Fireworks Technique Update

One of my great fascinations is fireworks. For most of my life I have enjoyed them as most people do.  Now my focus on the shows is capturing the explosions with a camera.  In a previous post I talked about equipment and technique.  Since that last post my family and I have returned to Walt Disney World with new equipment and methods to try out.

My wonderful wife purchased a new camera for me and my mother gave me two Neutral Density (ND) filters.  ND filters have been used for a long time by landscape photographers to get that silky, dreamy water everyone likes.  Until I read the Disney Photography Blog's ebook on fireworks technique the thought of using a ND filter for fireworks hadn't crossed my mind.

Using a ND filter for fireworks has its good and bad side.  First the good side.  Decreasing the amount of light that reaches the sensor allows you to keep the shutter open for longer periods.  This results in more bursts per frame.  My last post on fireworks (which is linked at the top of this post) has examples without the ND filter.  Most have just a few bursts in them. 

This first shot was during the villain scene in the Wishes show.  With a .9 (8x) ND filter I was able to keep the shutter open for the entire scene.  Exif for this shot: D800, 24-70mm 2,8 @ 31mm, iso 100, f/9.0, exposure 60 seconds.  In comparison my best shots from last trip were averaging just a few seconds at a much smaller aperture.

Now the downside to using a ND filter.  Since the exposures are now much longer the number of shots you can get per show are greatly reduced.  Less shots means a smaller chance for getting a great shot and less opportunity to experiment with different settings.  The great part about experimenting on your fireworks photos at Disney is they have fireworks pretty much every night and sometimes twice in the same evening.

My wife's favorite part of the Wishes show.  30 seconds @ f/9.0

Finale from Wishes. 21 seconds @ f/9.0

Illuminations finale. 32 seconds @ f/8.0

Fireworks

Fireworks have always been fascinating.  They come in so many shapes, sizes, and colors.  Photographing them can be particularly challenging.  First there is little more than a faint trail when they are shot making it hard for an auto focus to prepare prior to the explosion.  Second they are very bright compared to their surroundings. Third you are never really sure where the next one will go off.  Last the exposures are long enough that it is all but impossible to hand hold.

Luckily there are some fantastically talented photographers out there who have taken the time to experiment to come up with techniques to make your firework pictures turn out better.  I'll talk about each of the problems above and offer some suggestions based on what I have learned from others as well as what I have learned by shooting fireworks on my own.

When I first started shooting fireworks I had a simple point and shoot that happened to have a fireworks setting.  I also had a cheap plastic tripod.  Even with a camera that did the brain work for me my results were still very hit or miss (mostly miss).  The misses fell into three categories: out of focus, didn't capture the full burst, camera shake.

My first category of misses is directly related to the first issue I listed at the beginning of the post.  Most camera's auto focus have difficulty in low contrast/dark situations.  To remedy this I try to find something in the foreground where the fireworks are going to be launched, focus on that, then switch my camera into manual focus so it doesn't seek for focus during the shot.  The only thing you have to remember with this is if you zoom in or out or move the camera you will have to re-focus.

The second issue as mentioned above makes it very difficult for the camera to determine proper exposure.  Since fireworks are almost always fired after dark the camera will determine that to properly light the scene you need a slower shutter speed and flash.  There are two issues with that.  Your flash will only effectively work for about 20 feet so all you will illuminate is the backs of the people in front of you.  So turn your flash off.  The shutter speed that your camera determines will be based mainly on the dark scene.  Depending on the frequency of explosions this may lead to over/under/correctly exposed images.  If your camera has a fireworks setting you can try that.  Otherwise manual exposure will be the best.

I'll combine the last two issues into this point.  I always try to determine where the fireworks are going to be fired so I can setup my shot with something interesting in the foreground.  The foreground element helps to set the scene and provides more interest in the final image.  To eliminate camera shake I always use a tripod with a cable release so I never have to touch the camera.

Here are a few things that I've learned that are helping me to improve my fireworks pictures.  If you can set your camera to manual mode.  The aperture should be somewhere around f18 to allow for longer exposures while not blowing out highlights.  As discussed before pre-focus and set your camera on manual focus.  When the firework is launched I open the shutter using the cable release and then wait for the explosion to fade before closing the shutter. This will give you the full arch and the nice looking firework shots.  If you want to really push the envelope invest in a neutral density filter.  This will allow you to hold the shutter open for minutes instead of seconds resulting in some really cool shots.  I hope these help you improve your fireworks shots.  I'm hoping to refine my techniques in our next couple trips to Disney World.  As for now here are some of my better shots from last trip.