How To Capture Fireworks With Your Digital Camera
How do I capture fireworks with my digital camera?
The first thing you need is a tripod. If I'm going to a 4th of July fireworks display, to the ball game or to a theme park that has fireworks, I'll scope out and find out where the fireworks are shot. If they're going to set right up over the trees, right by the light, you have to find a dark sky location. No street lights, no trees, no wires, no nothing in the way so you get a good unobstructed view. Generally it takes a medium telephoto lens in the 1-2mm range to get the fireworks to fill up the frame. So, I have the camera on a tripod, my medium telephoto lens in place. You have to set the camera to manual focus. Set the camera focus to infinity, because the camera won't be able to focus on the fireworks as they're moving in the dark. Next, you're going to select an ISO of 1-2. Either with film or with digital, it doesn't matter. On digital you're going to set white balance to, either cloudy or flash white, for fireworks. Then you're going to set the shutter speed on the camera to B for bulb, and bulb exposure means the camera is going to stay open as long as you press the button. Whether it's the button on the top of the camera or with a remote release, the camera stays open for as long as you want. What I do is wait for the fireworks to shoot. I see where they explode and the range of the fireworks. I'll then take the camera and point it until I get the same areas in the sky. When the fireworks shoot up, you press the button, they explode, they drop down for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 seconds. That's one burst, another burst, another burst and then I let the exposure go. So, you keep the exposure open for as many bursts as you want on the film.
