Vibrant red and gold fireworks exploding against a dark night sky in a stunning multi-burst display.
Green and white fireworks burst against a dark night sky in a stunning long-exposure photography shot.
Golden fireworks bursting in the night sky, captured by KBee Photography.

Tips and Tricks for Taking Photos of Fireworks


It's that time of year again! Independence Day is such an awesome time for the country AND for photographers nation wide! Have you ever wanted to take fantastic photos of the fireworks display and not sure exactly how to do it? Or have you done it and didn't get the results you wanted? Let me give you a few tips and tricks on how I capture them. I do them without any special equipment, so you can do them with minimal equipment!


Tools of the trade:

  • Usually a wide angle lens. And it doesn't matter if it's a super fast lens or even a kit lens.
  • Tripod or a solid surface that your camera can sit on.

Camera Settings:

  • Aperture: f/8 or smaller. Your aperture does not need to be wide open.
  • Shutter Speed: 5 seconds. I have found that to be the sweet spot for capturing fireworks.
  • ISO100 - Keep this low to keep images clean from noise.

Let's take some pics!

  • The hardest thing to do is focus. So change your camera to manual focus and find a far away subject to focus on or push your focus to infinity and pull back a little bit. I usually practice on smaller shots around the area before the big stuff starts. Usually, there will be plenty to practice on. Once you get focus, keep it in manual mode the rest of the time. (Hint: be sure to turn it back to Auto Focus after your are done, LOL. Or you will have some problems with your next shoot! Don't ask me how I know!)
  • Once you have your focus set, work on your composition or just make sure it's wide enough to get a large area. You can always crop later, but I usually try to shoot wide as possible.
  • Now, set your camera to a 2 second timer. This is how I do it without a shutter release cable. You want to use a timer because even depressing the shutter button will introduce camera shake and it will show in your images.
  • If you want the flight of the firework up to the explosion, then you will hit your shutter early. I usually wait until the 1/2 way point of the firework to release the shutter, then 2 seconds, the fireworks explodes and I can usually get the full bloom of the explosion. Experiment with your timing to see what you like!