Photographing fireworks is one of the most challenging work specially when handheld and situation is adverse. Here is quick fireworks photography settings For DSLR, Rangefinder. For a prepared setup, you can use a good tripod, a shutter release control (or mobile application which serve the purpose) as accessories. In such cases it is possible to make fireworks dreamy. But for an unprepared situation, it may be practical to simply make it static by not using long exposure. Yes, that looks too ordinary but better as composition. Such situations likely to blur the composition and make it just bad with long exposure. We recommend to use some ordinary handheld fireworks at home to practise before actual event. We can take Sony A68 as low end DSLM/DSLR for this purpose.
Fireworks Photography Settings For DSLR, Rangefinder
Most cameras of this segment has a feature called long exposure noise reduction. It is present for the reason to prevent the camera’s sensor which heat on long exposure and translates as noise. The setting can be turned on or off to test for a given camera.
Next work is turn off the autofocus on camera and lens. Without full manual auto focus can fail resulting in complete failure to press shutter at all. Focus will be at infinity. White Balance can be set to Auto. Mode set to Manual.
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ISO 100 to 200 at f/5.6 to f/8 is a good point to start with. Capturing for 5 seconds of bursts may underexpose towards unacceptable level. These apertures are optimal for fireworks as the light streaks.
We can set the camera to Bulb mode which will allows to keep the shutter open as long as we want to expose for the entire fireworks burst delivering a dreamy effect.
You can put handheld firework somewhere which can hold the stick and try with the settings at home. Most difficult matter is composition. With that settings normal moving things like reflection from spectacle can completely ruin a part of photograph demanding Photoshop.