Photographing Dramatic Fireworks

Photography Tips

One of the many things we all go to see during our national holidays—as well as at many other special events—are big fireworks displays. Even though it may be pitch black out, there is no real need for special equipment to shoot fireworks. Besides a good zoom lens in the 35-120mm range, depending on how far away you are from where they will be going off, all that is needed is a good sturdy tripod, a cable release, a small 4×5 inch piece of dark matboard, and a slow ISO setting of 64 or less. There is no need to use special filters or any other piece of custom photo equipment. In fact, everything you need you should already have.

When many average size bursts are going off at the same time I close the lens down to f22 or smaller, and expose on “bulb” sometimes for 15 seconds or more. The zoom lens allowed me to include the fireworks reflections in the river below. The small opening does however destroy all detail in the dark areas as with the bridge here, even with long exposures. © Paul W. Faust

Location

Probably the number one factor you should take care of is scouting the best location to shoot from. This usually means first knowing from WHERE the fireworks will be launched. That will dictate where you will have to be to get the best shots of them. There can be many factors in choosing the right location. Take into consideration the following questions:

• Is there water in the area that you could get reflections in?
• Are there a lot of trees that might block your view?
• Will you be able to see the rockets from the time they first go off so that you can also get the trail of flames as they shoot up?
• How many people might end up getting in front of you to block your view?
• Can you easily get from one good location to a second location quickly enough to get good shots at both?

When you do your first scouting trip, don’t just look for one spot and then go home. Look for several good locations in case the first one does not work out. You may go back to find that it is now behind a police barricade and you end up with no place to shoot from.

This image was taken using multiple exposures. You can tell that by the fact that several bursts are only partially formed as with the one center left. That burst was caught when the shutter was triggered at the exact moment that the burst was already half open, so the first part of it saw never recorded. These are some of the kinds of effects you will get with that exposure method, and you will never even know about them until you get the film back. © Paul W. Faust

Setting Up

Get to your chosen location well before the fireworks begin. Set up your camera on the tripod, attach the cable release, and focus the lens for the area that ranges from the blast-off spot to the area needed to get in the largest bursts. Hence the need for a good zoom lens that goes down to a wide angle.

Use the first several bursts for setting up your framing. The first fireworks are usually the least impressive, anyway. If you get too much area in a frame you can always crop some out later on, but you cannot add to what is not there if you cut parts out when composing.

Long exposures are the norm for fireworks displays, but there are tricks to making them. Exposures can be done in two ways. By setting the speed to “bulb” or by using multiple exposures—if your camera has that ability.

Multiple Exposures

For multiple exposures you count the seconds it takes for one rocket to blast off and fully explode, and then set your speed for that long, usually about 3-5 seconds. Set the aperture at about f/8. Then set the exposure count for how many bursts you want on each frame. Capturing too many fireworks will start to wash out the whole image, so stick to about 3 to 5 exposures per frame. This again will also depend on how far away you are from them. It also depends on the color of the explosions. Mostly red ones can allow for more exposures, but if there are more than a few all-white clusters, that frame will start to wash out. I never allow more than three large white bursts per frame—two if they are really bright. They will also wash out the other colors.

All white explosions can look great as long as there are not very many of them. They can be good for lighting dark areas, but too many can wash out all other detail as in what it would have done to all of the smoke in the sky. Here, the bridge was backlit by the added waterfall effect from another type of fireworks used. The combination is outstanding! The one drawback is that it adds even more smoke to the scene, which is one other major factor to consider when picking a location. Make sure you know which way the wind usually blows. © Paul W. Faust

Bulb Exposures

For exposures using the “bulb” setting, which is really the best way to do them, you need a cable release to your aperture open. For this method you also need a 4×5 piece of dark cardboard. You place the card in front of the lens, and when the fireworks start, trip the shutter. An assistant is good to have here, so they can trip the shutter when you ask. The card blocks the light until you want to expose a burst. Then, as the rockets fire off, you remove the card and record the exposure by counting off the seconds. Replace the card back in front of the lens, but be sure not to bump the camera, and wait for the next rocket. When it is about to explode, remove the card. How often you do this depends on how many fireworks are fired off together.

Usually 3-6 bursts of 4-8 seconds each is the right amount. Then release the cable to end that exposed frame, and repeat. If you find that most explosions are of deep colors, you can close down the lens one or two more stops and make even more exposures per frame. You do have limits to how many you can do or before long, the entire frame will become nothing but streaks of fire and then nothing will look good.

The main things to remember are the brighter the bursts, the fewer you can expose on one frame. Try these tips the next time you shoot fireworks, and have another helper keep a record of how you expose each frame, including how many “different” bursts went off, and how many times you removed the card, and for how long each time. You should also vary the f-stops from f/8 to f/16 to see which gives the best colors or the most bursts. The smaller the aperture, the more bursts you can record. Generally, the best images are the ones with 5-8 second exposures, and 3-5 exposures per frame. Too many bursts can be just as bad as too few.

One other trick you can use with a zoom lens is to shoot 2 or 3 “multiple exposures” at a wide angle, and then one zoomed in a bit. This will give you explosions that look like one went off really close to you and the others far off in the background. It takes practice for that one. Also, if you have the equipment, set up two cameras, one for the “bulb” technique and the other for the multiple exposure method. You won’t be able to operate them both at the same time, but you can switch back and forth to get more shots in less time.

GOOD SHOOTING!

Image Note: The fireworks in these three images were all set off from one bridge over the Tennessee River, and photographed from a second bridge. This gave me many positions to shoot from one side of the river to the other.

About the Author:
Paul W. Faust is a self-taught Photographer, Writer, Digital Imaging, Photo Restoration, and Photo Stock Service professional. You can see more of his work at: www.Impressions-of-Light.com.