Photo Tip {shooting fireworks}

Photo Above: ISO 100; Shutter Speed 13 seconds; f/11, 24mm; ON A TRIPOD

I hope you all enjoy Independence Day celebrations tomorrow. I thought I’d share a few tips for capturing fireworks:

1. You MUST use a tripod (or set your camera on something stable). This is the one time a year I use my tripod 🙂

2. Get everything set up before the fireworks start: find a great location without people blocking your camera, know where your timer is on your camera, make sure you have lots of memory and battery, you might also need a small flashlight to help you see your camera

3. Turn off your flash

4. Keep ISO as low as possible

5. Shutter speed will be slow…5-15 seconds depending on what you want. On the photo above I wanted to see the bridge, so my shutter speed was slow. If you want to freeze more movement, the shutter will be faster.

6. Play around with your shutter speed during the show, but once you find a setting you like remember it so you can use it for the finale

7. If you shoot right after the sun goes down you’ll get a vivid blue sky…like the shot above

***If you are using a point and shoot or don’t know how to change settings on your dslr, look for a “fireworks” setting on your camera. You can also play with the Tv mode, making the number smaller…