Kim Larsen Photography – Cottage Grove, Oregon Portrait and Wedding Photographer

We’ve all taken our camera out to the fireworks display and tried to capture those amazing bursts of color that elicit all those “ooohs” and “aaahs” as they explode over our heads. But all too often, we get home and look at the pictures on the computer (or have the film developed if you used negative or slide film like I used to do), only to find that the tiny little spots of light and color don’t look anything like what you remember.

The images above were all shot at f 11 with a shutter speed ranging from 1 to 5 seconds.

I’m here to give you a few tips that I have learned the hard way on how to take the best fireworks pictures tonight at your local fireworks display.

The first, absolute must-have accessory is a tripod (or some other way of stabilizing your camera, besides hand-holding). You will be using slow shutter speeds and your pictures will come out blurry if you don’t have your camera well-stabilized for the entire duration of the shot.

The second accessory that comes in handy, but is not necessary, is a remote or cable shutter release (although many remote versions only work in the self-timer mode, which, as I learned, is not terribly helpful). A shutter release will help eliminate any movement from pressing the shutter button on the camera (which can affect your pictures much more than you might expect!).

Don’t have a remote or cable shutter release? There are other options. First, you can just be incredibly careful when pressing the shutter button and hold very, very still.

The other option works if you have a bulb setting on your camera (this can usually be found by dialing down your shutter speed as low as it can go until you see a “B” – consult your camera manual for more help). To make this option work, you will need a black piece of craft foam, black foam core, or black cardboard to put in front of your camera. This will block all light coming into the camera until you are ready to take your picture. You set your camera on bulb, put the black paper in front of your camera lens to block the light and then press the shutter button to begin your exposure. As soon as you hear the firework being shot, you can remove the black paper to capture the firework. When you are satisfied with the length of your exposure, put the black paper back and then press the shutter button again to end your exposure. Using the black paper to block the light at the beginning and end of your exposure allows you to press the shutter button without having to worry about shaking the camera and causing any blur.

Now, for your camera settings, you will see the best results by setting your aperture around f/16 (give or take a stop or two). Your shutter speed is going to be measured in full seconds and will probably feel like an eternity, but you will see the best results if you leave the shutter open for around 6 seconds. If you want to capture a lot of bursts in one frame, you can either leave the shutter open longer if the bursts are happening close together, or you can use the bulb setting and put the black paper up between bursts to block any extra light from washing out your final image. You don’t want to leave the shutter open and uncovered for too long or the ambient light will quickly ruin your shot and the smoke from the fireworks will also begin to be more visible around the bursts. Your ISO should be set low in order to get the best color saturation (I use ISO 100).

In order to get the best view of the fireworks, you will need to find a location where there are no nearby streetlights, no large obstacles in your way, and preferably as few people as possible so you don’t have anyone tripping over your tripod or standing in front of your camera. If you can find a nearby hill with a view of the fireworks, that’s even better.

You’ll want to be zoomed in far enough to have the bursts fill a large portion of the frame, but not so far that any large or really high bursts get cut off. You never know where the fireworks are going to appear until it’s too late, so make sure you’re ready to capture anything.

Here are a couple of examples of my own fireworks pictures (the settings I used for each image are listed below):

Camera settings:
Left image: taken during fireworks display finale – f/14, bulb exposure (I don’t remember how long I held the shutter open), ISO 100
Top right image: f/16, 8.0sec, ISO 100 (this was originally a vertical image that captured the entire light trail from the ground to the burst, which is why it was 8 seconds long. I cropped the image for this collage, so you can’t see the trail anymore.)
Bottom right image: f/16, 3.0sec, ISO 100

So, don’t forget to take your camera and tripod out to the fireworks display tonight and after you get home, remember to share a link to your results in the comments! Have a safe & fun 4th of July!