The Basis and Skills of Fireworks Photography

Lead: Although setting off fireworks is not as common as before because of air pollution and other problems, we still have the opportunity to see the grand scene of fireworks blooming in the night sky every major festival or celebration. For those of us who like photography, we might as well pick up the camera and try to record this rare moment. If you have difficulty shooting fireworks, or don't know where to start shooting, the following simple tips and some basic skills may help you take better fireworks photos.

The basics and tricks of fireworks photography First of all, the most important and basic thing is to hold a reliable tripod. A stable tripod is essential for any scene that requires long exposure. It usually takes 2s to 10s or even longer to shoot fireworks. I don't think anyone wants any camera shake to blur the picture during this period. But tripod alone can't guarantee foolproof, and sometimes the vibration generated when the shutter is released will ruin a photo. At this time, we can shoot by cable release or remote shutter control.

After the tripod is ready, the next step is to choose a good lens. You can bring one or two lenses for greater flexibility. According to the actual shooting position and obstacles in the picture, a zoom lens can let us quickly find the right composition. The shooting results obtained by different focal lengths are different. Telephoto can compress the distance between the city scenery and fireworks, while wide angle allows us to integrate more other elements into the picture.

Shooting fireworks is a challenge to the fuselage setting. First of all, the existence of tripod helps us to use the lowest possible ISO, so that the picture shows the maximum dynamic range and the least noise. Although upgrading ISO can brighten other scenes in the picture, it will also overexpose the fireworks. Therefore, if you want to brighten the dark details such as the sky and the city, the best way is to make local adjustments in the later software. Similarly, in order to get as much post-adjustment space as possible and keep the most picture information, we should shoot in RAW format.

Exposure latitude and dynamic range are very important for shooting fireworks scenes. In the whole picture, fireworks occupy most of the highlights, and as the protagonist of the picture, we naturally don't want fireworks to be overexposed. Accordingly, the city and sky in the picture are much darker. If the sensor is not dynamic, it is difficult to keep the details of the dark part of the picture. Generally speaking, the larger the sensor size, the larger the dynamic range, which can provide us with more post-processing space. This can not only restore the details and colors of fireworks, light up the blue of the night sky in the later period, but also freely adjust the white balance of the picture, accurately restore the warm colors of fireworks and the cool colors of the sky.

After setting the fuselage ISO (generally ISO 100), other necessary fuselage settings include using manual mode, obtaining appropriate depth of field with f/8 aperture, and confirming exposure through shooting. When the fireworks show has not yet started, use the remote control to drive the shutter to shoot, giving priority to the exposure of the picture background and urban landscape. When the fireworks start to set off, continue to capture the fireworks trajectory with long exposure. As for other further adjustments to the foreground, background and fireworks, they can be put into the later stage.

The interesting thing about shooting fireworks is that we can show different effects by controlling the exposure time. For example, when I took the above picture, I chose to stop the exposure earlier (the shutter speed was shorter), so I took some interesting tracks when the fireworks just started. There is another situation that may make you want to speed up the shutter speed, that is, when the fireworks show reaches its climax, the frequency and density of fireworks are getting higher and higher. If you use the shutter for a long time at this time, the final picture may look chaotic. Besides, the sooner we start shooting, the cleaner the sky will be.

After mastering some basic principles of shooting fireworks, let's take a look at some simple tips that can help us shoot by going up one flight of stairs. Generally speaking, we tend to shoot fireworks at close range, or shoot them upside down. If you want to capture the details of fireworks at close range, it's natural to shoot like this, but sometimes we might as well change our thinking and try to shoot fireworks at a long distance, and use telephoto lens to integrate fireworks in the air with the landmark landscape or skyline of the city, so that fireworks can compete with the gorgeous night view of the city.

Tired of shooting routine fireworks photography, changing the focal length during long exposure and trying the blasting effect are also good ways to add creativity to photos.

In addition to shooting still images, we should not forget to use the video shooting function of the camera. Especially when you are holding a Sony RX 100 IV camera with slow video shooting ability, we can record the process of fireworks blooming with a high frame rate of 120fps or even 960fps, and finally show a very cool slow motion.

Frankly speaking, just shooting fireworks is a bit old-fashioned, and it would be better to shoot people watching fireworks from another angle. Just turn the camera to 180? Then try to find those who are expecting or excited. Don't be afraid to disturb others. Usually at this time, people's attention will be focused on the fireworks in the sky, and few people will notice that you are filming him.

Another way is? Find someone to come in? We can take a few steps back and use the crowd as the foreground of the whole photo. At this time, we need to use a smaller aperture value to obtain a greater depth of field, in order to clearly show the crowd and fireworks. However, if you focus on the crowd, we can also get closer and blur the background with a large aperture to highlight the people in the foreground. When you meet many people or you want to show the whole crowd, we need to use a wide-angle lens in any of the above shooting methods.