Digital Camera How-To: Shooting Fireworks

CreativePro Staff

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Digital cameras aren’t known for their low-light exposure ability. In fact, they can be quite troublesome when trying to take nighttime shots, let alone shots of a fireworks show. The mixture of a dark sky and bright streaks of color can wreak havoc on your camera’s image sensor. Traditional photographers have devised some reliable techniques for shooting fireworks, but these practices only partially apply in the digital world. To get great shots of your next fireworks show, there are some special steps you can take to make sure your fireworks images get the oohs and aahs you deserve.

In this article, we’ll tell you how to get some great shots from your digital camera at your next fireworks show. First, we’ll discuss the challenges involved when a digital camera comes across such brief flashes of light against a dark background. Next, we’ll walk you through the complete process of shooting the fireworks show, from setup and location selection to exposure settings and framing. Finally, we’ll look at what you can do in your image-editing application to give your fireworks images some more punch.

Figuring out Fireworks
Fireworks are unpredictable, short-lived, volatile, erratic, etc. Capturing a good photograph of a firework burst takes as much luck as it does planning. However, understanding the challenges when shooting a fireworks show is the key to getting quality images.

The biggest problem when shooting at night with a digital camera is the buildup of noise when the sensor is exposed to light for a long period of time. This isn’t a problem with film cameras, where the traditional method is to open the shutter, cover the lens with something dark, and wait for the fireworks burst to remove the dark object and expose the film. But this process doesn’t work so well with a digital camera, as the image sensor can produce noise even if no light is reaching it. So, getting good shots of a fireworks show is largely a matter of using your camera’s settings to properly expose the image without developing any nasty noise.

Setting the Scene
The process of capturing a spectacular fireworks display begins well before the show starts. One of the most important steps in this process is selecting your shooting location. Fireworks shots look best when they fill the frame but don’t extend beyond it. While you could always crop out extra image space in post-processing, attempt to use as much of your image sensor as possible to get the best resolution and detail. To do this, try to get as close to the action as possible without putting yourself in harm’s way. Anticipate where the fireworks will explode, but know that you’ll probably have to make adjustments once the show starts. Position yourself upwind from where the fireworks are being launched and detonated, as shooting through a thick wall of smoke will do nothing good for your image.

A steady footing. For the best results, place your camera on a tripod or other firm foundation. We can’t stress this enough — your shutter is going to be open longer than usual to capture enough light for the exposure. This long shutter time also exposes any camera movement, turning your bursts of light into squiggles! If your digital camera came with a remote control, consider using it to eliminate any camera shake that can occur when you press the shutter button.

Adding more than the sky. While shooting fireworks against the dark night sky is dramatic enough, you may want to consider adding other objects into your scene, as show in Figure 1. If you’re shooting a show in a downtown area, consider adding a landmark to help set the scene and encourage some interesting reflective possibilities. Water creates beautiful reflections of the show and can create some captivating mirror images. Also, keep in mind that the audience may be as interesting as the show. Silhouette the crowd against the explosions, or turn your camera around and capture the glow of a burst on their faces. We’ve even seen some stunning overhead shots of fireworks shows from airplanes. While we don’t think you have to go to this extreme, selecting your shooting position thoughtfully can yield some effective shots.

Getting your Camera Ready
First things first — you’re going to need memory, and lots of it. Since your fireworks images will probably contain as many misses as hits, shoot as many images as possible. Use the largest memory card you have and shoot until you’re out of memory. Also, make sure you have a fully charged battery in the camera — nothing is worse than running out of juice before the finale!

Next, we’re going to go over some other settings to be aware of when shooting fireworks. While every digital camera is different, use these guidelines to make smart choices for what’s the best combination of settings to get the most from your camera.

Selecting your image size. When shooting fireworks, shoot at the highest resolution possible. If your camera has an uncompressed RAW format option, go with that. Otherwise, select the image setting that will compress your image the least. Compression can skew colors and reduce saturation as well as add unwanted noise to your image, particularly in nighttime skies. Using the image sensor to its fullest potential also allows you extra image size in case you need to crop your image later.

Note: The trade-off of using a less compressed image format (such as RAW or TIFF) is the time it takes to write the file to your storage media. If you find your shots taking too long to save, go a step down to speed things up.

Focus on what? It’s basically impossible to predict the focal range of a fireworks burst. For that reason, it’s best to give your camera the maximum range of latitude when it comes to focal distance. The best selection is to set the focusing scale to infinity, but many digital cameras don’t offer this option. Try to avoid using the autofocus option, as your shot will be gone by the time your camera focuses on the burst. If you can set your camera for a specific focal range, estimate your distance from the fireworks and hope for the best!

Getting the right exposure If your camera offers manual exposure controls, you’re going to want to use them to your advantage. Smaller apertures, such as f/5.6, f/8 and f/11, work best with fireworks as they produce thin streaks of color rather than the thicker bands produced when a larger aperture lets too much light in.

As for the shutter speed, you need to open the shutter long enough to get sufficient light without allowing noise to develop on the sensor. Some digital cameras offer a Bulb mode (B), which allows the shutter to remain open as long as the shutter button is pressed. This option is best for traditional film setups, but use it with caution in a digital camera. Noise can build up quickly, decreasing the quality of your image, as shown in Figure 2. Use a shutter speed range from _ to 2 seconds. Longer shutter speeds are desirable, so experiment with your camera to find out what your limitations are.

Note: When photographing fireworks, turn off your flash. If you set up your camera correctly, the fireworks will give off all the light you need.

Keeping the noise down. The ISO setting on your digital camera determines how sensitive your image sensor is to light. While you might think that setting a higher ISO for a nighttime shot would give a better exposure in low-light conditions, it isn’t a good idea to shoot above ISO 200 during a fireworks show. Again, we shoot at this setting because of noise, as higher ISO settings tend to create noisier images. ISO 100 or 200 does a good job while reducing the possibility of noise buildup.

What do heat and humidity have to do with image quality? Well, digital cameras are more susceptible to noise buildup in hot and wet conditions, which is likely at an Independence Day celebration. This is the infamous “hot pixel” issue, where pixels on the image sensor overheat and give false readings. Higher ISO settings are prone to display this noise, especially when you’re shooting a larger area of dark color such as the bluish-black night sky.

What can you do about the heat and humidity? Unfortunately, there’s no magic technique to overcome the elements. If you find a lot of dark noise in your images, set the ISO to the lowest possible setting and slightly reduce your exposure compensation to “desensitize” the image sensor and minimize the appearance of noise in your image.

Color concerns. The vivid colors of a fireworks show are what it’s all about. For that reason, you want to set your camera up to take the best color possible. Ironically, good nighttime color comes from an unlikely source. By setting your camera’s white balance setting to “Daylight” (or a similar setting such as “Sunny”), you give the camera the best chance to get an accurate range of colors. Other settings, even a “Night” setting, overemphasize portions of the spectrum that increase noise visibility. By exposing with a Daylight setting, you can capture the vibrant explosions without getting unwanted color details.

Note: If your digital camera has in-camera sharpening, it’s a good idea to turn this option off and do your sharpening in your image-editing application. The fine details of an explosion can be lost with in-camera sharpening.

On with the Show!
Once your camera is set up, shooting fireworks is largely a matter of reacting to the show. It’s a good idea to start the show with your lens zoomed out — zoom in on the action once you have a good idea of the range of the explosions. Shoot as many images as possible — you can pick the winners later. Consider using your camera’s continuous or burst mode, if available. This option takes a series of shots in quick succession, allowing you to shoot the burst from initial explosion to fade away. If you’re shooting in a normal, single-shot mode, keep your camera’s lag time in mind and adjust your reaction time accordingly. Since the explosions can be unpredictable, the best technique is to shoot first and ask questions later.

What to Do After the Show
What can you do to improve your fireworks images? Consider boosting saturation levels to make the streaks of light more vibrant, as we did in Figure 3. You’ll also want to eliminate as much noise in your image as possible.

You may also find that some of your bursts have hotspots from the explosion — try using your image-editing application’s Levels adjustment to decrease the intensity of the highlights and increase the midtones. Your image will be heavy in the shadows, but you’ll want a nice dark sky as the background to isolate your explosions.

The post-processing stage is also the best time to add any sharpening to your images, as you have the maximum level of control. Since we aren’t using a specific focal point, you might need to sharpen all images to some level. The trick is to keep your sharpening to a minimum so the fine details of the firework streaks don’t become pixelated.

Grand Finale
Shooting fireworks with a traditional film setup is hard, but shooting with a digital camera can be even more challenging. However, the results are worth the extra effort when you put take the time to set up your shot and your camera to expose the perfect fireworks burst. Shoot often, be flexible, and enjoy the show!