FIREWORKS ARE JUST DAYS AWAY. HERE ARE SOME TIPS THAT HOPEFULLY WILL HELP YOU HAVE SUCCESS PHOTOGRAPHING THEM
1. Tripod / Support:will need a tripod to hold your camera steady. This can be a regular tripod or if there is no place for a tripod then something like a Joby pod. For this find a ledge or a wall to lean against to try and be as stable as possible. If you are using a tripod, turn off image stabilization.
2. Extra Batteries:long exposures drain batteries faster, Having one or two extra fully charged batteries could make or break a successful shoot
3. Extra memory card: Just like with batteries, it’s best to always have a spare whenever you are out doing photos just in case one fails or simply get filled up.
4. Small flashlight: Illuminate the dials and controls on your camera. Finding stuff in you camera bag.
5. Cable release or remote control to take the pictures to make sure there is no camera shake at the slow shutter speeds
.6. If you can, scope out the area you want to shoot from and then get their early on the day of the fireworks to secure your position.
7. You are going to want to shoot the fireworks as early as possible, because as the fireworks continue there will be a lot of smoke in the air later on. And smoke will effect the quality of the image. you should stand at a spot that gives you a maximum of 45 degrees view angle relative to the ground.
Now for the basic shooting details
You want to be working in manual control of your camera
Set your lens aperture to f8 or f5.69.
You want to shoot at a slow shutter speed STARTING AT 3 SECONDS.
Shutoff Auto focus. FIND A DISTANCE POINT YOU CAN AUTO FOCUS ON. DO THIS AND THEN CHANGE THE CAMERA TO MANUAL FOCUS. Or wait for the first fireworks and then just manually focus on that and that becomes your point for all other shots
Shut off your flash
Choose the lowest ISO possible. This helps to keep the shutter speed slow as well to eliminate noise.
Use the right focal length to help eliminate too much of the foreground from being in the picture. This means you want to know where the fireworks are going to be in order to get the right composition.
White Balance: If you are shooting in Raw leave the white balance at Auto. If you are shooting in Jpeg only, use the daylight setting.
Metering: I find that use what is called Matrix or Multi zone metering to be the best.
If your camera has Long Exposure Noise Reduction, TURN IT OFF.
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