ajgauthier · June 30, 2007

thanks

photodoug wrote:

outstanding job AJ

thanks

it was really fun, both actually taking the shots and imagining what it was really recording and then looking after downloading to see what came out

Of course, after every cool firework or color sequence my friends were like, "did ya get that?" "catch that one?"

It's sorta like in gradeschool when you fold a piece of paper in half, then put blobs of fingerpaint on one side and then smush folding and opening.

Wish I could try again this year, but I have to man a star/telescope party.

Adrienne

rdlugosz · July 3, 2007

Here's an article I posted early this morning on how to photograph fireworks using bulb mode. I've gotten some cool shots this way... have fun!

Mike Lane · July 3, 2007

I love me some fireworks. I need to figure out when the Brits shoot off their fireworks, so far not much luck. Oh and it doesn't help that the 9 month old's bed time is 7:00 pm

Anywho, as with anything, you'll probably want the best lens you can find. But be careful that you're not too close for your lens / crop factor:
f/8.0 / 10s / ISO 100

That was with a 70-200 2.8 L IS (at 70mm) from a mile away or so. I love the results, but you get the picture. Fireworks can be larger than you think.

Fireworks have lots of details and you want as sharp of an image as you can get. So stick with f/8 or f/11 if you can.

f/11 / 4s / ISO 100

You've got to find that balance in your shutter speed. If you're open too long, you'll get a big jumble of nothingness. If it's not open long enough, you'll get the very beginning or very end of the trails and not a lot more. The thing is that it depends on what is going on in the show. Sometimes 10s or longer is fine, sometimes 4s is much better. During the finale you may want to go for 1s or 2s.

f/8 / 4s / ISO 100

Get a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release. Unless you're going to a ton of fireworks shows in a season (I went to like 10 of them in 2005 and a bunch in 2006) you'll miss a huge part of the show if you're watching it through your viewfinder. Set up your shot for your best guess on where the fireworks will be coming from. Adjust your framing for the first few shots and then just use your remote shutter for the rest. Enjoy the show!

f/6.3 / 5s / ISO 100

There is a lot of luck involved with getting decent fireworks shots. But you can get good at mastering the timing. Listen for the shots and open the shutter right before you know they're going to explode. If the shots have trails on the way up, pay attention and get a feel for what the timing is. You'll eventually be able to catch a really great moment.

Hope this helps.

jennifer · July 5, 2007

Thanks everyone for your helpful tips! This was my first time ever seriously trying to shoot fireworks. I was pretty happy with the results for a first try. These were all taken with the 300D and 70-200 f/2.8L IS at f/13 and ISO 100. Exposure time varies.

13s

13s

5s

3s

Thanks for looking!

Shooting Fireworks

Comments