Fireworks in the dark!

Well why would you have fireworks without the dark? Ok fine lets get on with what this post is actually about, cheese! Ok just kidding, as the title states I am pretty sure that you know this post is about fireworks! I took these pictures back during 4th of July and I saved them to post for now because I figured New Years has fireworks and you might possibly want to take pictures of them. Also lucky for you these pictures were on my computer at work! Otherwise we would have been SOL because they would have been on my hard drive that got stolen and not on my personal computer.

What I used in this shoot:
-My Nikon D7000
-Vello wireless remote trigger
-Tripod

As set up you will want to out your camera on a tripod because I don't think you can hold a camera 100% steady for two seconds. You will also want to set up your remote trigger and I will explain its importance in a bit. While on setup I should inform you that you will want to be set up on something that does not move.

Firstly you are going to want to set your f-stop as high as your camera will let it, mine was at 22. You want to do this because the higher your f-stop the more you will have in focus and this is very important for fireworks. (you can refer back to my depth of field post) Since you are not able to focus on a firework before it is set off you will want to give yourself as much wiggle room as possible. If you know where they are shooting the fireworks from and you can focus on something right there I would recommend focusing and then setting your focus to manual so that it doesn't try to focus every time you push the shutter.

Also you will want to zoom out as far as possible and leave it that way because it is extremely hard to tell where the fireworks are going to end up so the wider area you can capture the better. So keeping this in mind you will want to use the widest lens you have at your mercy.

Your ISO in this instance isn't too terribly but you do not want anything too low or too high. I usually set mine anywhere between 800-1000.

 Now on to the actual shooting part! So once you are set up the first couple shots will more than likely be testers to make sure everything is good. most of the time you will have to adjust where the camera is pointing because either you will be too low or too high.

The shutter in this instance is controlled solely on how much of the firework you want to capture so this is the biggest reason for the remote. You will have to set your shutter to bulb which on my camera you just adjust the shutter all the way to the slowest and the last option is bulb. Keep in mind that the reason you will want the remote is that with a remote you are not touching the camera and therefore you will not accidentally shake the lens in the process of holding down the shutter.

Once you are set up and pointing in the right direction have fun! Trial and error are the only ways to really know how the shot will come out.

One thing to keep in mind is that fireworks do create smoke and the light of the next firework will light up that smoke so don't be alarmed when your image comes out with something that looks like a smudge on your lens.

 Also remember that the longer you hold the shutter the more streaks you will get so eventually your shot might just be a ton of streaks and be too light to do anything with.

There is no 100% formula for shooting fireworks but this is sure to get you as close as possible to shooting them the best way I know how! So go out and have fun on New Years and please don't start any fires!