With the July 4th holiday upon us, I thought I’d share some tips for taking great fireworks pictures.

1.Steady the camera. Use a tripod with a remote shutter release if possible. Fireworks on a dark night require long exposure times and a steady hand. Trying to hold your camera and a bottle of beer at the same time could result in unnecessary beer spillage.

2.Frame the shot. With fireworks, it’s important to anticipate where the burst will happen. It’s key here to be sure you’re pointing the camera at the fireworks, not the hot bodies in front of you on the grass, no matter what they’re doing.

3.Long shutter speeds. To capture the intensity of a fireworks display, setting the shutter speed to “bulb” or the manual “fireworks” indicator generally gives the best results. Though trying to find the tiny settings on the camera, in the dark and after a few glasses of wine, can take longer than the fireworks themselves.

4.No flashing. The light from a flash only reaches a few feet in front of you and won’t illuminate the sky. Using a flash on a dark night to record fireworks will result in black images and annoyed spectators around you. Offering them a beer usually works to soothe eyes ruined by white flash spots or simply turn off your camera’s flash.

5.And MOST IMPORTANT! Don’t start drinking at noon if the fireworks begin at 8pm. In cases like this, not only have cameras been forgotten entirely, but so have most events of the evening. I speak from experience.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend!

Thanks to Debbie at Delicious Baby for the Fun Photo Friday!