With New Years Eve coming up there is often times where you have a chance to photograph fireworks if you want.
Photographing fireworks can often be confusing and frustrating. You want to capture more then one firework at a time, and you want the capture the movement, but can't quiet figure it out. There is one tip that makes this much easier, and will give you the results you are wanting!
LONG EXPOSURES!!
Having a long exposure (mine was 30 seconds) will allow you to capture more then one firework, and you will capture all that movement. However, you will need to adjust other settings and you will need to figure out a way to allow yourself to photograph with such a long exposure. Here is a quick list of what I do.
1) Set my exposure to 30 seconds.
2) Set my camera up on a tripod.
3) Set my camera on a 2 second delay. I do this if I don't have my remote trigger with me. Even on a tripod when you click the shutter, there may be inadvertent camera shake that will result in your picture not being tack sharp. This way I can press the shutter button slowly and lift my hands slowly so there is no camera shake.
4) You will want to set the other settings in camera to get a proper exposure. Having such a long exposure, your camera is going to let in a lot of light, so you will want to adjust your ISO (most likely as low as you can go or in the 100's) and then adjust your aperture. For this image, I was shooting at an ISO 160 and an F stop of 14. That way my image wasn't overexposed.
Below you will see a picture of my settings.
Try these tips and you should have no problem photographing those fireworks!
This also works for other type of pictures you want to take in the dark like castles and such. I am sharing an image I took with my cell phone and the image I took with my camera. My cell phone was barely able to capture the lights behind the castle, but my camera had no problem with it, since it was long exposure. This was a 25 second exposure, 14 and ISO 160.
First is the cell phone image. I mean it isn't horrible for capturing the moment, but as a photographer I wanted more. I waited for the crowds to die down (the park had closed 10 minutes before this when I took the cell phone image. I waited until about 30 minutes after closing and and it was pretty empty). They don't kick you out right when park closes, the rides stop, but you don't get ushered out of the park right away, which allowed me to capture some pretty awesome night time shots!)
And now the image I captured with my camera. Again this is a 25 second exposure, ISO 160, and F stop 14.
