what is a good technique and settings to use for photoing fireworks? I will be going to the fireworks this weekend with family and we want to get some good pics, thanks in advance
Here's my notes after I googled fireworks (sorry I didn't copy the sources)
- the best one was from the Smithsonian they had some good recommendations as to what type of film worked best - can you say dated?
------
Fireworks
Using one of the suggested apertures listed below, you can use your preview to test and then compensate the aperture accordingly.
ISO 50
Aperture range: f/5.6 – 11
ISO 100
Aperture range: ƒ/8 to 16
ISO 200
Aperture range: ƒ/11 to 22
------
How long of a shutter speed should you use? It depends, but shorter than you think probably. About two seconds can capture a full burst from a single explosion. Some fireworks are preceded by bright fiery rockets that you might want to capture. For those, 6-10 seconds might be called for. You’ll need to be flexible, anticipate when and where the fireworks are going to pop, and adjust your aiming and shutter speed appropriately.
After you get a few shots, review what you’re capturing and adjust your settings to compensate. Want shorter trails? Shorten the shutter speed. Are the fireworks trails overexposed (turning white and losing their color)? Close down the aperture a little (f/11, f/16, and so on) until they are vibrant and saturated.
Some additional tips:
Use ISO 200 or 100, start at f/8 and go smaller if necessary (f/11, f/16), exposures can be as short as 2 seconds.
If your camera has a B or Bulb setting you might find that easier to use than presetting a shutter speed. In Bulb mode, the camera keeps the shutter open as long as you hold the release down. That lets you just open the shutter when you see sparks and close it when they fade.
Use a remote or cable release or be extremely careful when pressing the shutter release on the camera. A little bit of camera shake can ruin an otherwise perfect shot.
You can use a flash to include foreground subjects in the photo. The flash will only illuminate the foreground and will have no effect on the fireworks. Including people enjoying the fireworks or an interesting object like a national monument, flag, or statue is a nice touch.
Fireworks is probably one of the hardest subject to shoot, probably due to the serious lack of opportunity to practice. This was my effort from a while ago...
great tips, thanks all very much
n0b0, that is a nice picture, will try to get one like that
I did some research before this post, that is why I posted
Thanks Ewmjr, I appreciate the tips, they were most helpful
what lens did you guys use? sounds like a semi wide <50mm would work well
It depends on how close you are to the fireworks. I was at the edge of the dock when I took that photo, ie. as close as anyone could get. I used the TS-E 17mm with my 450D but I think it wasn't wide enough. If I had to do it again, I'd use something like the 10-22mm on my crop body.
tighter crops on fireworks, shot w/ a 50-100mm lens make for some really nice abstract images.
wider shots, as long as there is something interesting in the background and not just smoke shrouded buildings works well too.
I prefer to shoot 35mm + tho when I do fireworks.
I also prefocus the lens on the test shots most firework companies send up prior to the show and then set it to MF and leave it. they all generally fall in the small space within the sky and then at f/11+ you've got enough DOF to capture even the lowest tails.
Seriously though I think that your shot has enough other details to give some perspective and interest to the fireworks as opposed to just a black sky.
The fireworks are their own light source and they are generally moving, exposing a different part of the sensor from one moment to the next. Therefore shutter speed does not determine the "correct" exposure as much as aperture does. Stick with low ISO to avoid noise and unnecessary overexposure. Try f/11 and keep the shutter open long enough to capture an interesting burst or pattern of bursts. Remember that keeping the shutter open too long will cause overexposure if too much happens at the one position, but too short makes relatively boring "static" points of light instead of pleasing light trails.
If you want to capture the background too then things get trickier because then you have the usual shutter & aperture requirements to obtain correct background exposure coupled with the aperture requirement for the fireworks.
Note that if you overexpose the fireworks then they will lose colour and tend to go white plus they'll look relatively blurry.
Watch out for dark objects that are hard to see at night but will show up in the photos - things like power lines, towers, poles, etc.
Use a tripod for the more traditional shots or try hand-held for more abstract wiggly lines. By using a tripod you can watch the fireworks yourself while holding the shutter open with a remote release cable. Just experiment a bit to get the right angle of view. It is not always possible to know exactly where the next burst will be nor how big it will be, so luck play a part.
Take heaps of shots so that you might better learn from the experience but remember that fireworks are not as much when seen in a viewfinder. Use raw mode so that you can easily fiddle with white balance (daylight is generally ok) and highlight recovery if required.
I used ISO 100 and f/22 and still got images that were overexposed in parts. That was with a 400 mm lens. The longer focal length makes the light source move faster over the sensor so it should get less exposure, or at least that's what I thought. So how can I keep from overexposing? I guess I need a neutral density filter?
And almost all the time I will use wider lens (focal length less than 50mm). Trust me its better to have a wider lens.
Recently I went out for shooting fireworks with 7D and 70-200 and I was left with no option but to adjust the position for almost each shot due to tight framing.
* - I don't have to mention this but if someone who is new and reading this should know that in all those settings Tripod is the only thing constant and without which not a single picture would be a keeper.
I'm not saying 400 mm is easy to use. I had to aim the lens and wait for something to enter the frame. That means I missed about 95% of the show, but I got what I wanted, something different from what everyone else shoots.
I just did a quick Google search for "fireworks" and "f/22" and I'm not the only one who finds that f/22 overexposes even at ISO 100. One person used a neutral density filter which I believe confirms my own idea to do that. With 2-stops ND, he starts at f/8 and goes to smaller aperture as needed, which avoids needing aperture smaller than f/22.
Using a lens cap as a shutter can also be helpful. Keep the shutter open a long time, to capture several bursts at their peak, but cap the lens between bursts to avoid over-exposing the background. This requires a decently sturdy tripod so that messing with the lens cap doesn't move the camera. (I hang a loaded camera bag on mine as 'ballast'.) Older style friction-fit lens caps work best - they're easier to attach and remove than ones that have a spring mechanism and they're more light-tight. A black card can also be used instead of a lens cap.
Use a dark card. Easier, doesn't giggle the camera. This question gets asked and for some reason people want to fight the concept of open shutter and select what burst you want to expose for. Perhaps it came from it's film and it's either there or not as opposed to this spend you evening in post slopping different bits together. More fun to do it at the time
pixelman wrote:
Use a dark card. Easier, doesn't giggle the camera. This question gets asked and for some reason people want to fight the concept of open shutter and select what burst you want to expose for. Perhaps it came from it's film and it's either there or not as opposed to this spend you evening in post slopping different bits together. More fun to do it at the time
I liked how Kodachrome rendered fireworks. It didn't seem to blow out the vibrancy of the fireworks themselves while maintaining a darker, cleaner sky. E-6 films tended to pick up colour casts from streetlights more easily, especially Veliva back in the days with predominantly mercury vapor street lighting, resulting in greenish skies...
I shot fireworks for the second time on digital back in May (Victoria Day here in Canada) and my feeling is that it's pretty easy to overexpose the fireworks and thus lose the colour intensity (as someone else noted above) compared to film. The key it seems is to avoid overexposure. Shutter duration will also depend on a couple factors, such as whether anything illuminated is in the scene that might over or underexpose (buildings, skyline, etc.) as well as the intensity of the fireworks. The show I attended was somewhat small scale. I started out with relatively short shutter speeds, like five seconds, but didn't get enough bursts per exposure for my liking. I settled at 10 seconds, f/11 ISO 200. The next time I do this though, I will go for 30 seconds, ISO 100 and f/11-16 as a starting point.
The hat, black card, cloth trick is a good one that I forgot about. Used to do that for multiple strobe exposures on a 4x5. Instead of trying to time the bursts, I just set the camera to continuous advance and locked the cable release. Because I was very far from the fireworks and was trying to incorporate foreground elements in the images, by letting the camera run on its own I was able to wander around and scope out other angles instead of having to attend to the camera.
Not spectacular, in part because it was a small show and I probably should have used a shutter speed longer than 10 seconds.... but it was a re-learning experience.
One other thing, I would suggest shooting RAW for added exposure latitude. If some of the bursts overexpose, you should be able to pull back some of the colour in the RAW converter.
