Pixiq

As the annual celebration held in Great Britain to mark the anniversary of the failure of the Gunpowder Plot approaches I thought it would be a timely opportunity to run through some techniques and hints for photographing fireworks displays.

Guy Fawkes Night, also often referred to as Bonfire Night is held on the evening of 5 November, following the attempt by Guy Fawkes and his twelve co-conspirators to assassinate King James I of England and members of his government by destroying the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605, and thereby restore Catholicism to England. The would-be assassins had stockpiled a considerable quantity of gunpowder in a vault beneath the Houses of Parliament; however, following receipt of anonymous information the King ordered a search of the Houses of Parliament where Fawkes was discovered with matches and torchwood close to the gunpowder, which was hidden under a pile of firewood.  All of the conspirators were subsequently executed with the exception of two who had been killed attempting to avoid arrest. In January 1606 Parliament passed the Thanksgiving Act, and commemorating the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot became a statutory event held annually until the law was repealed in 1859; more than 150 years later the custom of celebrating Guy Fawkes night continues…

Regardless of whether you are going to turn out to photograph fireworks on the 5 November, or at any other firework display during the course of a year the following techniques should help you achieve some great results!

• As with any event it pays to do some research; by planning your position relative to where the fireworks will explode you may be able to include other local features in your shots, for example the silhouette of a building or statue, alternatively you may be able to include an area of water to show reflections of the fireworks. Also, have a contingency plan should access to your first choice spot not be possible.
• On the day arrive early to check weather conditions and secure your chosen spot, so you can set up your tripod. Only extend the tripod legs as far as they will go and avoid using any centre column, as these are inherently unstable. Make sure the tripod is placed on a solid, firm surface (hint: avoid temporary stadium seating, viewing platforms, or similar as these will more than likely transmit vibrations to your camera!). Finally, pay particular attention to the wind direction – fireworks generate a lot of smoke, so the last thing you want is it to obscure you view.
• Prepare your camera by setting it to is base ISO (note: this is not necessarily the lowest ISO setting but the lowest value of the camera’s normal ISO range) and make sure you disable any automatic control of the ISO. Do not be lured into thinking you need a high ISO as you will be shooting in low-light conditions; a high ISO will result in more ‘electronic noise’ in the image, as well as reduce dynamic range and lower colour saturation.
• Avoid the temptation to set enhanced values for in-camera processing to boost attributes such as colour saturation, contrast, and hue, as you will probably end up compromising image quality. It is far better to adopt more neutral colour settings with reduced contrast, as there will be plenty of colour and contrast in your subjects.
• Choice of focal length will depend on your distance from the estimated position at which the fireworks will explode and any other features you want to include in your shots but you should be able to cover most situations with a typical standard zoom (24-70mm) and/or a telephoto zoom (70-200mm).
• It is important to use a lens that can be focused manually (hint: switch autofocus off!). If your lens has a focus distance scale set it at, or close to the infinity mark, if your lens lacks this feature focus on a distant object and make sure you do not adjust the focus ring thereafter; as a further precaution use some gaffer tape the focus ring in place once you have positioned it (hint: many AF lenses, especially those that use specialized glass have a focus ring that goes beyond the infinity mark, so take care to set focus accurately).
• You will want to control both the lens aperture, which will determine the exposure of the initial explosion of the firework, and the shutter speed that will determine the length of the light trails formed by the firework, so se your camera to manual exposure mode
• Choice of aperture will depend on how close you are to the fireworks; use a small aperture (f/16) when close and a larger aperture (f/8) when farther away (hint: these values are only starting suggestions and you may well need to adjust them).
• To capture long light trails and/or multiple explosions you will typically require a long exposure. Try starting with a shutter speed between 8 and 15-seconds, if your camera does not have settings for such durations, use the Bulb setting to keep the shutter open and count off the seconds by saying: “one-thousand and one”, “one-thousand and two”, and so on. Always use a remote shutter release to prevent having to touch the camera. Listen carefully for the initial explosion that launches the firework(s) and release the shutter a second, or two later (hint: do not wait until you see the firework burst in the air, as by then it will be too late to capture it fully)

• Long exposure times will mean the sensor of your digital camera will begin to get warm with the risk that “hot pixels” will create noise in the image. Do not be tempted to run in-camera long exposure noise reduction as this will extend the processing time considerably and you will miss more of the action; switch any such feature on your camera off and perform noise reduction in post-processing if necessary.
• Finally, check that your exposure settings and timings are achieving the desired results by reviewing your initial pictures; adjust the aperture and shutter speed settings if necessary to balance the exposure of the exploding fireworks with any ambient light that may be present