There two basic ways to photograph Fireworks depending on the situation and available gear.

• The Ideal way

• The snapshot way

The Ideal way

Taking a photograph of fireworks in an ideal way involves using a tripod and manually setting ISO, shutter speed, Aperture and focus.

Tools required:

• Camera

• Tripod

• Scene with fireworks

• Remote shutter release (optional)

• Interesting scene with fireworks

Step 1: Setup the camera on the tripod in general view of the scene. Pay attention to composition and where the fireworks will likely be if it has not yet started. You do want as much of the fireworks in the frame as possibly and potentially other interesting elements. Try to keep the camera level horizontally unless it is not beneficial from a composition perspective.

Step 2: Set ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed. Ideally, it is preferred to set the ISO as low as possible. The higher the ISO, the more noise or grain will appear in the photo. If you would like to have light trails, you will require a slow shutter speed. The image above was taken at 1/40th of a second. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the light trails created by the fireworks will be. Setting a smaller aperture (denoted by a higher number such as f/8 instead of f/2) the wider the focal plane to allow more of the scene to be in focus. The scene will need to be slightly underexposed to allow the fireworks to be displayed without being too overexposed. Notice that in the image above, the scene is relatively dark and is more set to expose the fireworks.

Step 3: Set the focus. It is best to turn on autofocus and set the focus to something in the distance which is a similar distance to the camera that the fireworks will be. This could be persons, equipment or even buildings right below where the fireworks will be. After getting this focus point, set focus to manual on the camera. You could leave the camera on autofocus but some cameras will miss focus in the heat of the moment.

Step 4: Take the photograph of the fireworks. The camera needs to be steady when taking images. You can use a remote shutter release to take the images or set a delay on the camera before taking each image. The potential downside of not using a remote shutter release is that it will be more difficult to time the photograph. Below are some images of before and after the peak moment of the fireworks. The longer your shutter speed, the less of an issue this will be unless the fireworks are few and far apart.

Step 5: Practice, Practice and Practice. The more you practice, the better you will get at setting the options and timing the fireworks.

The Snapshot Way

The ideal way works when you had planned to go out with the intention of taking fireworks but what happens if you went out to dinner, just happened to have your camera and just happened to see some fireworks in the distance? Do you feel sad about not having your tripod which would still be odd if you did, setting it up in the middle of a rooftop restaurant? No, we use what is available.

Tools Required:

• Camera

• Interesting scene with fireworks

The photograph at the top of this image was shot in this way using the settings below on a fujifilm X-Pro2 with a 35mm f/2 Prime lens:

• Shutter Speed : 1/40th of a second

• ISO : 1600

• Aperture : f/2

• Focal length : 35mm

The above settings contrary to what was recommended in “The Ideal Way” but let us look at the why these settings were chosen.

The 1/40th of a second shutter speed was chosen to allow me to still hand hold the camera. If your camera has image stabilization in the lens or in camera, you can get away with hand holding a much slower shutter speed. None of these are present for this camera / lens. If there was a wall to brace against or something to rest the camera on, I could also get away with a slower shutter speed. The fireworks started while we were walking back to the car. Even if I did have a tripod, there is no guarantee that the fireworks would still be going on by the time I set everything up.

The overall exposure of a scene is a balance between the ISO, aperture and shutter speed. The f/2 aperture and 1600 ISO were necessary as f/2 was the widest aperture of the lens and I didn’t necessarily want to go too high with the ISO. An ISO of 1600 allowed the scene to be exposed fairly well though it was brightened further in post. If we set the aperture to f/7.1, it may have been difficult to get proper exposure even with ISO 12800, an aperture of f/2 and a shutter speed of even 1/15th of a second which would likely have resulted in a slightly blurry photo. If you have something stable to rest the camera on, you can lower the shutter speed to 30 seconds, potentially reducing the ISO and maintaining an aperture of f/7.1 or something similar to achieve proper exposure. This will also result in very long light trails. The longer the exposure, the longer the light trails but the more stability required for the camera.

Summary

This highlights the need to be aware of the implications of your situation on the settings needed.

• Tripod or steady surface available -> prioritize low ISO and narrower apertures (higher f/numbers) while still exposing the scene

• No tripod / steady surface and hand holding the camera -> Prioritize the minimum shutter speed that can be used while still having a sharp picture. This may mean using a wider aperture and setting the focus closer to infinity in order to get enough light to maintain the required shutter speed without having the ISO too high.

• The wider the focal length of the lens, the longer a shutter speed you will be able to use for hand holding. I was using a prime lens but if it were a 15mm to 45mm lens, you will be able to hand hold a slower shutter speed at 15mm than you will at 45mm. Spend time practicing hand holding at various focal lengths and shutter speeds before you need to take the fireworks to find out what your reasonable minimums may be as some persons have more stable hands and some cameras / lenses have better image stabilization. I also recommend looking at these images on a computer. Sometimes images will look sharp on the back of the camera but required a faster shutter speed to show no blur when zoomed in.

Thanks for reading this far. If you have any questions or comments about specific scenarios, please leave a comment below.