As New Years Eve approaches, many of you are probably planning on heading out with your camera to capture the fireworks displays. Photographing fireworks is a really fun way to experiment with using longer shutter speeds and shooting at night.

Here’s a few tips to help you get better images if you are wanting to give it a try:

1. Remember your tripod!! This is the most important piece of equipment and the other thing to consider is to make sure you are standing on solid ground. Standing on a bridge or other form of suspended walkway could cause some camera shake as people move about.

2. Use a low ISO (100-200) setting to keep noise to a minimum and to allow a longer shutter speed without over exposing.

3. Use manual exposure if your camera allows it and use the bulb setting so you can keep the shutter open for as long as you like. Using a hat or piece of black card to stick in front of the lens in between the firework bursts will allow you to capture more bursts in a single exposure without overexposing.

4. Use a cable release so you can time the shots without having any camera shake. If you don’t have one, use the self timer but you won’t have as much control over the timing of the shot plus it will prevent you from using the Bulb setting so try experimenting with shutter speeds like 10,15, 20 and 30 seconds depending on the amount of fireworks.

5. Try apertures of around f8 - f16 to prevent the fireworks from overexposing against the dark sky.

6. A wide angle lens is generally best for capturing lots of bursts but it will depend on your location and how far away you are from the action.

7. Remember to use manual focus (set around infinity) to prevent the autofocus from hunting and to guarantee sharply focused images.

8. Remember to experiment and have fun!

Best of luck with your fireworks photos and let us know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Cam Attree

www.fotofrenzy.com.au