Photographing Fireworks

Team China - Story of Butterfly Lovers

Casino du-lac Leamy Sound of Light Festival

Wed August 15, 2012

Saturday evening marks the grand finale of the Casino du-lac Leamy's annual International Fireworks festival held in Gatineau, Quebec.  Last night, Team China performed their "Story of the Butterfly Lovers" show to a symphony of sound, light and colour.  

Photographing fireworks is relatively straight forward provided you keep a few pointers in mind.  Listed below are a handful of helpful tips:

- Camera must be mounted on a tripod

- Attach a cable release to camera (this minimizes the shaking of the camera when you snap the shot)

- Set ISO to 500 and shutter speed to BULB mode

- f/stop set to 7.1

- Set camera to manual focus - make sure your camera is pre-focused to a point where the fireworks will be displayed

- You do not need to use a flash

- Quickly press the cable release for each burst

- Review images during a lull in the performance to ensure your images are in focus and not overexposed.  If overexposed, or underexposed, adjust the length of timing you hold the shutter release.

The above images were photographed using a Nikon D800 with Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens attached (set to f7.1)

See you Saturday night.

Email me if you have any questions or wish to share your images with me.

Cheers,

Claus