Photographing the Fourth

By Ben Hillyer

Published Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Each Fourth of July when the sun sinks below the Mississippi River, the cameras come out. And when the fireworks shoot up into the sky, so do the flash bulbs creating another kind of light display along the Mississippi and Louisiana riverfront.

It does create a wonderful light effect but does little to create that elusive fireworks photo that amateur and professional photos yearn for.

If you have ever tried to photograph a fireworks show, you already know why those rare shots are so elusive — it isn’t an easy shot to take, the bursts of light happen randomly.

But if you treat it like a game or experiment, with a few photo techniques you can discover how fun and exciting fireworks photography can be.

Here are some of my photo tips I have used in the past when creating images for The Natchez Democrat each Fourth of July.

To start: Don’t expect every image to be perfect. In fact, set your expectations low. Out the hundreds of shots I have taken each holiday a small fraction end up being usable. You will not be able to take just one great photo. It will take trial and error to find out which technique is best for your camera.

Always use a tripod. In the dark, you want the camera to be as steady as possible. The tripod is the best way to do this. If you don’t have a tripod you might try to set the camera on the car roof or on a chair to keep it from moving.

Don’t use a flash. The light burst from your camera may create a neat effect, but it does little to exposing your photographs correctly. Check your owner’s manual to figure out how to do this sothat you don’t waste battery power.

Do not use automatic or program mode. The camera will not be able to expose correctly for the amount of light in the sky and will have a tendency to either underexpose or overexpose the shot.

Use a low ISO setting and a slow shutter speed. The higher the ISO, the more pixilated your shots will be. Start with an ISO of 200 and a shutter speed of 4 seconds. Set your aperture to f.8. If your digital camera has the ability to give you a preview of the shot each time you take it, turn that feature on. That way, you can preview each image. If the photo is to bright turn the aperture down to f.11. Continue to fool with the settings until you find the right one.

The best advice is to have fun and make a game out of it. You will be surprised what kind of shots you will be able to impress family and friends with.