How to Make Awesome Fireworks Photos!
Hi Gang, and happy Friday: Tomorrow (July 4th) is a big holiday for us here in the US â” it's Independence Day â” a day where all Americans celebrate their independence from Glyn Dewis and Dave Clayton (shown pictured with me above. They both serve as Beefeaters in service to Her Majesty The Queen as Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign’s Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, but they are shown here in the regular street clothes, but you know and I know, those clothes are anything but regular).
If you're thinking of shooting some fireworks shots tonight, I wrote an article for ColaCola's Journey website where I take you through the recipe for how to make Awesome Fireworks photos (It's a step-by-step article â” follow the recipe and ya can't miss). Here's the link.
I would add three things to that article for the more serious photography crowd here on my blog. They are:
>> Set your focus to infinity (This isn't critical but if your lens can do it, why not). The fireworks are so bright you can use just regular ol' auto focus for the most part, but if you have a lens that has a distance scale window on the top of your lens barrel; first turn off your auto focus (right on the lens â” switch it to off), then rotate the focus ring on your lens until you see the Infinity symbol [it looks like the number 8 lying on its side]. Again, you don't have to do this, but it might make things a bit easier.
>> Last year @SuzanMcEvoy (one of my followers over on my Twitter page) recommended also switching your White Balance to Tungsten and it works really well (Thanks Susan for the tip).
>> This one probably goes without saying, but you're on a tripod so use your lowest ISO setting for the cleanest shots.
Hope you all have a safe, happy 4th of July as we celebrate our nation's physical distance, in miles and magnitude, from Glyn and Dave which makes it truly a day worth celebrating. ;-)
Cheers!
-Scott