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Another great video, Paul… It came at the right time also… I will be going to a local minor league baseball game this Friday for the sole purpose of getting some fireworks shots… Thank you for the info… I will send you a couple pics so you can let me know what you think!!!! Have a wonderful week, my friend….
Very good advises. I especially appreciate that You showed us the rest of the photos. That shows us that, even thou we prepare as mush as we can, still, it's not certain that we will get good photos
Paul,I always wonder how effectively and efficiently you describe and teach ! Thank you for yet another awesome tips and tricks.Expecting lot more🙏🙏👍👍👍👍
Thanks for the tips! I'm all set up for tonight's fireworks on the Mall in Washington DC. From an 8th floor balcony overlooking the monuments it should be spectacular!
Thank you so much for a very clear explanation of various settings. Not many channels admit that there photos went wrong. Now I know out of many clicks only few may be standout photos in situations like this. Thank you once again & will share if I get at least one usable image 😄
Thanks for sharing 👍. I've tried once a few days ago. I took a series of photos with time-lapse setting and capture some pics. The next days more fireworks will come and I am eager to try your tips. Excellent presentation, although I have a fever right now, watching the video was really enjoyable and understood.
Awesome video as always Paul, my firework photos always turn out horrendous at best, with these tips hopefully I can get better results. Thank You again, Regards.
Great tips on the video, tried fireworks for first time last night with suggested settings and I loved the results. The only difference was, we had a spot of rain at the wrong time.
As soon as i heard you say you're from Brisbane, subscribed and followed your instagram! It's great to see some content from a fellow Aussie! Loved the video, very informative!
I enjoy shooting our city's Fourth of July fireworks celebration. I use most of these tips but have found to get good color, I need to shoot at f/18, ISO 100, manual mode, manual focus and shutter set to Bulb. Fireworks are very bright and it's easy to blow out the colors. I control the shutter with a cable release. At my favorite location, I use a 35 mm lens, portrait orientation, carefully focused and framed on the expected area of the sky where the bursts will occur. My shooting time varies with the number of bursts. For me, getting four to eight bursts in an image looks good; at this show, this is about six to eight seconds. Our fireworks display last 30 minutes and I usually get 120+ images. Not all of them will have the color and attractive light trails I want. Some tweaks in Lightroom for cropping, highlights, clarity and noise reduction gives me what I want. Fireworks photography is really fun and you never know what you've gotten until you review your images. Good luck.
Great explanation, easy to follow and try out your settings. I most love to fo wildlife photography. Am going to shoot the independence Day rehearsal fireworks, in Singapore tomorrow. Wish me luck!😊
I found a wired shutter control in manual settings works for me when shooting fireworks. In bulb mode I hold down the the button when I first hear the firework fire and hold it down until I capture all I want in the shot. No noise reduction of course. And press the remote down to capture the next one. Time is usually 5 seconds up to 10 seconds depending in the type of firework.
Hello Paul, im watching your video on How to photograph Fireworks. Your video, like the rests was so informative and easy to understand. Ive one question on the turning OFF of long exposure reduction. What will happen if one forgets to turn it ON again? Thanks much - Vincent from Singapore
Forgetting to turn stabilisation back on will only be an issue of you are shooting hand held at lower shutter speeds which is typically what IS is designed to help with (reduce camera shake). Thanks for watching.
Great advice! I wish I had watched your video earlier. I shot fireworks for the first time last month. I did set up early and did some test shots. I played with the sutter speed between 4 and 9 seconds. I used an ISO of 320 and played with the aperture throughout the fireworks. I also went from a 17 mm angle to a 28 mm partway in. I was really surprised that out of 60 shots I got 26 usable shots and 4 that were exactly what I wanted. One shot of multiple bursts was published on the front page of the local small town newspaper. I just had a 11x17 inch blown up printed. Next time I will incorporate your suggestions. Thank you
Should I expose in a balanced manner or underexpose since fireworks are usually bright ? Also I learned that each camera prefers a specific f stop where images would be sharper Mine for example shoots best at 5.6 should I stick to that or go all the way to f11 ?...
Safest bet is to aim for a balanced exposure PRIOR to the fireworks starting, when the display begins the meter will read over exposure due to the fireworks, if you are shooting RAW then you should be able to fix any overexposure. Shooting at f5.6 shouldn't be a problem, remembering to focus on a part of the scene other than the actual fireworks.
Hiya i really love your channel. Ive always love photography. I want to buy a camera.but not sire what to buy. I love subjects such as, stars , moon , light,fire work plus all the normal things. Any advice would be amazing.
Choosing a camera is never easy as there are many factors to consider, budget being one of the main ones. For low light photography (you list stars , moon , firework) I would consider looking at a full frame camera which perform better in low light.
For such a short show, you might have success having your camera take continue photos for the whole show. Then you would have 12 images. THe only downside is that you can't end an exposure in between the programmmed bursts like when there is a lull for several seconds in the middle of these shows.
Additional tip - Firework shows often have a Grand Finale at the end and usually give you the best photo opportunities. Be ready for it. The Grand Finale may be much brighter and can wash out colors in the fireworks if you are not careful. I recommend shooting RAW+JPEG in difficult lighting situations.
I'm off to Singapore in a few weeks and want to take light show photos. Are the principles for light shows and fireworks the same? Also somebody else mentioned White balance, should this be left on Auto or manually be set to say shade etc?
Laser / light shows and fireworks are similar in terms of camera settings. Auto white balance will almost certainly give inconsistent results, if you're shooting RAW this doesn't matter as you can adjust this easily in post.
This not only helped me with fireworks but just everything else as well! Recently got my first camera, the canon t7 and WOW. you taught me more here than anybody else ever really did. THANK YOU!!
I work on a whale watching boat and I have two nights to shoot fireworks. How would you capture them with the movement of the water. Would my shutter speed need to be shorter?
Hi, yes your shutter speed would have to be shorter / faster to avoid movement from the boat in the water. If your camera / lens has image stabilisation then I would turn that on and maybe go for a hand held shot at around 1/2 a second.
Great video, keeping it simple. The ISO, shutter and aperture settings you gave were a good starting point from which we can then test when at the location. The tips on what to have witched on and off are invaluable, this is what usually catches me out! Thanks again for your videos, a thumbs up from me!
Thanks Paul for your great videos. You help me remember the very basics deep in the background, so when I go out either on my shoots or going out trying new things from your videos and challenges I know how to correct my images. thanks again.
Great advice, we often do photos for the Gucci's. I personally find speeds of 2 to 3 seconds about as far as I go but its very subjective. Never tested the stabilizer but i will take your advice and turn it off,( my partner does that as well I'm sure I won't hear the end of it) lol.
I have a Leica Q2 and via the app can do a long exp of 5 sec. I can set my aperture to F11, can't kill NR, widest angle is 28mm. I live in NYC and face the East River so I have a great view of the Macy's fireworks with the caveat that I have to shoot with windows that don't open quite as wide as I would like. I have a workaround. Two questions: What should I do about white balance. Not a fan of auto white balance. What about metering? I'm not sure which metering mode to use? Thank you, I quite enjoy your videos.
I photographed fireworks for the first time a few days ago & didnt turn off noise reduction, what a nightmare 😂 I have since learnt. I generally used 5 seconds too but i would like to try bulb next time and some tkming was off. Thabks for the videos, your photo is crisp as 👌
Hi, in Malta we get various feasts in summer with spectacular areal fireworks display shows and I always attend for the best ones. Last night was the 22nd July 2023 and I attended to the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Zurrieq. I set both cameras Nikon D810 and D7500 with the same settings of ISO 125, F/22 and a shutter speed of 6 seconds. The result is breath taking and the colours became brilliant.
i have been watching you for a while and i have to say thank you for your help. i did take some fire works pic but mine are nothing like yours. one year i was under the fire works show and it was crazy, the next time i was only a few yards away from it so those pic where usless the next year i did ok but when folks do fire works out here in boise idaho there is not much of a pretty back grouns cuz we live in the deaster. but im going to keep trying and thank you for your tips . i owen a nikon D200 and i really like it it works for me. i know its old but it still take grate pic. thank you for your teaching
hi! just dropping in to say thank you for the clear tips you gave! Canada is having a 3 day 20min fireworks display and it gives me time to play around with your tips. thank you so much!
Great video, I learned a lot. Tomorrow July 1 is Canada Day, I’ll be shooting fireworks in Toronto. I’ve subscribed. Thanks for everything you do. #Majestic.
I've been wanting to make a fresh video about firework photography for some time, just had to wait until we had an event on that I could attend. Thanks for watching, appreciate the feedback.
I have a DSLR Canon EOS70D and Just got a Canon 10-18 wide angle lens,my question is about focus,would you use AF on or MF on as there is not much movement on the focus ring Cheers Phill
Hello! Thank you for this tutorial I'll be taking photos of fireworks tonight for the first time. Now I know the basics I hope to get at least one good one. Thank you again.
Thank you very much for your video. I had my first attempt at photographing fireworks and am extremely happy with the results - although not perfect (I know) however I've got to start somewhere and your video assisted in me getting somewhat reasonable photos. :)
Thanks for the great tips and for reposting this video. I used your advice last night to capture some great firework shots. Random side question: Do you prefer cloud based storage or an external hard drive? Which company did you go with?
Depends largely on your budget - I've taken great shots with the Canon EF 75-300mm F4.0-5.6 III telephoto, a really cheap lens but a great starter. Alternatively for more money (but well worth it) is the Canon EF 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 IS USM II. Also check out the SIGMA AF 18-300mm F3.5-6.3 DC OIS telephoto as another option.