My How-to On Shooting Holiday Fireworks

Hi Paul,

Long time no see. Hope things are well with you.

Thank you for the tips. Got this article marked!

Roseann

The 4th is about here and with a lot of fireworks to shoot - get these tips before then.


Hi RC - Too busy to spend time on here other than to add images.
I was always in trouble when I was on here before anyway.

Thanks, Paul. I have a couple questions. You mention "slow ISO" of 64. I didn't know ISOs were slow or fast. I thought that was a light adjustment. Mine only goes as low as 100. I also don't know what "trip the shutter" means. I suppose these are things I should know, just never learned. Maybe it's a difference in phrasing. Can you explain?

trip the shutter is = push the button = "take a picture"
an old term.

100 ISO is fine. just use the slowest you can.
ISOs are slow or fast when you are using shutter speed to expose an image.
The higher the ISO the faster the shutter speed you can use,
Slow/lower ISOs need longer speeds to get the same results.
in the days of film it had to do with how sensitive a film was to light.
Today it is just for how sensitive a sensor is to the same light - or how much more light it will record.

Most of my fireworks images are shot at about 1/25, F3.5 with a low ISO. Not sure what you mean at "X exposures per frame". I shoot sequential bursts-long as the shutter is depressed, it will record the images-usually between 5 and 10 that I later edit out.
I think choosing to shoot in "bulb" or a faster setting depends on what you are going for. Bulb blurs the light into a steady line; I prefer the detailed trajectory seen as we see it live.
The thing to keep in mind, regardless of the finished look you're going for is, the slower the shutter speed, the smaller the aperture must be as fireworks are very bright and can easily be blown out.

Great article.... I am guessing this was about a dslr camera? I have a simple non dslr camera...i will take a look at my settings to see whai i can do

Thanks so much for sharing this info. I love fireworks but have never been able to capture them correctly. I have learned to create some digital art effects that look similar to fireworks however. Here is one that I like:

I wrote that article a long time ago when I was using film (before digital cameras were even made)
but re-wrote it for todays use. Everything in it is the same except for some details that would be used for film,
like using a slow film for longer exposures. Back then you made several exposures on one frame by
using Bulb and a hand held card in front of the lens, but all of that is still exactly the same with a DSLR.
Many exposures can be made on one digital file the same way.

Does anyone know how to shoot fireworks from a moored boat or dock that moves a bit? A tripod isn't going to help if it moves... kind of defeats the purpose, right? Might be asking the impossible, I don't know. I have a better camera this year, and I'm still learning how to use it. Thanks!!

I thought this discussion was going to be about shooting off fire works and I was going to kindly ask that you not shoot to many as my dogs don't like them.

Lol, Mario!! Not sure why I didn't see that. I guess everybody is out celebrating now, since it's about that time on the east coast. Looks like there might be rain, anyway, so not sure if I'll be able to shoot those fireworks. I mean photograph those fireworks, haha !!!

Patricia ,I don't want it to rain on anyone's parade, but my dogs are praying for rain.

As someone not going out to shoot the fireworks this year with a camera, I'm kinda wishing for rain, too. Except that on the first non-rainy night, they'll still fore the fireworks!

Oh, gosh, now I feel bad for saying that because it looks like a hurricane is headed up the east coast. Yikes!! I'm sure fireworks are the last thing on peoples' minds.

Just started pouring here in Florida, thunder and lightning to, mother natures fireworks for sure. Dogs are not to happy. lol

I can't shoot fireworks this year :( Our puppy (he's a year old) is terrified of them and my older dog (a Jack Russell) is sick, so I'm dogsitting.

I use to shoot fireworks at f8 with 100ASA on bulb. Got some great designs

Thanks for that, Kevin. I thought I could easily find "bulb" on my camera, but it might be buried under all the other options. Is there another term for "bulb"?

The 'bulb' setting on my camera is part of the shutter speed settings. As I lower my settings, e.g. 1/125 > 1/60 > 1/30 >, -- as I transition lower and lower eventually the bulb option appears for selection.

Patricia, I would try those settings at 10, 20, and 30 seconds. You don't need bulb for this to work. The only thing bulb does is keep the shutter open until you close it.

I don't get it.

Fireworks are east to shoot. Find a safe place, light the fuse... run like hell.... BANG!!!!!

Count fingers in case you didn't run fast enough, if you still have ten.... then repeat.

Funny story about shooting lighting.

I was out on a point jutting into the Wisconsin River standing on an aluminum dock trying to get some good shots. I had been out there for 30 minutes of so.

My mother and my wife were in our cabin and my mother (dear ol' mom) asked my wife what I was doing out there. My wife told her I was trying to take pictures of lighting.

About 20 minutes go by, lighting all over the place... Mom, looks up having finished her crossword puzzle and nonchalantly says to my wife. Well, I guess one of us should go tell the damn fool that he is standing on a aluminum dock what an aluminum tripod in the middle of electric storm. My wife, having nerer seen lighting storms of the likes that they have in the Midwest, thought I was smart enough to know what I was doing. She came running down trail yelling at me, "get the hell of that dock you idiot!!!"

If that damn crossword puzzle had been much larger, I may have been crispy critters!

Floyd that is one your best yet! lmfao

The problem with my last failed attempt was getting stuck in traffic and spending 4 hours in bumper to bumper traffic! Still in therapy over that one. Had the photos turned out great therapy wouldn't have been necessary. Which is another reason to get it right the first time.

Thanks Paul! I read your thread about ten minutes before leaving the house last night and got some usable results from your suggestions.

back one more time - - -

for the people who don't think bulb is good for this you need to read the article.
Bulb is the best method because you can better regulate your exposures.
With the lens on bulb you can better pick when to expose another exposure
and even better yet for how long. When you only use an exposure speed you are stuck with that speed
and you loose control. Using bulb you take the card away from in front of the lens and
put it back whenever you want to and you get as many exposures on an image file as you want.
Use the speed setting and all you get is what was captured in that amount of time.
Shooting fireworks is mostly about totally controlling the exposures and you can not do that with a speed setting.
You ONLY control you have with a speed setting is at what speed you use.

Or you can use speed settings and shoot hundreds of frames and
then put them together later in composites if you don't mind wasting a few days to do it.
Bulb gives you more & better control and saves time doing it.

Read the article and you will see what using a card and the bulb setting does.

Here, I'll make it easy
reprint about the bulb info

For exposures using the "bulb" setting, which is my choice of doing it and really the best way, you need a cable release to keep your aperture open. For this method you also need a 4x5 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 say to. 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 it) and wait for the next rocket. When it is about to explode, remove the card. How often you do this depends on how many are fired off together. Usually 3-6 bursts of 4-8 seconds each. Then release the cable to end that exposed frame, and repeat.