Tips for shooting fireworks photos

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I have really neglected the blog of late, but with the combination of working reduced hours this summer and the upcoming holiday (and all the rain) I figured it was the perfect opportunity to write a post with some tips to getting great fireworks photography.

1. Get there early!  I can’t stress this enough.  In Boston the show starts at 10:30 pm and the crowds start forming at 8 am to get the best seats for both the fireworks and the Boston Pops concert.  If you are close to where your fireworks are happening, go a day or two early and just scout locations with your camera, nothing is worse then showing up to the location that you have in your mind to find someone else has gotten there before you.  Having multiple vantage points scouted will give you options.  Also if you are going with friends and you dont mind splitting up it gives you multiple vantage points.
2. Go prepared, both photographically and in general.  Make a packing list to make sure you bring everything you need you are going to be on location for potentially a long time and you might not be able to go back to your house/apartment/car to get something.

General things to bring

• A comfortable fold up chair.  I know this from experience as last year, I was taking photos of the Boston fireworks with my friend John we setup on the Mass. Ave bridge and basically just had to stand from the time we got our spot at 6pm till the fireworks started at 10:30pm
• Snacks and beverages.  Again you are going to be out there for a while so bring some water and stuff to munch on that way you wont have to pay the sky high prices of street vendors.
• Extra clothing.  Sweat shirt, light weight jacket, rain coat, umbrella, check the weather and pack what you need

Camera gear to bring.

• Tripod! This is a must, you can be the greatest hand held photographer in the world but if you dont bring a tripod you aren’t going to get the WOW shot.
• Wide angle lenses.  These work the best. With them you can capture the most fireworks in the scene, and you can get skyline to give your photos a sense of location.
• A cable release or some other sort of remote trigger.
• A ND filter.  Its not a must but its something that I am going to bring with me this year to try out.

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Getting the shot!

Experiment with f-stop/shutter combos.  After you get everything setup on the tripod and you are ready to go, you are going to want to get sweet spot dialed in.  I have found from past experience that an apature setting of f/14 and a shutter speed of 4 seconds gives killer results.  But that doesnt mean that you cant experiment with other combinations.  Just remember that a typical fireworks show is 30 minutes so you don’t want to spend your whole time experimenting, your you might miss the shot.

If you have more than one camera bring them.  Put one on your tripod, set one on a gorilla pod or a super clamp, this will let you get different lens combos working, so you dont have to change you lens during a cool display.

Hope these tips help you out.  Now go out there have fun with friends and come away with some really cool photos!

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