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How do you take beautiful pictures of fireworks?

Fireworks have been used for events all over the world for thousands of years. Whether it's New Year's Eve, Independence Day, the Olympic ceremony or a festival, we like to use colorful fireworks to celebrate these events. Did you know that Americans set off about four million kilos of fireworks on July 4? That's equivalent to about 100,000 lightning bolts!

In this super-fast photography tutorial we will teach you how to capture a colorful fireworks show. We're going to use the MIOPS Camera Trigger, the best high-speed photography accessory.

Plan ahead

Fireworks shows take place on special occasions. See when the next show takes place in your area, so you don't miss the show.

Select the location

Once you have found the date and place of the next show, go to that location to find the place where you can place your camera to take the pictures. Make sure that the location has a lot of open air and some interesting elements in the foreground.

Camera settings

Let's talk about camera settings. We are going to use a DSLR camera with a wide-angle lens for this shoot. We will use this in combination with the MIOPS camera trigger. Set your aperture to f/8 and ISO to 100 - 400. The shutter speed should be about one second to capture the full burst of fireworks.

We have two ways to capture fireworks. We can open the shutter for a long time and capture multiple bursts of fireworks in one shot. But prolonged opening of the shutter is not recommended, as we need very little light in the foreground and there is less chance of a perfect shot. The picture may be overexposed or the camera may shake while the shutter is open. This way it can also be difficult to get the sky black due to the combination of light and smoke.

The second method is to take a picture of the foreground and several pictures of the fireworks. In the post-processing we have to merge the photos to get the final result. This method is more effective because you have a lot of firework photos. This allows you to select the best ones and add them to your photo. If a photo is overexposed or blurred, you can also delete it and use a different one.

Workflow

Go to the location early, so you can find the best place to take the pictures. Put your camera on a tripod with manual mode. First we take the basic picture of the foreground. Focus on the foreground and take a picture. Make sure the sky is black, otherwise you'll have trouble adding fireworks in the finishing process. Also, no water should be visible. Otherwise you have to add the reflection of fireworks in the water and that needs some skill.

When you have taken your basic picture, focus on infinity. Then wait until the fireworks start. Meanwhile, attach the MIOPS High-Speed Camera trigger so that the camera automatically captures the fireworks while you enjoy the show.

Set MIOPS to lightning mode (fast shutter speed). Connect the camera with a cable and you're done. Every time there is firework, the camera will record it.

Finishing

Download all the images to your computer and select the fireworks images you want to add to the basic photo. We are going to use Photoshop for this. If you don't have Photoshop, you can download a trial version from the Adobe website.

Open your basic image along with the 5-6 best photos of the fireworks you've selected. The easiest way to do this is to put all these photos in one folder and then open Photoshop. Then click File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack, browse and select images. Make sure that both of the checkboxes at the bottom of the example are not ticked.

When you do this, all photos are added in different layers in a file. If the basic photo is not yet available, drag it down.

Now hide all layers except the base layer. Select the layer that is just above the base layer and make it visible. Change the blend mode to "Lighten". Only the fireworks will be visible.

Repeat this process with all other layers. This way you will get a result with multiple fireworks bouquets. If you are satisfied with your photo, merge all layers together and export your image.