7

CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / The Nighttime Sky

    ■   Tripod. To get a sharp image with the long

exposures needed to capture the light trails

from the fireworks, you need a stable shooting

platform, and the best way to do that is with a

good tripod.

    ■   Cable release. Using a cable release allows

you to watch the fireworks and time the expo-

sures as they happen. While it isn’t imperative

to have one, it will make life much easier.

    ■   Flashlight. A small flashlight comes in handy

when setting up or breaking down your cam-

era setup.

    ■   Small piece of matte black board. This can

be used to cover the lens between explosions,

allowing for multiple bursts in the same frame

without having extra light reach the sensor

between the color bursts.

The first thing is to make sure that the camera is

set on a sturdy tripod so that it doesn’t move dur-

ing the exposure. This can’t be stressed enough,

as any movement of the camera will cause the

fireworks to blur. For Figure 7-21, a strong wind

started blowing, making a sturdy tripod even

more critical, and I added a sandbag to the center

column to keep it from moving at all.

Photographing Fireworks

Photographing fireworks can be really rewarding,
and while it isn’t very difficult to get good results,
there are some things that you need to set up before
the first rocket takes flight. You need the following
equipment to successfully capture fireworks:

ABOUT THIS PHOTO At times, the colors can seem washed out
in these very lengthy exposures, so converting the image to black and
white creates a better-looking image. Here, the star trails work really
well anchored by the tree in the foreground. Taken at 1080 seconds,
f/3.5, and ISO 200. © E. Howe-Byrne

7-20

Tripods and weights to make them

sturdier are covered in Chapter 3.

x-ref

Because the camera needs to be locked into a tri-

pod, you will need to determine where to shoot

from before the fireworks start, and you need to

check whether a permit is required to set up a tri-

pod in that location. For example, there was no

permit required to shoot the local Fourth of July

fireworks display in my neighborhood, as the best