Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share How to Take Fireworks Photos: Plan, Prepare and Shoot Your Best on Independence Day - The Photo Flunky Show: Improve Photography and Creativity
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
How to Take Fireworks Photos: Plan, Prepare and Shoot Your Best on Independence Day - The Photo Flunky Show: Improve Photography and Creativity
Knowing how to take fireworks photos that impress requires more than having a tripod and knowing how to shoot at a small aperture. The fireworks photos that really please people are the ones that tell a story. The explosions by themselves make for boring photos. When you put your photos in context with people, a place or an event – then you have an interesting photo that tells a story.
In this episode, we cover how to take fireworks photos on this show, covering how to plan your shot, prepare your gear, and we provide some best practices to perfect your fireworks photography.
Plan Your Fireworks Photography Before You Leave the House
Fireworks photography sometimes comes down to luck. The best way to improve your odds and have good luck is to know what shot you want to get before you ever leave the house.
You can do that by studying the location where you want to do your fireworks photography.
Know the Lay of the Land
When you think about it, fireworks photography is a lot like landscape photography. You need a foreground, a middle and a background. All of those elements will help provide your photo with depth, but it also helps you as a visual storyteller. You can decide what elements go where.
Photos of fireworks exploding on a dark sky alone are boring. There's no context with that kind of shot.
Use your environment to put your fireworks in context. You want to show something that tells people where you are. Use people enjoying the fireworks as a foreground element. You may need to get way back to include the crowd, or maybe shoot across a river to show a cityscape under the fireworks.
These ideas mean that you have to know what you want in your photo before you leave the house, and where you need to place your camera to include those elements.
Sometimes that means missing out on the party where all the people are. Such is the life of photography. You can get the shot, or you can participate in the event. It's hard to do both well at the same time.
Research Past Fireworks Events on YouTube
Most cities and locations tend to shoot fireworks in the same spot year after year. That gives you an advantage to research the show on YouTube.
For example, I've never been to Philadelphia before. If I wanted to do some fireworks photography there, I'm clueless about the location and where to find the best view of the fireworks.
That's when I go to YouTube.
I just entered the query – Philadelphia Fireworks Show – in YouTube. The search returned about 87,000 results. You can see how the City of Brotherly Love puts on its fireworks show year after year, from plenty of points of view. You even get drone videos to show the fireworks from the air.
Maybe you can use those videos for ideas to get a completely different type of shot. See if you can get access on a rooftop or balcony on a tall building to take in the whole show at once.
I did that with this shot on Independence Day at Walt Disney World by getting on a hotel balcony outside of the Magic Kingdom.
Visualize the Shot You Want
Does your location have an iconic building, statue or some other feature? If this is your first time photographing fireworks, there's nothing wrong with getting a classic shot for your location.
People in New York love fireworks over the Statue of Liberty, above the city skyline, or over the Brooklyn Bridge. The City of Orlando uses the iconic fountain in Lake Eola as a location for its fireworks events.
Once again, do your research and decide what you want your final result to look like. Chances are that it isn't about the specific fireworks bursts, but finding those explosions over or near a view that tells your viewers where you are and what you're celebrating.
View all episodes
By William Beem
4.1
1919 ratings
Knowing how to take fireworks photos that impress requires more than having a tripod and knowing how to shoot at a small aperture. The fireworks photos that really please people are the ones that tell a story. The explosions by themselves make for boring photos. When you put your photos in context with people, a place or an event – then you have an interesting photo that tells a story.
In this episode, we cover how to take fireworks photos on this show, covering how to plan your shot, prepare your gear, and we provide some best practices to perfect your fireworks photography.
Plan Your Fireworks Photography Before You Leave the House
Fireworks photography sometimes comes down to luck. The best way to improve your odds and have good luck is to know what shot you want to get before you ever leave the house.
You can do that by studying the location where you want to do your fireworks photography.
Know the Lay of the Land
When you think about it, fireworks photography is a lot like landscape photography. You need a foreground, a middle and a background. All of those elements will help provide your photo with depth, but it also helps you as a visual storyteller. You can decide what elements go where.
Photos of fireworks exploding on a dark sky alone are boring. There's no context with that kind of shot.
Use your environment to put your fireworks in context. You want to show something that tells people where you are. Use people enjoying the fireworks as a foreground element. You may need to get way back to include the crowd, or maybe shoot across a river to show a cityscape under the fireworks.
These ideas mean that you have to know what you want in your photo before you leave the house, and where you need to place your camera to include those elements.
Sometimes that means missing out on the party where all the people are. Such is the life of photography. You can get the shot, or you can participate in the event. It's hard to do both well at the same time.
Research Past Fireworks Events on YouTube
Most cities and locations tend to shoot fireworks in the same spot year after year. That gives you an advantage to research the show on YouTube.
For example, I've never been to Philadelphia before. If I wanted to do some fireworks photography there, I'm clueless about the location and where to find the best view of the fireworks.
That's when I go to YouTube.
I just entered the query – Philadelphia Fireworks Show – in YouTube. The search returned about 87,000 results. You can see how the City of Brotherly Love puts on its fireworks show year after year, from plenty of points of view. You even get drone videos to show the fireworks from the air.
Maybe you can use those videos for ideas to get a completely different type of shot. See if you can get access on a rooftop or balcony on a tall building to take in the whole show at once.
I did that with this shot on Independence Day at Walt Disney World by getting on a hotel balcony outside of the Magic Kingdom.
Visualize the Shot You Want
Does your location have an iconic building, statue or some other feature? If this is your first time photographing fireworks, there's nothing wrong with getting a classic shot for your location.
People in New York love fireworks over the Statue of Liberty, above the city skyline, or over the Brooklyn Bridge. The City of Orlando uses the iconic fountain in Lake Eola as a location for its fireworks events.
Once again, do your research and decide what you want your final result to look like. Chances are that it isn't about the specific fireworks bursts, but finding those explosions over or near a view that tells your viewers where you are and what you're celebrating.
More shows like I Like Your Picture
View all
Master Photography
1,322 Listeners