Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer, and the start of vacations, fun in the sun, and other various activities. Don’t forget to record all of the special events in your life with pictures. Taking pictures is a lot easier now, with the small size and portability of point and shoot digital cameras.
Back in the day, if you shot with a traditional film camera, you had to worry about bringing enough film. Now, with memory cards of up to several GBs, you need to worry more about having enough battery power to make it through a long shoot.
And what better way to use up some battery power than with fireworks photography. The fourth of July is on its way, and you can be prepared ahead of time to get some great shots. Keep in mind that the best part of the show is at the end, hence the mention of batteries. And bring enough memory cards too. The tendency is to shoot a lot of shots at the beginning of the show, and run out of room for new photos at the end of the display.
Location, location, location
To take good photos of fireworks, you will need to find a location that affords you an open view of the sky. Avoid crowded areas, tree branches, street lights and other obstacles that may interfere with your shots. Plan ahead so you know where the fireworks will be going off, and talk to the crew doing the show if possible.
Equipment
Of course, bring a sturdy tripod. Fireworks photography requires long exposures, which means you need to have the camera held solidly in position for up to four seconds at a time. Do not even think of hand holding your camera! Another thing that would be really nice to have is a cable release. A cable release is something that attaches to the camera and triggers the shutter remotely.
This is advantageous in two ways. First, it reduces camera shake that may occur from manual shutter triggering, and it allows you to be focusing on the subject at hand, rather than looking though your viewfinder. For fireworks, you can be concentrating on when the next burst will appear, and let the camera do its thing. For digital cameras, see your owners manual for the particular model for your camera. It is also very handy to have a small flashlight, like a mag light or similar device, since you will be working in the dark.
Camera Settings
It used to be that you could set your camera on bulb (b), and hold the lens open for as long as you wanted, and use bracketing to get proper exposure. With digital cameras, if you have a bulb setting, great. If not, you will need to pick a fixed setting, like one second. Pick the highest quality setting, as jpeg compression tends to add noise to photos, and bright fireworks against a dark black sky invites lots of noise. To lessen the noise in your fireworks photos, choose a lower ISO setting, if available.
And be sure to set your camera to landscape mode (the one with the picture of a small mountain). This is comparable to the infinity setting on traditional cameras, and will eliminate the need to worry about focusing.
As for the aperture setting, that will vary depending on your ISO setting. Since most digital cameras are set at ISO 100, the proper setting will be between f/8 and f/16. For an ISO of 50, open up a little to f/5.6 to f/11, and for ISO 200 stop down to f/11 to f/22. You can check out your results in the camera’s preview, so you will be ready for the finale.
You are now set to be able to take some great shots of the next fireworks display. Go out there and have some fun. And let me know how they turn out. Check out some information about the history of the fourth of July, at Lisa’s post.