How to photograph fireworks

Last year, I had gone home for Diwali and as some of you might know, Diwali is the Indian festival of lights. We were invited to a friend’s place for a fireworks display and I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to try out some fireworks photography as I was quite new to this beautiful art. Not surprisingly, I found it really difficult to find the right composition, ISO, aperture and I was basically overwhelmed as I was trying to learn from the photos I was shooting while trying to get out of the way of people lighting up fireworks. Here are some of my learnings:

1. Use a tripod - This is one of the most important accessories you would need as you want the camera to be as steady as possible as you shoot fireworks. You want the only movement in the photograph to come from the fireworks itself.

2. Remote Release – Again, you do not want any shake on the camera. If you have access to a remote release cable, bring it along.

3. ISO – I tried many settings but some of the best shots I got were using ISO 100 and 200.

4. Aperture – That evening, I learned that using fast shutter speeds while shooting fireworks might give you a crisp picture but most times, that is not what you are looking for you. Slower shutter speeds will allow you to track the movement of the fireworks in the photographs and give a great story to the photograph and fill it up with beautiful light.

I hope that these tips help you when you are trying to learn how you could shoot fireworks and I would advice you to shoot as much as possible because you can study from every shot, even if its not what you wanted. Are there any tips you could offer to our other readers?

Photo by: Jule_Berlin