Happy 4th of July | Quick Tips for Great Fireworks Photos
This year I set out to capture some great fireworks photographs. Here is a list of the quick tips that achieved sharp, colorful images this year.
1. Use a tripod: I know it is annoying, but slow shutter speeds work best and the only way to get sharp images with slow shutter speeds is with a still camera, preferably mounted to a tripod.
2. Set your aperture to f/8-11 or so.
3. Set your shutter speed somewhere between 2-6 seconds.
4. Manually focus to infinity if your lens allows.
5. Set your white balance by kelvin to somewhere between 5200 and 5800. If your camera does not have a kelvin setting, use sunlight.
6. Play around with these settings as you are shooting to get proper exposure. Keep your blinks on to make sure you are not blowing things out, as fireworks are obviously very bright.
7. The lens I used was a Canon 24-70 2.8 II lens, and I shot primarily @ 24 mm. Wide lenses work great, but play around with different focal lengths for different looks. I zoomed in to 70mm a couple times and it yielded cool results.
70mm
When I pulled my images into Lightroom, I found that minimal editing was required. After adjusting the exposure, if necessary, I pulled the blacks and the highlights down and then adjusted the whites and shadows, if necessary, to remove any smoke that happened to be in the background. I added a pop of clarity (+5) and a touch of saturation (+10).
After making these basic adjustments, I played around with the temperature and tint. This will dramatically change the colors of your image and can turn a semi-boring monochromatic shot into something much more fun. Here are some examples of how playing with temperature and tint affects fireworks. Keep in mind I was starting from a fairly neutral kelvin of 5600.
Finally, one more fun thing to try is to bring several images together in a composite, which is what I did with the lead image on this post. It is actually several images stacked together in Photoshop, blended together in lighten mode.
So the next time you are headed to a fireworks display, grab your tripod and use a closed down aperture with a low shutter speed. Then spend a couple minutes in Lightroom. I guarantee you will love the results!