Getting great photos of fireworks is fairly simple as long as you follow a few simple rules and bring along the right gear.
Surprisingly, the right gear does not include a recommended camera.
Any camera that allows you to shot in manual mode and has a bulb setting will work.
Bulb mode means the camera will keep taking a picture until your finger comes off the shutter button. Bulb mode is mostly used for long exposures at night. The main advantage is that it allows the photographer to achieve shutter speeds longer than the 30 seconds that is allowed on most DSLRs.
You use bulb mode so taking fireworks so you can trip the shutter as soon as you see the fireworks being shot off the ground and hold the shutter open until the fireworks explodes and blooms and slowly fades away. Or you may want to hold the shutter open while several fireworks go off.
Two things that are required to get great shots are a steady tripod and a remote that allows you to hold the shutter open for 3-10 seconds without touching the camera. That’s it.
The thing to remember when you shoot fireworks is that you’re not exposing for the night sky, you have to expose for the brightness of the fireworks.
You want to set your iso to 100 and f-stop to f8 to f10.
I like to use zoom lenses so you can zoom in as tight as possible when you are taking the photos. Sometime you don’t know exactly where the fireworks are going to be shot off, or where you will be able to park and watch the fireworks show. If you have a good zoom lens on your camera, you will be ready to get the best images.
The two lenses I’ve used most at a 70-200 f2.8 lens with it’s built in tripod collar and a 24-105 zoom lens.
The tripod collar is great, because to get good shots, the camera has to be on a tripod. Most of my exposures are 5 to 20 seconds long. There really is no way to get a great photo of fireworks without using a tripod. It is impossible to get a photo without motion blur if you try to hand hold the camera.
Below are links to camera remotes and tripods that I recommend.
Canon Manual Shutter Release
All of the images in the gallery below were taken during one fireworks show.
