Photographing Fireworks

It’s been a little while since my last post. Life has been quite busy, both in and out of photography. I’ll open by thanking all readers and subscribers for their support over the year. It really does mean a lot. I’d also like to wish you all the very best for 2018. Anyway, onto the theme of this post – photographing fireworks. Rather than pointing the camera towards the displays though, I’m going to talk about photographing faces of those watching the fireworks.

Firework displays present an opportunity for some particularly wondrous expressions on the faces of the younger spectators. It will probably be quite dark, other than the lights of the fireworks. In spite of the backdrop, my preference is not to use flash. The light washes out features, and is distracting and uncomfortable for the people you are photographing, and those around them. Time for the camera functions to do most of the work for you.

Firstly, ISO. ISO stands for International Standards Organisation, and is a standardised scale for measuring sensitivity to light. Put simply, the higher the ISO number, the more sensitive the camera is to light. The trade off is that the higher the number, the more noise, (loss of definition), will be visible in your pictures. Modern cameras generally cope well in low light situations, and for the pictures in this post, I increased the ISO to 8000, without any loss of clarity.

The next consideration is shutter speed. The slower the shutter speed, the more light has a chance to reach the sensor. Slower shutter speeds need a steady hand, or tripod, to avoid image blur. You also hope that the subject will remain fairly still while you shoot. Advice on how low you can go without using a tripod varies, often ranging from 1/60 second to 1/100 second. It really comes down to the photographer though; the ‘right’ setting is the one which works best for you. For these particular images, I used a fairly slow 1/40 second exposure. I also benefited from the fact that the subjects were entranced by the display, and remained very still while I worked.

Next up is aperture, the mechanism which controls the amount of light entering the camera and functions in a similar manner to the pupil in an eyeball. The aperture measurement is also known as the f-stop, f-ratio, or f-number, and is a ratio of focal length to aperture (pupil) size. A low f-number, such as f/4, allows a lot of light into the camera as the aperture (pupil) is wide open. It also gives a short focal length, keeping the foreground sharp while the background is softer and out of focus. I use this sort of setting for portrait photographs. A high f-number, such as f/22, keeps the aperture smaller, meaning less light enters but the image is in focus further into the picture.

For the images which follow, I was able to shoot with an aperture of f/22 because of the other settings I’d chosen. The high ISO and slow shutter speed combined to allow enough light into the camera without needing to open the aperture up. I also took advantage of the fireworks in lighting the pictures.

A last note on this post. I do understand how distressing fireworks can be to animals and people. The images in this blog entry were taken at an organised display in a non-residential setting. Although the fireworks weren’t silent, they were of the softer variety both in sound and light. I am in full support of the Firework Abatement (FAB) campaign asking the government to regulate domestic use of fireworks (more here and here). As with any photography, enjoy capturing the pictures, while remaining mindful of the background to what you are shooting.

Wishing everyone a very happy new year!