Vacation Photography Tips : Fireworks
Bonfire nights festive might be done and dusted for another year, but it is not just in November when photographers might find themselves capturing fireworks. You can find this great times on New Year’s Eve, Christmas and your the Fourth of July. Capturing them on camera might be a challenge, but the result are worth it, so see what you can do over the festive period. You will be adding impressive shots to your vacation photo collection.
The best way to get good fireworks photos is to use a sturdy tripod. If you absolutely cannot bring a tripod to the scene, do your best to brace your camera against railings, walls, or cars to keep it steady. You can choose a remote triggering device or cable release. Other important kit are extra batteries, memory (don’t forget to empty out your memory cards and bring a fully charged battery) and a flashlight (it will be useful in lighting a foreground subject watching the fireworks).
Make sure you arrive early to events like this. Pick your spot and set up your photography kit. Try to find interesting landmarks or other interesting things you can use to make your compositions more interesting. Watch out for buildings and trees which could block your view, and other lighting which might make your exposures tricky.
If you are not expert capturing photo in manual mode then switch your camera to the landscape preset mode. This scene mode is usually found on compact and prosumer cameras. For manual mode, set your exposure for between one and five seconds to capture long light trails. Most camera lenses provide very good optical quality at f/8 through f/16, the apertures most used for fireworks photography. Using an aperture narrower than f/16 will result in soft images as diffraction becomes an issue. Set to a lower ISO to compensate for the noise on the longer exposure. You can also try a different technique to get the best for your fireworks shots.
