Photographing Fireworks
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With New Years Even upon us, many people will be thinking of going out and celebrating the New Year with fireworks. If you are one of them, you may know that getting a good shot of fireworks is never as easy as you would think.
The vast majority of comments I hear are that either the pictures come out dark, or as more often is the case, they come out blurry.
Getting a good shot of fireworks requires a few key essentials.
Research
Before you can even begin to set up for your shots, you need to do a sweep of the area and find a location where you want to take them from. While finding a location where you are alone may be impossible, you should try and find somewhere that gives you a little extra room with preferable nobody in front of you. Nothing ruins a photo faster than a strangers head. To avoid lens flare you want to try and find somewhere away from glaring lights and out of the wind & rain. Wind can blow smoke into your photos, so take into account the wind direction also when choosing your location. If you can’t
find somewhere away from lights, try practicing a few shots with something to screen the glare. Your camera may have a lens cover designed for this already.
Tripod
Because you’re going to be using a slow shutter speed, your camera must be kept absolutely still the whole time. You may think you can hold it still, but even a fraction of movement can distort and otherwise great photograph.
You don’t necessarily need a professional, full of gadgets tripod either. Just your basic beginner level tripod will do fine. The vital point here is to keep the camera dead still while taking the photo.
Patience
“Good things come to those who wait”. A classic saying that could not be truer when getting that perfect shot. Fireworks photography is all about timing & patience, and it may take you a lot of attempts to get a shot you are happy with. Never give up, you will get it.
Optional - Shutter Remote
Shutter remotes are small add ons for your camera that allow you to take the photo without having to touch the camera itself. This removes any camera shake that may otherwise occur. If you have a shutter remove, definitely use it.
Now that you have your camera, your tripod & you’ve chosen your location, it’s time to start shooting.
As I mentioned already, in order to get a perfect shot you are going to need a slow shutter speed. Depending on the type of fireworks you are trying to capture, anything between 1 and 4 seconds will be required. You can now see why a tripod is essential to getting the perfect shot. The speed you use will depend on the size and length of the fireworks you’re trying to shoot. This is where a LOT of practice shots and adjustments will come into play. You may also try reducing the shutter speed by using ISO 50. Anything higher than ISO 100 and you will start having problems.
Chances are your camera is a digital and uses a memory card. Make sure you have a number of backup memory cards with you. You’re going to want to take a LOT of shots during the fireworks display and you wont have time to edit or delete them on the fly. The best process is to simply keep shooting and do all the deleting later on when you get home.
Don’t cheat yourself on quality
Make sure before you start to set your photo quality settings to the highest possible. This will result in large images with large file sizes (hence the need for multiple memory cards) but will also guarantee the highest possible quality images. It is vital that you do this, as night time photography and fireworks photography need the highest quality image settings to come out good.
Shoot
Initially shoot and check the image. Get a feel for the shutter speed and adjust as necessary. The more photos you take, the better your chance of getting that perfect shot.
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Tags: camera, fireworks, fireworks displays, how to photograph fireworks, image, iso, new years eve, night photography, photo, photographing fireworks, photography, pyrotechnics, shutter remote, slow shutter speed, tripod
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