Bombs Bursting In Air...... Fireworks Photography

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been trying new and different photo techniques.  And with the 4th of July upon us, I decided to give fireworks photography a whirl.  For those of you who don't know, I'm an avid amateur photographer with an eye on commercial photography someday.  My equipment is a step above point-and-shoot but is definitely not the stuff used by true professional photographers.  But I do the best I can with what I've got.

I was planning on going to our county park to shoot the fireworks display, but at the last minute wangled an invite to a party being held about a quarter mile away from the park.  This was great.  In addition to the food and beer, I was far enough away to be able to comfortably photograph the fireworks.  Any closer and I would have had to aim the camera much higher.  A little farther away turned out to be better.  Once the sky started to darken, I set my camera (a Nikon D300) on a tripod and aimed it toward the sky.  I chose a Nikon 18-200mm zoom lens. 

To begin with, I set the camera for manual operation, or manual mode.  I wasn't sure how long it would take to capture each shell exploding, but I knew that a fast shutter speed wouldn't work.  I wanted to be able to push the shutter button as soon as I heard the shell launch and then have the shutter stay open until it burst.  So I set the shutter for 5 seconds.  To allow for that long an exposure, I set the ISO, or camera sensitivity, at 200 (that's low).  After a few adjustments to my aim point and lens focal length, here's what I got. 

Because I shot the images a little wider than needed to make sure I had the explosion somewhere in the frame, this image is cropped.  But otherwise it's pretty much untouched.  I was pleasantly surprised with the result. 

So being the adventurous sole I am, I decided to try some other settings.

The fireworks crew were working in two groups.  And I wanted to try to capture two separate explosions in one image.  So I moved to get the two fireworks crew lined up one behind the other.  That way, if the shells launch in approximately the same direction (and that's a big if), the explosions will occur one behind the other.  Next I increased the shutter speed to 10 seconds.  By this time the sky had darkened quite a bit, so the exposure came out about the same.  And here's the result.  Again, I was surprised at the quality of the shot.

If you've never tried to shoot fireworks, I encourage you to try.  Even with a point-and-shoot digital, you might be surprised with the results.  And after all, if you don't try you'll never know what's possible.  So next 4th of July, you've got an assignment.  Good luck.

Comments

[Julia]

Neat! I had sweaty kids plastered to me during our two nights of fireworks. Maybe in a few years I'll get to try my hand at this.

[r4i software]

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[guenstig uebernachten neuhof an der zenn]

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[exchange activesync]

Its not actually my practice to post comments, but i thought i would say that this was impressive.

[reparo de parabrisas]

I can Chinese are one of the innovators of fireworks, you can see the original stuff every February which is their New Year.