Pictures of Fireworks - 9 Tips on How to Get Great Fireworks Photos

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Celebrate!

Now that digital photography has arrived and thrived, you can have a blast taking photos and actually getting great pictures while you're at it. Now that we can see our photos on our digital camera LCD screen, we can make adjustments as we shoot.

I used to try to shoot fireworks when I was first learning photography. It was difficult because of the challenge of getting the right exposure. Without being able to see what the photos were going to look like until a week later when we went to our local printing lab to pick up the prints.

It is true, that by hit or miss, I managed to get a few shots that were okay for each 36 exposure roll of 35mm film I paid for. Of course, I also paid for all of the prints that were no good too.

Now that technological advances in photography have give us the better tools, here is the updated information to go along with your digital camera to get fireworks photos that are worth printing.

Nine tips for Great Fireworks Photos:

Know How to Use Your Camera Settings This is the boring tip, but extremely important. After you read the other tips you'll see why you have to know how to set your camera BEFORE you go on your photography shoot.

Bring a Small Flashlight You may need to see your camera dials or settings in a very dark environment. Make sure your light is small and won't disturb any other spectators. Perhaps your cell phone will provide enough light in the dark.

Pack the Tripod Your exposures will be several seconds long. You'll get blurry photos if your camera moves at all during the exposure.

Do you have a Shutter Cord? Even if the camera is on a tripod, pushing the shutter button on the camera can cause movement while the shutter is open and cause some unsharpness to your pictures.

Use Manual Focus If you can, turn off your autofocus. Cameras "struggle" to focus on anything if it's dark. Focus on far distance or "infinity."

Use Manual Exposure Bright, thin, colorful streaks of light against a dark sky can really fool the camera's light meter. Try a few shots as soon as the show begins. Quickly use the playback feature to judge your photos and adjust your exposure. You want the sky to appear dark and the colors to be saturated and not over-expose. Try starting with an aperture in the middle of the range of f-stops. Start your exposure just before the "explosion" and keep it open until the colors start to fade.

Turn off the Flash It won't help with exposure and it won't help the focus. It will only annoy your fellow spectators.

Shot lots of variety Try zooming in and out. Shoot some vertical and some horizontal. If possible, move to a different vantage point and you will get a different perspective.

Bring Memory and Power It would be a shame if you ran out of camera memory or your batteries died in the middle of your shoot

Have a Blast Remember to say your "ooooohs" and "aaaaaaahs" and enjoy the show while you are taking your photos. You're there to have a good time. Follow these tips and you'll know you have great photos too.