Summer is already moving quickly… many of us are getting ready for the 4th of July this Friday! If you’re like me, part of the planning on what we do that day is driven by my desire to get good photos of the fireworks. If you haven’t captured fireworks through the lens of your camera before, it may seem a little complicated, but it really isn’t!

Anyone can take great fireworks photos with a few simple things.

You will need:

  1. Your camera
  2. A sturdy tripod
  3. A shutter release cable (preferable) – this will reduce camera shake by not having to touch your camera
  4. Charged your batteries
  5. And if you’re like me, an empty memory card or an extra one – I tend to take tons of firework photos in an attempt to get a few good ones.

One of the most important things is finding a good location. We live in Florida and are lucky to be able to view the fireworks over the ocean or the bay. If you have a great view of a city, waterway or trees, you might want to include this in your photos. If you’ll be in a large crowd or just don’t want anything but fireworks in your photo, that works, too! Just make sure you are able to set up somewhere where your camera won’t be tipped over, or that you aren’t in a pathway where someone will trip over your tripod. We don’t want injuries to others, or your gear!

The lens that you use is really a personal choice. If you are further away or want a tight crop of the fireworks, go for a zoom lens. If you have a great foreground/background, you might want a wider lens in order to include more scene in your frame. When in doubt, I usually go for the wider option and then crop the photo if I feel that it needs it. This is always much better than getting home and viewing your photos and wishing you had more space around your subject.

As for technical settings:

  1. Go with a low ISO – around 100 or 200
  2. Make sure that your flash is off
  3. Choose the Manual mode setting (it might sound like this is going to get tricky, but trust me on this one!)
  4. Set your aperture around f/8
  5. Set the focus on your lens to infinity – you won’t be able to focus in the dark, and this will make sure you get everything in focus.
  6. Set your shutter speed for somewhere between 2 – 4 seconds. You can also experiment with this to find what works best, or depending on how much ambient light you have, you might want to put your camera in bulb mode to be able to capture a longer exposure and shut your shutter when you want instead of on a timed setting.

I usually start with the shutter set to 2 seconds and then see if I captured what I was looking for, and then adjust from there – sometimes up to 5 seconds, depending on the ambient light. If you’re close enough to hear the launch of the fireworks – which is personally one of my favorite things – then you can time your shutter to the launch to be able to capture them in the air. I don’t think there’s a science to this – more just trial and error. Everyone’s situation will be different, so you will have to make adjustments until you find something you like, then just continue to shoot.

I switch to bulb mode for the finale to try and get multiple fireworks in one shot. You can also edit and combine your photos at home in Photoshop to get a collage effect like I’ve done below.

I hope you have a wonderful 4th and are able to achieve beautiful firework photos. Don’t forget to take a moment and remember why we celebrate!