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CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / The Nighttime Sky

    ■   Leave a little room. I recommend shooting a

little wide and cropping in later in postpro-

duction so that you don’t end up with lines of

light leaving the top of the frame and drawing

the viewer’s eye right out of the image.

Adjusting the exposure

How do you set the exposure for a fireworks dis-

play? You really don’t. Photographing fireworks

can’t be done successfully with any of the auto-

matic or semi-automatic modes on your camera.

The light changes constantly, and the camera

will more than likely try very hard to give you

settings that will overexpose your image. The

basic steps for capturing the fireworks are as

follows:

1. 
   

   Set the camera to Manual exposure mode.

   
   


2. 
   

   Set the ISO to 200.

   
   


3. 
   

   Set the aperture to f/11.

   
   


4. 
   

   Set the shutter speed to bulb. If your camera
   doesn’t have a bulb mode, don’t worry; I
   address that a little later on.

   
   


5. 
   

   Use the cable release to trigger the shutter
   as the fireworks streak skyward and keep
   the shutter open as the fireworks explode
   and fill the sky with colors. This can range
   from a few seconds to more than 15 seconds,
   depending on the number of rockets fired at
   any given time.

   
   


6. 
   

   View the camera’s LCD screen to check
   the composition.

   
   


7. 
   

   Repeat as needed.

   
   

   ■ Fill the frame with the color. Using a longer
   lens allows you to fill the frame with color if
   you want the actual color to be the subject of
   the photo.

   
   

   ■ Horizontal or vertical. This one is a personal
   choice, but keep in mind that vertical framing
   can give the fireworks some height, while a
   horizontal composition can help to add a
   sense of place to the image.

   
   

ABOUT THIS PHOTO The fireworks going off from the pier with
the crowd in the foreground. Taken at 6.3 seconds, f/16, and ISO 200.

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