Not all novice photographers know how to photograph fireworks correctly. It won't be hard to learn this.

Leave the "soap box" at home

It is worth immediately clarifying - cheap "soap dishes" and compacts (with rare exceptions) are not capable of high-quality shooting of fireworks. Therefore, if you want to get good pictures, take a SLR camera with you. Perhaps you have been suffering for a long time from the fact that your compact does not produce photos of the quality you expect, pictures are sent to the trash in piles due to uncorrectable noise, blur and other shortcomings. There is only one way out - stop torturing a compact camera, buy a SLR.

Camera settings

The camera is selected, now you need to figure out how to photograph fireworks on a SLR. First of all, you need to learn how to "communicate" with the camera. If you open the instructions for the device 5 minutes before the fireworks, you will not take good photographs.

It is best if your camera is equipped with a large sensor. The size of the matrix is ​​indicated by the value of Kf or the crop factor. If this value is 1, then the sensor is full-sized, and you will get great pictures (if you do not neglect the further tips). By the way, cameras with such characteristics cost a lot of money. But, do not despair, with Kf equal to 1.6 and even 1.9 you can get good photos. But with a "soap dish", Kf of which is often equal to 5 - 6 or more, problems may arise.

Fireworks for greater sharpness of space are shot on a relatively closed aperture. Its values ​​must be set within 7.1 - 9.0.

bulb

Some cameras have a "Bulb" mode, which is perfect for shooting fireworks. It is remarkable in that you can control the shutter speed: the curtains will open when you press the shutter release and close when you remove your finger from the button. At the same time, it is worth pressing the trigger at the moment the volley is fired, and releasing the button - during the full opening of the fireworks, that is, before it goes out. It is recommended to use this mode together with the remote control and a tripod.

Focusing must be switched to manual mode, automatic is often slow. Try to focus in advance on the place where the fireworks will be.

When setting ISO values, care must be taken. For a professional camera with a full-size sensor, a range of 150 - 400 units is suitable. If you want sharper shots, you can close the aperture to 15 - 22 and at the same time raise the ISO up to 1600. If you have a budget semi-professional unit, then you should not greatly increase the ISO values.

To shoot beautiful bouquets of fireworks, you need to set the shutter speed correctly. Considering that 1 volley flies from the launch site, “dissolves” and goes out in about 1 second, the shutter speed should be set in the range from 1/20 to ½ second. As a result, the question arises: how to photograph fireworks without a tripod? It will also be blurry.

Using a tripod

There are pros and cons to using a tripod. A definite plus is that your photos are guaranteed not to be blurry, especially if you use the remote control in combination with it to eliminate camera shake due to touching it with your hands.

The downside is that at the time of shooting you may not like the angle, and it is not so easy to move the tripod and set it in the right way quickly.

Instead of a tripod, you can use any stationary object that you can rest your elbows on. This could be a balcony railing, a car hood, or a railing. The main thing is to take as many shots as possible so that you have plenty to choose from.

Training

In order not to get into a mess during the salute, you need to prepare for its shooting in advance. If you know where the volleys will be fired from, in advance (a few days) select a place for shooting with a good view. It is best to shoot from the height of the fireworks, that is, where it can be filmed as if from the side - a high-rise, hill or mountain, from where a good view of the city and the future fireworks opens.

It would be nice to take a few trial shots in the evening to determine the exact settings.
You need to arrive at the shooting location in advance, otherwise you risk being left without a good angle.

During the first salvos, you will be able to adjust the settings as you wish.

Taking pictures of fireworks is very easy, but making them good quality and objectively beautiful is much more difficult. The very first piece of advice is ingeniously simple - try it! No matter how many tons of literature you shovel, without practice and learning from your own mistakes, you will not be able to achieve even a local ideal. Well, the tips given in today's article will help you avoid banal mistakes and become the starting point in your difficult path of self-improvement.

How to properly shoot fireworks

1. Use a tripod. Without a tripod, only an experienced surgeon can achieve a clear image. The slightest trembling of the hands at a slow shutter speed will nullify all efforts. If you didn’t have time to get hold of tripods, then find an alternative among improvised means: a flat stone, a piece of wall, a book, or anything even and motionless.

2. Remote. As an option - a cable release or using the self-timer. No matter how you fix the camera on a tripod, manually releasing the shutter will still cause slight vibrations, and this will already affect the clarity of the picture. The self-timer noticeably loses in efficiency to the remote control and even the cable, because you have to rely on your intuition, anticipating volleys. So without additional equipment, be prepared for plot misses.

3. At what shutter speed to shoot fireworks. When shooting fireworks, experienced photographers most often use the “Bulb” mode, which allows you to expose the frame for as long as the situation requires, up to many hours. Open the shutter at the moment of rocket launch and close only after the last sparks have drowned in the night sky. If your camera does not have such a function, then it is recommended to set the shutter speed to 1-3 seconds.

4. Setting the light sensitivity (ISO). The optimal settings for shooting fireworks is a small ISO 100, but, again, it's better to play with the settings in a particular situation and choose the right one.

5. Diaphragm. Basically, experts advise shooting fireworks on a SLR camera with an aperture set to f / 8 - f / 16. The higher the ISO value, the larger the aperture ratio.

6. Focusing. Turn off the auto focus function on the camera, and turn the focus to infinity on the lens. If you photograph fireworks without completing the first step, then the camera will try to focus on the black sky, which, of course, it will not succeed.

7. Framing. The choice of shooting location often plays a much greater role than the correct settings of your camera. But most of the tips in this section will be trite and obvious even for beginners. It is recommended to shoot fireworks from a hill: a hill, the roof of a high-rise building, a bridge, etc. It is better to shoot fireworks with a wide-angle lens, vertically or horizontally - depending on the exposure and distance from the explosions. Be sure to keep an eye on the horizon, do not forget to look at the show through the viewfinder, if possible, capture the water surface, high-rise windows or other reflective surfaces in the frame, which will give the pictures a special flavor.

8. Flash. It must be turned off, as it only helps at close range, and when shooting the night sky, the flash will only make it worse by automatically setting the camera to a fast shutter speed.

9. Consider wind direction. In order to properly shoot fireworks on a SLR camera, at the time of shooting, the wind should blow in your back. In this case, the smoke from fireworks will not fall into the frame. Mostly you have to rely on luck, but the only thing you can do is to look at the weather forecast on the Internet before choosing a shooting location and find out which direction the wind will blow on the night of shooting.

10. See histogram. You can and should adjust the camera settings right during the fireworks shooting. After you've taken a dozen shots, analyze the histogram and make any necessary adjustments to the exposure and settings for shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc.

When it's time for the holidays, photographers have the opportunity to replenish their portfolio with a few unique bright shots. Photos of joyful people, decorations, fun and of course, a beautiful end to the evening - fireworks! It is quite difficult for a photographer of any level to shoot fireworks, there are few opportunities for practice, in large cities fireworks happen no more than 5-7 times a year. Therefore, you need to make the most of your chances. You need to understand and know the main points and prerequisites for obtaining high-quality fireworks shots.

The shooting process is conditionally divided into 3 main stages:

• preparation carried out in advance;
• camera settings;
• shooting directly.

  Then the received frames need to be processed correctly, correct the shortcomings, add artistic effects.

Equipment needed for filming fireworks

The decision on the upcoming shooting has been made, now you need to pretty prepare. And this applies not only to a careful study of the instructions. You have to shoot at a slow shutter speed, so you need to provide camera stabilization. We are looking for an opportunity to lean on a parapet, a branch or another object, as a fallback. But to get high quality images, you will need additional equipment:

• Of the budget options, the best stabilizer is a tripod. It must be selected according to the weight of the camera and the adjustment possibilities. If a camera with a lens weighs 3-4 kg, then a tripod should be taken with a margin, it must withstand a load of 5 kg or more. And other possibilities - he must raise the camera high enough - up to 2 meters, be able to rotate the platform in three directions.

• The second important point is the ability to release the shutter remotely. You can use a cable release or wireless remote control to avoid jerking the camera when you press the button. Of course, you can shoot on the self-timer or burst mode, but no one can choose the right moment for the picture better than the head and hands of the photographer.
• mirror camera. You can try to shoot fireworks on a compact camera or phone. But a high level of quality implies the use of exclusively DSLRs.
• The camera, tripod and remote control are enough for filming fireworks. For your own convenience, you can take a high chair, hot tea, warm clothes, several interchangeable lenses, filters, additional memory cards and batteries.

Preparing for filming

When the date of the fireworks launch is determined, you need to start preparing a couple of days in advance. This includes:

• choice of shooting angle;
• trial footage from the location at night.

Everything is done to save time - in the process of launching the fireworks, there are 10-15 minutes for shooting, and it is a pity to spend them on preparation and “shooting”. To look around, we leave for the place of the proposed shooting. You need to find an interesting angle, the absence of trees and piles, the review should be free. We choose the angle, it is desirable that both fireworks and part of the landscape fall into the frame.

The reflection of flashes of light in the water looks beautiful. For the right angle, you can find an elevation so that the fireworks turn out to be almost on the same level with the camera. Thus, we are looking for the perfect location for filming, it can take a day or a week, so we start preparing in advance.

The place has been found, come back here again at night, take a few shots, evaluate the presence of lights, reflections, shadows and the overall picture. If this is not taken into account, on the day of shooting, an unpleasant surprise may await in the form of a bright light source in front of the lens. And the scenery looks different at night.

Fireworks camera settings

The place has been chosen, sighting shots taken, equipment prepared, batteries charged and memory cards cleared - we set off 2-3 hours before the fireworks to the selected position. We set up a tripod, mount the camera, and start adjusting the settings.

RAW

We shoot preferably in this format, since then we will have to edit the pictures in the editor, and it allows you to change many parameters. For example, noise and graininess. Pictures weigh much more, of course, for this we provided spare memory cards.

Set up the camera horizontally

The only parameter, the violation of which has no artistic meaning, littered pictures do not paint the photographer. The ideal horizon, the correct geometry of buildings in the frame.

Choosing the best type of framing

Horizontal or vertical. We do it in advance - in the process of filming there will be no time to rearrange the camera. The first option is for wide-angle lenses, when the panorama of the city is additionally captured, the rest is vertical framing, taking into account the direction of the volleys.

Defining frame boundaries

Determine in advance the frame where the salute balls will be at the moment of opening. Cropping can be done on the computer in the editor or at the time of shooting. Once you know the boundaries of the frame, you can decide when to press the shutter to take the best shot.

Sighting shots

Determine the brightness of the background, take a couple of pictures to evaluate. If the background is darker than the flashes, take a couple of frames separately, and then combine them in the photo, if the illumination is strong, then the blur of objects can be slightly corrected in the editor.

Camera mode - manual only

No autofocus, autoflash or priority. This is the only way to choose the right settings. You can try auto settings for comparison - the camera cannot focus on fast moving objects, there will be little light on the matrix at the time the fireworks are launched. And when the dome opens, you get light.

Focus on infinity

Focus manual - set the focus to infinity to shoot distant objects or the sky. In automatic mode, some cameras lock the shutter button until they get into focus. Believe me, in this matter you will not come to a consensus with your camera.

Shooting at medium settings

The salute is far enough away, you will most likely shoot at a hyperfocal distance, so we set the average values. Usually a closed or wide open aperture produces noise and is the limits of the camera's capabilities. We choose the value f / 8 - f / 16, so the background will be as clear as possible and the quality of the pictures will be quite good.

Shutter speed or shutter speed

In automatic mode, choose values ​​​​from 1 to 20 seconds, so you get beautiful traces and the frame will be more filled. Some cameras offer bulb exposure, the so-called "bulb" mode. Here you press the button at the beginning of filming and release as you see fit. All this time, the shutters will be open, so you adjust the shutter speed yourself.

Light absorption, or ISO

Here you can argue and talk about the meanings for a long time. Someone shoots at the minimum value (ISO100), someone claims that the ideal settings are from 150 to 400, some photographers shoot at the maximum aperture and ISO1600. It all depends on the level of the camera - professional "powerful" DSLRs may well produce an excellent frame even at high ISO values. But it is better to choose 100-150 and not worry about overexposure or noise.

Shooting without flash

Turn off the flash completely, there can be no options here, it will only ruin the frame.

Direction of the wind

Determine the direction of the wind and position yourself so that it blows at your back. During the salvo, smoke appears and moves in the direction of those photographers who did not take this moment into account. Here they will have muddy pictures.

Shooting directly

Changing the camera settings during the salute is a bad form! Time will be lost, and there is no guarantee of a significant improvement in the situation. Therefore, set all the settings, start the process and enjoy the spectacle, occasionally looking at the picture.

The main task at this moment is to take as many shots as possible, out of a hundred one or two will certainly be interesting. To do this, you can put on burst mode with a minimum break between frames or constantly press the shutter on the camera or remotely. To increase the shutter speed, turn off the frames on the screen.
But such advice is relevant when you are 100% confident in your camera and settings. When in doubt, or you are shooting fireworks for the first time, display the histogram on the display and follow the situation by its peaks and waves.

• Another tip - start shooting when the projectile is just flying into the sky, this will turn out both a flash and a tracer, and the picture will turn out to be filled and interesting.

Do not immediately leave the place after shooting, check all the frames, you may have to add a landscape from the same angle and frame, but without the lights. Take a few shots after the fireworks, then you will have the opportunity to combine the frames while editing, getting the maximum sharpness of both the flashes and the buildings around.

Post-processing of fireworks shots

The final stage of shooting fireworks is their processing at home on a PC. If you shoot in RAW, then when converting, you can remove noise from the image, tighten up the sharpness and correct the color where necessary.

What can not be corrected in the editor

1. obstruction of the horizon;
2. light from nearby lamps;
3. the lack of a firework pattern in the picture, or a crooked pattern;
4. incorrect exposure;
5. camera shake when shooting handheld;
6. turbidity of the image from smoke;
7. objects or people suddenly standing in the way.

All other questions are solved by framing, settings and applying effects to the finished picture.

Shooting fireworks without preparation

Beginning photographers are frightened by situations when at a wedding it suddenly turns out that the guests give the young people a festive salute, for example. Or a trip to another city offers an unexpected opportunity to practice shooting fireworks.

And any other situation when there is no time and opportunity to carefully prepare, there is no tripod or the necessary lens, the shooting angle and the place where the fireworks are launched are unknown. There are some tips for getting great shots, even then.

1. We become in such a way as to take the widest possible angle, 18mm will be enough to shoot a “home” fireworks.
2. We choose the RAW format, there can be no options here, because the quality of the image is already a big question. In this case, you can at least edit the image.
3. Since we shoot without a tripod, light is important to us. Therefore, we open the aperture as much as possible, less than f / 6.
4. We turn off the automatic ISO setting, select sufficiently high values, from 800 - this will capture the necessary light, and the noise can then be removed in the post-processing process.
5. We shoot in manual focus mode, autofocus blocks the shutter button and will not allow you to shoot until it is set. This can kill time and interfere with shooting fireworks. In manual mode, we set the focus to infinity, it is important for us to shoot the sky and what is happening in it, the landscape is not so important here.
6. We take the shutter speed 1/20 - 1/100 and try to keep the camera as even as possible, even a breath can “knock down” the picture.
7. If your camera supports image stabilization mode, then be sure to turn it on, we need an additional assistant. If there is something to rest your hands with a camera on, then we use it, any support option will do.
8. The burst shooting mode with the highest possible speed is perfect here, the more frames, the higher the chances of getting something decent and manageable.
9. In the process of shooting, you can slightly adjust the aperture and shutter speed parameters, in fact, it will immediately become clear what to change and in which direction. In field and extreme conditions, all settings and parameters are quickly mastered, an understanding comes of what to twist, how to change and what will come of it.
10. The most important thing is that the fireworks pass very quickly, you have about 5-7 minutes to shoot everything. If some good shots come out of this, great. And so that such situations do not scare you, regularly go to shoot fireworks, practice choosing the best options and try different settings.

Conclusions from the above

The brightest shots are obtained when shooting holidays - laughing children, decorations and fireworks. And every photographer will gladly replenish his portfolio with such pictures. Photographing fireworks is not difficult if you know certain rules, as in any other genre.

Highlights

• Camera stabilization;
• Long exposure;
• Correct angle;
• Careful preparation for filming.

If you take into account these moments, then the pictures will turn out juicy and high-quality. It will not be a shame to put them under your signature, offer them for sale or give them to the newlyweds if the salute was in honor of the wedding. Train, practice and quality will come to you with experience.

There is an opinion that photographing fireworks is as easy as shelling pears - select the night shooting mode and press the shutter button. Did not work out? Nothing, next time we will choose a better point for shooting, and the photos will be great! So you can run with the camera indefinitely, but the result will be about the same - muddy or overexposed pictures. Shooting fireworks—even amateur photography—has its own rules.

Composition.

If you have to shoot a large-scale fireworks show, it would be nice to visit the place of the future show in order to think over in advance where you can take a comfortable position. At the same time, plan how to build a composition - what to include in the frame, what will be in the background. If there is a pond nearby, then you get an excellent opportunity to make bright, spectacular shots. Choose for shooting a point where you can see the fireworks, and its reflection in the water, and the dark part of the water. If you shoot only the reflection of the lights in the water without a dark background in the foreground, then you will get just a strip of light water. When fireworks are shot against the background of the city, the background turns out to be darkish, the city lights are almost invisible. You can solve the problem using Photoshop or take a separate picture of the city and then stitch it with a photo of the fireworks.
How to build a frame - horizontally or vertically - it depends on the photographer's idea. If you need to show the beauty of fireworks and long trails of lights, then a vertical frame is preferable, if you need to show the scale of the fireworks or capture the surrounding landscape in the frame, then horizontal shots are taken.

Firework photography equipment.

To shoot fireworks, you will need a tripod, because you will have to shoot at slow shutter speeds, and any movement of the camera will blur the image. It is desirable to have a remote or cable release so that you can control the camera without touching it.

Camera settings when shooting fireworks.
Turn off the built-in flash - it will not reach the fireworks, and the camera will be set to shoot in fast shutter speed because of it. Set the camera to manual shooting mode (M - manual). ISO value, choose the smallest one that is - 50, 100, 200. If this is not done, the camera will raise it. Practice shows that the optimal ISO value for most DSLRs is 100, then the color noise is minimal. Set the focus to infinity, this is necessary so that the camera does not try to focus on the black sky and shoots with a pre-set focus. We select the shutter speed in the “bulb” mode (scroll the shutter speed value to the maximum, this mode will be there). The point is that when working in the “bulb” mode, you completely control the shutter speed: by pressing the shutter button for the first time, you raise the mirror, the frame begins to be exposed, by pressing the second time, you end the exposure of the frame. If this mode is not in your camera, set the shutter speed to 1-3 seconds. We select the average aperture value - from f: 8 to f: 16 - in this range, the optics gives the best picture.

Start shooting when the volley flies into the sky, wait until it opens and goes out, and press a second time (the interval will be from 1 to 2 seconds). See what happened. If the frame is dark, then either reduce the aperture value or keep the shutter open longer (not 1-2 seconds, but 3-4). If there is too much light, stop down the aperture (increase the f-value). Shoot constantly, do more takes, but do not forget to occasionally look at what you get. Make changes to the composition and exposure, then, when analyzing photos, select the best shots.

Important things when shooting.
When choosing a shooting point, pay attention where are the lights- they can light up everything that happens. And consider the direction of the wind - if all the smoke goes at you, then you are unlikely to be able to shoot something worthy of attention.

How to photograph fireworks? Can this be done without a tripod? Is it necessary shoot fireworks with a mirror or can you achieve good quality with a soap dish?

Such thoughts usually arise on the eve of national holidays. I would like not just to photograph the fireworks anyhow, but to get beautiful interesting photos. At the same time, it is advisable not to break away from the atmosphere of general rejoicing, but to take pictures as if in between times, not to be bound by a tripod or other heavy photographic equipment.

This article was written in hot pursuit. Just died down salute of the Victory on May 9, 2015. After processing the photos, I realized that the shooting was quite successful. The photos of the salute turned out to be bright, clear, not blurry. Due to additional processing, the digital noise of the matrix was eliminated. You can if you want.

Of course, this salute cannot be compared with what was in Moscow. Nevertheless, in order to disassemble the strategy of photographing such fiery shows, it is quite enough. Let's summarize the rules for shooting fireworks.

1. When shooting fireworks, immediately turn off the flash

You know, in the crowd of observers there are always "craftsmen" who shoot fireworks. And on full auto. Usually fireworks take place at night, so the camera, working in automatic mode, by hook or by crook tries to add light to the frame. To do this, he uses the built-in flash.

The absurdity of this approach is clear, if only from the fact that not a single professional photographer who can be nearby and also shoot fireworks will never attach an external flash to his camera. And what exactly to highlight? After all, the salute itself is very, very bright. Against the background of an almost black sky, the picture turns out to be so contrasting that, at best, when shooting with a flash on the machine, you get the same black sky and white (not color, namely white) tracks from rockets and the rockets themselves.

Therefore, before shooting fireworks, you must immediately turn off the built-in flash. Such an opportunity is provided even on cheap soap dishes and iPhones beloved by many.

2. Why do photos come out very grainy and blurry?

The camera, deprived of the ability to lighten the scene with a flash, goes to plan "B" :). So that when shooting at night, and we just have one, enough light gets on the matrix, the camera can do one of three (and most often all at once):

• increase - the time when light enters the matrix through the lens,
• fully open - after all, during daytime shooting, it covers itself so as not to "overexposure" the frame,
• increases (the same ISO)

The first approach results in blurry pictures if you're shooting without a tripod, as shutter speeds can be as long as a few seconds. No one, not even a professional photographer, not even Hercules with stone muscles, can hold the camera absolutely still for a few seconds.

In addition, instead of beautiful domes of fireworks, you will get some kind of strange, ridiculous white daub. Indeed, in a few seconds while the shooting is in progress, all the rockets have time to burn out and go out, and their trajectory remains in the photograph.

With a fully open aperture, some lenses begin to produce a not very sharp, blurry image, and the depth of field at the same time clearly leaves much to be desired.

Well, increasing the ISO sensitivity always introduces digital noise into the photo.

Now add up all of the above and imagine what kind of photos you can get.

How to deal with it?

3. Choose a DSLR for shooting fireworks

As much as we would like it, but with rare exceptions, compact cameras will not give us gorgeous photos of a heavenly fire show. Of course, there are expensive good compacts with large matrices, but they cost so much that you can buy a SLR for this money.

So if you are still hesitating about what is the best camera to buy, DSLR or compact, then a SLR is better for shooting fireworks.

Why?

The fact is that they have a larger matrix size (not in megapixels, but in millimeters). There is such a well-known rule: the larger the size of the matrix, the less it "noises". For example, the photos of fireworks that you can see in are taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera with a so-called full-size sensor (large outer rectangle):

Matrices of more modest budget DSLRs are shown in the lower left corner. Of course, they are smaller in area than a full-frame matrix (it is marked with the inscription Film 35 mm), therefore - more "noise".

And on the right are the matrices of conventional compact cameras. Probably you yourself understand what kind of picture can be obtained from a matrix with an area of ​​\u200b\u200bhalf the nail of the little finger. Whatever camera vendors say about "state of the art advanced noise reduction software," don't listen. No one has yet canceled the laws of physics, and the final quality of a photograph mainly depends on what the matrix "sees".

So the advice is very simple: if you want to photograph fireworks - buy a DSLR.

4. Use a fast lens

This is a recommendation not only for owners of DSLRs or those with interchangeable lenses. The fact is that some compacts now have very good lenses in terms of aperture ratio. For example, in my compact camera, the aperture opens up to an almost incredible (for a compact) value of 1.8.

7. Shoot in RAW

If you are not familiar with this format yet, I invite you to read the article:.
By shooting fireworks in this format, you get much more opportunities for further processing of photos than if you shot just in JPEG.

Unfortunately, this shooting format is available only in SLR and fairly advanced compact cameras. In an inexpensive soap dish, it may not be.

8. Get ready to edit your photos

Your photos will look much more attractive if you process them. I highly recommend learning Adobe Lightroom. After it, the photos look much more interesting. Taking this opportunity, I invite you to watch the description of my video course on photo processing in Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Lightroom CC. Perhaps you have not yet fully succeeded in these programs, but you would very much like to understand them.

Summarize:

In order to take good photos of fireworks, you need to find some kind of elevation nearby, take a SLR camera, screw a good fast lens to it, set the shutter speed to about 1/15, and open the aperture completely.

Next, take a control shot and use it to set the desired sensitivity of the matrix. Keep in mind that the salute itself will be much brighter than the city lights, so choose an ISO so that they (the city lights) are not very bright. Otherwise, the fireworks will be overexposed. Don't worry about "losing the city"on the pictures. Bouquets of fireworks will work for you as a powerful flash and illuminate several blocks around the event.

Correctly:

Not properly:

The first volleys of fireworks are your litmus test. After the first shot, you need to quickly see what you get on the screen and, if necessary, just as quickly adjust the sensitivity value. It is sensitivity, not shutter speed and aperture.

Sometimes it turns out that its sensitivity can be reduced if the salute bouquets turn out to be overexposed.

I think you will agree that it is better to adjust the parameters and shoot the remaining volleys properly than to shoot a bunch of overexposed shots, on which the bouquets will be just white spots.

You can also turn off autofocus and pre-focus on the place where the fireworks will appear. It's just that in some cameras, autofocus works very slowly. It can really spoil your mood.

The longer the firework goes on, the more smoke becomes in the air. It begins to scatter light, clouding the picture. Therefore, the very first volleys are obtained against the background of a black sky, and the last in beautiful smoky halos (or ugly ones - that's what anyone likes).

Keep in mind that the last volleys of fireworks are the most grandiose. Don't miss them!

Well, and ... it’s even somehow inconvenient to write this, but still. When going on a photo hunt for fireworks, check the battery level and how much free space is left on the memory card. And you know how sometimes it happens :) ...