Photographing the Pyrotechnics

Tamron tech rep Jeff Allen offers tips and tricks to ensure amazing fireworks photos on July 4.

Article by Jenn Gidman

Images by Jeff Allen

Jeff offers his tips for capturing the rocket's red glare (minus the glare), with all of the brilliant colors and excitement you witnessed with your own eyes.

Pick your lens.
Most people will be fairly close to the fireworks display - the Tamron SP 17-50mm or SP 24-70mm VC lenses would be good choices in those cases. All-purpose lenses such as the 18-270mm VC PZD or the 28-300mm VC also work well.

If you're further away from the display, a longer lens like the SP 200-500mm lens would be ideal. Last year I was working an event in California, and my hotel was about 10 miles south of Disneyland, where they have a nightly fireworks display. I went on my balcony (my room was on a high floor, directly facing the park) with the 200-500, a sturdy tripod, and a cable release, and I was able to get some great images with my lens zoomed all the way out.

Use a tripod and cable release when possible.
While I recommend shooting handheld for the grand finale of the fireworks display (more on that later), I try to take a travel tripod with me when I attend events like this. I know there will be big crowds and less chance to set up a larger tripod.

The downside to travel tripods is that they're less sturdy, so you're more likely to get blurry pictures. One tip to keep everything steady is to hang the strap of your camera bag or backpack around the three legs, which weighs the tripod down and adds stability.

A remote cable release is also a smart idea. There are many inexpensive wireless remotes that have come onto the market in the last couple of years to give you more flexibility. If you don't have a cable release, you can also use the self-timer mode so the camera shoots at a particular time rather than risking moving the camera when you press down on the shutter button. Of course, using a Tamron lens with the Vibration Compensation (VC) feature also helps.

Break free from relying on automatic.
If people are using the scene icons on their camera dial, there's often a scene option for nighttime shots (it's usually indicated by a moon icon). That can definitely serve as a starting point when you're taking pictures of fireworks, but when you rely on those automatic modes, the camera is going to arbitrarily decide what shutter speed and aperture to set - the only control you'll have is over the ISO. Switch to Shutter Priority mode and dial that shutter dial down till "B" or "Bulb" comes up on the display screen. Your camera will now keep taking the picture as long as you're pressing down on the shutter button.

Similarly, get away from using autofocus. Your camera will try to focus in between shots or when it's dark and may not have anything to grab onto while it's hunting. Whether I'm handholding or on a tripod, I'll zoom in for the first couple of bursts, get my composition where I know it's going to look good, then set my focus.

Set up safely and with an eye for the best vantage point.
First, I recommend photographing professional shows rather DIY displays - safety first! When you're setting up, you also want to make sure you're out of the fireworks fall lines. I photographed a New Year's Eve show at a shopping mall near my house. I scouted the location before the event and saw the areas the organizers had roped off around the firing equipment for safety. I went right up to the edge of where they believed the fireworks would fall, but not any closer; I wasn't craning my neck to look straight up at them and had a great vantage point for some wider-angle shots. I also spotted a couple of cotton trees, which I knew I could incorporate into the foreground of my frame.

Let your vantage point guide your composition.
Vantage point is everything. If you're further away and there are multiple platforms the fireworks are being launched from, a horizontal image might be the better choice. Photographing the big Fourth of July show that Macy's does from the Hudson River from the barges is a good example of when to shoot horizontally. You may be taking pictures from a high vantage point nearby, so it's nice to shoot a horizontal so you can get the different fireworks coming off the multiple barges, as well as the city in the background.

If you're closer to the show, however, vertical images are probably better. I usually shoot vertically so I can get that trail of sparks leading up to the burst and also add context to the image. You're somewhat limited shooting fireworks horizontally in most cases - unless you shoot the bursts in the air, there's less chance of getting the foreground details and the fireworks bursts in the frame because of the aspect ratio. Either way, even the shortest fireworks displays are at least 10 to 15 minutes long, so do a mix of both and play around.

The advantage of having a zoom lens such as the 18-270 or 28-300 is that I can zoom in to the burst of fireworks and fill the frame with the exploding shells, then zoom back out to get a wider picture and maybe include more details. One of my favorite handheld shots I did shows an American flag lazily blowing in the breeze, with fireworks bursts on the other side of the frame. Including some foreground detail may make sense and add context in certain circumstances.

Set your ISO, aperture, and shutter speed for optimum effect.
If I'm shooting on a tripod, I'll generally set the camera to the "time exposure" mode. I'll typically use an ISO 100 or 200 if I'm close to the display. When I shot the fireworks from further away with the 200-500, I used an ISO of 400 because I was shooting through more atmosphere at a greater distance. That distance, combined with light pollution, means you need a higher ISO to record the fireworks on the sensor properly.

In terms of aperture, I generally find that F/8 or F/11 works best when I'm shooting up close or on a tripod. If I'm really close, I'll go to F/16. I'll usually try to get multiple bursts in each frame - my exposures will be 5 seconds to 15 seconds. If some shells are going up more slowly, I might go to 30 seconds, but generally it won't be longer than that, since I don't want everything to wash out.

Experiment with flash.
I don't usually use flash, but if there's something really interesting going on in the foreground, I might go for it. Even the most powerful flash is only going to expose the foreground for the first 10 to 50 feet, though, so if you want to get friends and family in the foreground, put them close to the camera and maybe just use the built-in pop-up flash on your camera.

Handhold your camera for the grand finale.
For that final display, there are more bursts happening all at once - you'll get more bang for your frame, so to speak. Last Fourth of July, I shot a bunch of handheld images during that grand finale with the Tamron 18-270 VC lens. I just put my camera in Shutter Priority mode with the VC turned on and shot at around 1/6 of a second. The foreground detail was really sharp, and I got all those really beautiful bursts.

Work with the smoke, not against it.
Smoke from the pyrotechnics can be an inconvenience, but you can avoid it to some extent if, when you scout your location, you get the wind so it's at your back and blowing the smoke away from you. That being said, smoke doesn't always have to be a bad thing. I recently saw someone post a series of fireworks images on Facebook, and in many of the images the smoke was just hanging in the frame (there was apparently no breeze). It made for a really interesting effect, showing the fireworks bursting with the haze of the smoke around them. There's nothing wrong with doing something different like that for variety!

Follow Jeff Allen on Twitter (@TamronTechJeff) or on Facebook.