Fourth of July Fireworks

by Ken Hubbard

With the 4th of July holiday rapidly approaching, here are a few tips to capture some good fireworks images.

1. Pick your location early: since most firework events get crowded, arrive early and scout out the location. Use elements of the location in your images, such as, rivers or bodies of water, buildings, ball parks which will make for a more dynamic image.

2. Bring a Tripod and Shutter release: You will be using very long exposures that you will not be able to hand hold.

3. Set your camera at: 100 ISO, F/11 @ 6 sec. or 200 ISO F/16 @ 6 sec. This is a starting point for the 1st few bursts, you can fine tune you exposure once you preview the 1st few images (Keep ISO as low as possible). You will want to keep the 6 sec. exposure so you get the full burst of the fireworks. Keep your camera in manual exposure, so you can fine tune your exposures, the camera will not be able to correctly expose your images in aperture priority or shutter priority.

4. Use manual Focus set to infinity, so the camera does not try and focus every time you want to release the shutter.

5. Use Auto white balance since there will be so many colors in the sky.

6. Fire just before the burst to get the full explosion and most dramatic effects. One tip is to count to 2 or 3 after you hear the low thud of the launch explosion then release the shutter. Again, adjust your timing to the actual situation, timing may be different in your location.

7. Bring extra batteries and media cards.

8. Try everything from wide angle to telephoto images.