Fireworks are often used to celebrate momentous occasions. They are short lived, explosions of colour which have an intensity lasting for just a few seconds.

Fireworks are often used to celebrate momentous occasions. They are short lived, explosions of colour which have an intensity lasting for just a few seconds.
Do you want to photograph fireworks? There are a few Fireworks Photography tips to help you get started.

Use a Tripod

The tripod is a must. You might consider anchoring it with some weights or something else heavy. If you are using a long lens, a cable release is also a good idea for clicking the shutter, so that touching the camera does not cause any movement. Even a little camera movement could spoil the photo.

Keep the Shutter Held Down

To help remove blurriness due to 'camera shake', when taking digital photographs of fireworks, as you press the shutter button to take your picture, keep the button held down during the entire length of the exposure. Even though you may be taking photos with a tripod, it is still possible for the release of the shutter button during an exposure to shake the camera a tiny amount, just enough for a crisp photo to become slightly blurry.

Flash Won't Help

Don't plan on using flash to illuminate the night sky when taking photos with your digital camera. Fireworks are shot a good deal away from where you will be taking pictures, thus the small light on your digital camera cannot reach the fireworks and illuminate the night sky enough to make a difference in your photos.

Shoot in Manual Mode

Auto focusing in low light can be very difficult for many cameras and you’ll end up missing a lot of shots. Once your focusing is set you’ll find you don’t really need to change it during the fireworks display – especially if you’re using a small aperture which increases depth of field. Keep in mind that changing focal lengths will mean you need to need to adjust your focusing on most lenses. So the manual focus is better than auto focus.

Different Focal Length Lenses

Remember, the finale always has the biggest and brightest fireworks going off in quick succession. In a long fireworks show, you might have time to try different focal length lenses for different effects.