Happy Victoria Day! This holiday weekend marks the start of fireworks season. Everyone loves to capture these bursts colour but it can be hard to get the perfect shot. Check out our top five tips for fireworks photography!
Keep Your ISO Low
Lower iso means less noise in the image. Noise reduces the quality and clarity of the image. Noise appears in the blues of an image and is offered increased when using a longer exposure so try to keep the noise down.
Plan Out What You Want Your Shot to Look Like
Use an aperture of f5.6 or f8. Anything higher will cause the shot to be overexposed or will make the light trails thinner. Short shutter speeds are better to capture fast fireworks but longer shutter speeds work to capture the trails that fireworks leave behind. Keep the shutter speed to 3-4 seconds when there is a lot going on but don’t go below 2 seconds as this will cause the shot to become overexposed.
Shoot in Burst Mode
Treat fireworks like sports photography in that there is something new happening every second so you often need multiple shots at once to capture all of the action.
Stand Upwind of Fireworks in a High Spot
This allows for a better view of the fireworks in two ways. First, you avoid the clouds of smoke that are omitted from the fireworks and secondly, you get a clearer vantage point of the fireworks if you are slightly higher.
Try Bulb Mode
This way you can manipulate the shutter speed specifically. That can be helpful as not all fireworks were created equal and they can all require different camera settings.
Check Our Night Photography Class!
Our night photography class will give you lots of tips for fireworks photography and other night photography techniques.