How to photograph fireworks : 10 Essential tips for beginners

in this week's video i want to share with you my top 10 tips for capturing amazing firework photos hi paul here from photogenius welcome to my channel where i post regular photography tutorials i share tips and tricks occasionally i do gear reviews as well if you're new to the channel and you want to learn how to take better photos with your digital camera please consider subscribing now i live and work here in brisbane and as you probably already know in 2032 brisbane will be hosting the olympic games now this is an exciting time for brisbane and australia and the official announcement was made a few nights ago i was there to capture the celebrations which ended with a firework display on the river and the image i captured is the one behind me now if you want to learn how to take photos just like this stick around because in this video i'm going to talk you through the process i'm going to talk about gear camera settings i'm going to share some great tips for taking amazing firework photos so sit back and enjoy the video now to kick things off my first tip is very simple and that is to be prepared arrive early i wasn't going to be the only person sitting on the edge of the brisbane river watching the firework display so i arrived early so i could get a good spot a good vantage point with nobody in my way and this gave me time to set up my camera think about my composition do some test photos and just be ready to go because once the firework display begins you want to be concentrating on taking photos not setting up the camera and messing about otherwise you're going to miss the shots and this applies to other types of photography as well for example if i'm getting up early to take some sunrise photos i'm getting up extra early i want to be there half an hour before the sun rises so i'm ready to capture the moment tip number one be prepared so now let's talk cameras and lenses now what you're going to need is a camera with manual functionality such as a dslr camera mirrorless camera or bridge camera so tip number two is to shoot in the manual mode and this is because if you use the auto settings or the priority mode settings your camera's metering system may be a bit confused because with fireworks the light is not constant there's flashing lights going off exploding fireworks and this can confuse the camera's metering system so you don't get consistent exposures but you can if you use the manual modes on your camera and of course in a moment i'm going to explain to you what camera modes and settings i recommend so tip number two is really to use a camera that has manual functions now in terms of lenses with fiber displays you generally want to capture a nice wide view so you want to use the lowest focal length now for some of you if you're not sure what focal length means it's pretty simple now with a lens like this which is the 18 to 55 millimeter kit lens the lower the number the smaller the focal length and the wider the view and if i'm using this to capture fireworks i'm going to almost certainly be shooting at 18 millimeters tip number three will come as no surprise if you're a regular viewer on this channel and that is to invest in a tripod they are worth their weight in gold and it's not just about firework photography if you want to do landscape photography low light and particularly nighttime photography you're going to want a tripod to hold the camera steady whilst the shutter is open taking a photo in low light capturing movement there's so many things you can do that you will really struggle with or maybe even not be able to do without a tripod and my recommendation when buying a tripod is to invest a little bit more money in a tripod you want a tripod that does the job it needs to hold the camera steady so don't buy a cheap flimsy plastic tripod put a little bit more money into this one because you won't regret it tip number four and this is an important one but is often missed turn off image stabilization now depending on what camera lens combination you have this may be called is image stabilization maybe vr vibration reduction steadyshot is the name that sony use ibis in body image stabilization it may be built into the lens it may be built into your camera possibly both turn it off it's a fantastic feature and it's great when you're using your camera handheld because it helps to stabilize and reduce any camera movement and gives you sharper images it's a great feature but remember we're going to be using the camera on a tripod so we don't need it anyway and in tests we found that with some cameras if the camera's on a tripod and the image stabilization is turned on the image ends up looking softer as the stabilization is trying to counteract movement that actually isn't there because the camera's on a tripod so image stabilization turn it off tip number five is to carefully consider your composition because composition is incredibly important in photography and can make or break an image for example do you want to include a tree in your composition maybe some buildings or some scenery with this picture of brisbane here i've included the brisbane skyline because i want to give the image context and scale it's not just a picture of fireworks it's a picture of fireworks exploding over the brisbane skyline so composition is incredibly important and there's no rules here you don't have to shoot with the camera in the traditional landscape mode if you want to turn the camera on its side we call this portrait mode and that's absolutely fine too but composition is important and this takes us back to tip one get there early to give yourself time to think about composition tip number six is to turn off long exposure noise reduction now when taking photos of fireworks which of course happen in the evening at night time because there's less light we will be doing what is called a long exposure which basically means that the camera's shutter will be open for several seconds so that it allows more time to capture the light now this in turn can cause digital noise which can sometimes ruin our images now that's where long exposure noise reduction um comes in but this is how it works let's say you do a five second exposure now typically at the end of the five seconds you get to see your photo and then take another picture but with long exposure noise reduction turned on at the end of the five seconds you have to wait a further five seconds for it to work so if you're doing a 10 second long exposure you've actually got to wait 20 seconds in total before you can take your next picture now again it's a good feature and normally this wouldn't be a major issue but with firework displays you having a limited time to shoot you need to try and maximize that time so my recommendation is to turn this feature off and i'm going to show you how to do it on a canon and nikon camera here using the canon 80d i press the menu button from the camera menu choose page 3 now go down to select long exposure noise reduction and turn it off on some cameras like the t7 this may be harder to find so simply press the menu button you will then need to find custom settings which is in the tools menu look for custom functions press set scroll through the options until you find long exposure noise reduction press set once again choose off and set to confirm and you're done the process is much the same with nikon cameras press the menu select camera settings menu and simply scroll down until you find noise reduction which of course you turn off earlier in the video i talked about the importance of using a tripod to keep the camera steady and help eliminate any unnecessary camera movement which will result in a blurry photo now of course to take a picture we need to physically press the shutter button on the top of the camera and this alone can cause vibration unless we can avoid touching the camera altogether tip number seven if you've got one use a remote like this one this is the canon rc6 and will work with most canon cameras now you may also have a camera with wi-fi built-in or bluetooth if so you can use your smartphone and a free app to do the same thing if you haven't got a remote or you can't be bothered with the app the next best thing and this is the option that i often go for use your camera self timer this is built into every camera and it's a freebie now i usually have my timer set to a two second delay which means i can press the shutter button as normal the camera won't take the picture for two seconds and this is a great way of eliminating any unnecessary camera movement and that's tip number seven okay now let's talk focusing now generally speaking auto focus should do just fine but can get confused sometimes if the subject is moving or there's inconsistencies like for example flashing fireworks now on the night i took this photo i used auto focus i focused on the building and it worked out just fine but consider using manual focus if your camera is struggling to focus manual focus means you can lock the focus in and it won't adjust and it won't change unless you physically adjust the focus on the lens itself now generally speaking i would aim to focus on something that is roughly the same distance from the camera as you expect the firework display to be and let me show you how easy it is to do many lenses have a switch on the side so you can easily go from autofocus to manual focus if however your lens doesn't have at the switch then select the focus mode options on the back of the camera and select mf for manual focus now to manually adjust the focus simply rotate the focus ring on the lens this is not to be confused with the zoom okay tip number nine let's now talk about exposure and camera settings now being in the manual mode of course gives us total control over the camera settings which in turn means that we are in control of the camera's exposure let's start by talking about iso iso is one of three ways of controlling exposure and most cameras like this canon t7 will have an iso button either on the back or sometimes the top of the camera now for cleaner looking images try and keep the number low and for my firework photos i started off with iso set at 200 so remember where possible for cleaner images iso keep it low so with the iso locked in let's now talk about shutter speed now we know we're going to want to do a long exposure so we want the shutter to open a bit longer than normal to let more light in my recommendation for great firework photos is a shutter speed of 5 seconds but feel free to experiment with different shutter speeds to get exactly the look that you want most cameras will have a command dial on the top of the camera use this to select and change the shutter speed dialing to the right for faster shutter speeds and in this case of course dialing to the left to select a slower shutter speed of 5 seconds so once the iso is locked in we've got the shutter speed set all we've got to do now is adjust our aperture so for want of a better term the aperture is our variable and we can adjust this to suit our exposure which brings us on nicely to tip number 10 tip number 10 is to make sure you do some test shots do these of course prior to the fireworks starting this will give you an opportunity to check sharpness and focus check exposure and composition once the firework display begins you'll very quickly know if your pictures are overexposing or under exposing then all you've got to do is adjust your aperture to suit on the night i was shooting with my nikon z6 for my test shot i adjusted the iso just slightly to 250 shutter speed as discussed was 5 seconds and adjusting the aperture to f8 gave me a balanced exposure now firework displays are a lot of fun but they're also very unpredictable so don't expect every single image to work now sadly after all the setting up the actual firework display only lasted about a minute and in that time i managed to take five images four of which were quite disappointing but this one shot made it all worthwhile so i hope you enjoyed the tips and you get some amazing firework photos if you do i'd love to see them so if you're sharing your images to social media please make sure you tag photogenius brisbane so i can see them i really love seeing what you guys create if you've enjoyed the video please consider giving it a thumbs up because it really helps the channel grow if you want to say hi or you've got a question you can do so in the comment section down below and of course if you want to learn more consider subscribing to the channel hope to see you again sometime soon see ya bye you

Channel: Photo Genius

Views: 99,078

Keywords: photography tutorial for beginners, firework photography, firework photography camera settings, how to take fireworks photos, how to capture fireworks with a camera, best camera for fireworks photos, best camera settings for firework photography, DSLR camera settings, photography for beginners, nikon camera settings for fireworks, nikon d3500, canon rebel t7, canon t7 settings, how to photograph fireworks with a DSLR, Nikon Z6 camera settings, fireworks photos

Id: jWDtaXYsGwE

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 29 2021