Wondering about how you can photograph fireworks on 4th of July, New Year or some other event / occasion? In this article, we provide detailed information on how to best capture fireworks, what type of equipment to use and what camera settings to use during the process. Although the process is relatively simple, there are some things that might be worth considering, as outlined below.
How to Photograph Fireworks
What to Bring
Although you can certainly photograph fireworks with very minimal gear, you might want to go over the list of the recommended gear and accessories below while packing for a fireworks show:
- Camera – any point-and-shoot, DSLR or mirrorless camera will do, as explained in camera considerations step below.
- Lens(es) – ideally, you might want to bring two zoom lenses with you, such as a 24-70mm and 70-200mm equivalent, as explained in lens considerations step below.
- Tripod – a must-have piece of gear to take camera shake-free images of fireworks.
- Remote Shutter Release – while not required, a remote shutter release will allow you to take pictures in “Bulb” exposure mode, as explained in step #10 below.
- Memory Card(s) – don’t forget to pack at least one empty memory card (preferably more if you end up taking lots of images).
- Spare Battery – just in case, you might want to take a spare battery, especially if you are going to be shooting in cold weather, since low temperatures drain camera batteries quickly.
- Flashlight – you might need a flashlight not just to see the buttons and dials of your camera, but also to be able to properly focus on a foreground subject.

Find the Best Location to Photograph Fireworks
The first thing you need to determine is where exactly you are going to stand to photograph fireworks. I would not recommend standing too close to fireworks, because you will be constantly looking up and you might not be able to find a suitable and interesting foreground to incorporate in your shots. In addition, if you are too close, you might need a wide-angle lens to fit the action into the frame. This might present another problem – you might end up including unwanted objects like buildings and trees into the frame (unless, of course, it is your plan to do so).
Therefore, the best thing to do is to stand further away in an open area (with short or no trees obstructing the view). Ideally, you should stand at a spot that gives you a maximum of 45 degrees view angle relative to the ground, as shown in the diagram below:
The further you stand when you photograph fireworks, the lower the angle and the more focal length you might need. Obviously, each situation is different, so just try to find a good spot with clear views of the sky in an open, unobstructed area that can give you a nice angle to photograph the fireworks.
Ideally, you should be at the spot early on. It is helpful to know exactly where the fireworks will be shot from, so that you can frame and compose your shot exactly the way you want. Don’t forget that fireworks draw a lot of people, so even if you pre-plan and work on your composition, you might need to adjust it later on. I personally have found that unless I am standing at a higher elevation, with no potential of anyone standing in front of me, I am always better off excluding the foreground completely. Once the fireworks start, you will have a hard time asking people to move just because they are in your shot.
Choose the Right Camera
The good news is that you don’t need an expensive camera to photograph fireworks. Any camera that allows shooting in manual mode will work perfectly fine! Many of the point and shoot cameras do, so double check your manual and see how you can switch to manual mode.
Another good thing about shooting fireworks, is that you will be most likely shooting at the lowest ISO levels, which means that there will be very minimal amounts of noise in your images. So you don’t have to worry about your camera’s capabilities, besides being able to switch to manual mode and lowering your ISO to 100. If you have a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, you are all set, because you can do all this quickly and painlessly. Some cameras even have a “Fireworks Mode”, which works great and does not require you to change any settings on the camera.
Choose the Right Lens(es)
If you have a point and shoot camera, make sure that its lens can do at least 5x optical zoom (not digital). Optical zoom means that the camera lens will physically move to get more reach, while digital zoom means that the camera will simply cut out the image corners to make it seem like you are closer. With optical zoom, you are not compromising image resolution, whereas with digital you are.
If you have a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, you might wonder what lens to take with you to photograph fireworks. I have shot fireworks for many years and I find that telephoto zoom lenses such as 70-200mm or 70-300mm equivalent work best for fireworks, especially if you are going to be shooting from a nice vantage point, with fireworks exploding in the distance. If you are going to be shooting up from a relatively close distance, then a wide to telephoto lens, such as a 24-70mm or a 24-120mm equivalent is going to work best. You don’t need a large aperture prime lens to shoot fireworks – a zoom lens is ideal, since you can fine tune your framing without having to physically move anywhere. Personally, whenever I plan on shooting fireworks, I typically bring two such zoom lenses with me.

The above exposure was pretty long – a total of 25 seconds. That’s obviously a bit too long of an exposure for fireworks, but the idea here was to start capturing the scene before the fireworks fired, so that I could get some of the foreground exposed. If you are more advanced in terms of your post-processing skills, you will be better off taking two exposures – one for the fireworks, and one for the foreground. You can then blend the two together in Photoshop in order to avoid cluttering up your shot with too many fireworks and potentially overexposing them.
A telephoto zoom lens proved to be useful to have for the above shot. Initially, I captured the image at a shorter focal length of 105mm, which allowed me to include a bit more of the foreground:

That’s why a zoom lens is a versatile option – you can try different framing options and have a better control over your composition.
Use a Tripod
It goes without saying that in order to properly capture fireworks and frame your shots, you will need to have a tripod. You will be taking shots that will be several seconds long, so having your camera on a tripod is going to be ideal for best results. The good news is, you won’t need a fancy tripod to take great shots of fireworks. Since exposure times are going to be rather long, make sure to grab a remote shutter release as well to keep your hands off your camera.

Use Proper Camera Settings
First, set your camera on the tripod and connect the remote shutter release (if available). Then, change the following camera settings:
- Flash – make sure to turn flash off, as it won’t have the necessary power to illuminate the foreground anyway.
- ISO – start out by setting your camera ISO to its base ISO level (100 on most cameras) and turn off “Auto ISO“, if you have it turned on.
- Image Format – if your camera has the capability, shoot in RAW format instead of JPEG. This way, you can make adjustments to your photograph later on and do a lot of highlight / shadow recovery.
- White Balance – if you shoot in RAW, set your White Balance to “Auto” (you can change it later in post-processing). If you shoot in JPEG, set your White Balance to “Daylight” – it works well in most cases.
- Long Exposure Noise Reduction – turn it off (if available). Keeping it on will double your exposure time, which is unnecessary.
- Metering – I find matrix / evaluative metering to work the best, especially when shooting wide and including foreground elements.
- Camera Mode – switch your camera mode to “Manual Mode”.
- Shutter Speed and Aperture – set your shutter speed to 3 seconds and aperture between f/5.6 and f/8.
- Image Stabilization – if you are shooting with a camera body or lens that has Image Stabilization (or Vibration Reduction in the Nikon world), you need to turn it off – it is of no use when shooting on a tripod.
Since it is probably going to be pretty dark at the time you will be changing your camera settings, you should not forget to bring a flashlight as well. If you forgot a flashlight, your smartphone’s flashlight will work just fine as well.
Properly Frame Your Shot
If you have not figured out your framing in advance, don’t worry about it before the fireworks begin, especially if you don’t know exactly where fireworks will be shot from. Just observe the sky and once the show begins, start working on framing / composition. You might have to constantly zoom in / out and re-frame your shots, so there is really no set rule for this. If there are brightly lit objects in the scene such as buildings and lights, it might be a good idea to include them as part of your composition. If the foreground is unattractive, it is best to exclude it completely and just focus on the firework explosions.

If the foreground looks good, but appears a bit too dark in your images, then try increasing your exposure time, or wait for a very bright sequence of fireworks to illuminate the foreground details. The fireworks might look too washed out and overexposed because of this, but as long as you don’t change your framing, you could use a more advanced technique to blend two different images together later on in post-processing. Make sure to capture at least one shot with a properly exposed foreground.
Make sure to straighten the horizon as well when including foreground elements. Lastly, consider both horizontal and vertical framing for your shot. While a horizontal shot often works great, a vertical shot might be necessary to fit both the fireworks and other elements of the scene in a single shot.
Lastly, watch out for distracting elements while framing. You do not want trees, power lines and other distracting subjects crossing the primary elements of your composition.
Acquire Precise Focus
This part is tricky, because you need to make sure that your focus is correctly acquired, no matter what you are shooting with. Focusing options with point-and-shoot cameras might be limited, so make sure to practice this beforehand. If you have a bright object that you can focus on, zoom in to that area via live view (make sure not to zoom in optically, or it will mess up your framing and your focusing) and try to focus manually. If there is no bright subject that you can focus on, it is best to wait until the fireworks start, since fireworks are very bright and your camera should not have a problem focusing accurately. As soon as your focus is acquired, make sure to turn off autofocus. Once you capture a shot or two, play back and zoom in to make sure that the fireworks appear sharp.
Focus and Turn off Autofocus
If you are shooting a DSLR or an advanced mirrorless camera, start out by setting your lens focus to infinity and then take a picture. Many modern lenses allow focusing “beyond infinity”, which might screw up the focus on your images. What I typically do to make sure that my focus is 100% accurate, is focus on a bright explosion using the camera’s autofocus system (by half-pressing the shutter release button or pressing the “AF-ON” button), then once the focus is properly acquired, I turn autofocus off completely. Turning off autofocus should be very simple – many lenses will have a focusing switch on their side that allow you to easily turn AF on and off. Since I do not move, my focus from that point on will be accurate and won’t change, unless I zoom in / out with my lens to change my framing.
Include Foreground Elements
If you are trying to incorporate interesting foreground elements in your shot and your foreground elements are very close, you might get disappointed to see that you cannot get both the foreground and the fireworks in perfect focus. The first recommendation would be to properly calculate hyperfocal distance, so that you have both the foreground and the background in focus.
However, if it is too dark and you do not have a flashlight that you can use to properly calculate the hyperfocal distance, or if all this sounds too complex for you, simply focus on your foreground elements and take a shot. Just make sure that you properly expose the foreground – don’t worry about the fireworks in the distance. After you take one or two shots where the foreground looks good, re-acquire focus on the fireworks without changing your composition and keep on shooting. This way, you will have two separate exposures – one for the foreground and one for the background, which you can blend later on in post-processing.
Control Shutter Speed
When the fireworks show begins, take a picture during a bright explosion and see if the image is underexposed or overexposed. If the image is too dark or too bright, use your camera’s shutter speed to change the exposure length. Since you are shooting in manual mode, it should be pretty easy to do that. Your aperture does not matter for the most part – it is the shutter speed that will be controlling how much light enters your camera. For some fireworks, you will find that it is better to have shorter shutter speeds, while for others, a longer shutter speed might be necessary to capture the trails coming from each explosion.

Start out with a shutter speed of 1 second and experiment changing it between 1 to 6 seconds. This way, you will have plenty of different shots with different effects. Keep in mind that the longer your shutter speed, the more action your camera will capture. This is not necessarily what you might want – too long of an exposure might make fireworks look too blurry, especially when it is windy. I generally try to keep the shutter speed below 3-4 seconds when there is plenty of action.

You don’t want the exposure time to be too long, because the sky will brighten up and the smoke might become too visible (ideally, you want the sky to look pitch black).
As the fireworks show gets closer to its “culmination” phase, you will notice that it is going to get very bright. Make sure to adjust your shutter speed accordingly (sometimes to a fraction of a second) to avoid overexposing your images.
Use “Bulb” Mode
If you have a remote shutter release and your camera supports “Bulb” in Manual Mode, try it out by opening up the shutter at the beginning of the explosion and then release it as soon as it ends. This is the preferred method over the manual method above, as it allows you to precisely control when the shutter opens and closes as you photograph fireworks. Since firework sequences and their lengths vary by a great deal, you are going to be better off with the “Bulb” mode, since you are in full control of the exposure time and you can visually see what’s going on.
If you do not have a remote shutter release, you can still use the bulb mode by holding on the shutter release of your camera and then releasing it at the end of the sequence. However, since you are shooting at slow shutter speeds, you have a very high chance of introducing camera shake. Therefore, it is ideal to use the “Bulb” mode with a remote shutter release, so that you keep your hands off your camera.
Here are the basic steps for using the “Bulb” mode:
- Connect remote shutter release to your camera.
- Frame your shot and set desired focal length on the lens.
- Properly acquire focus using step #8 above.
- Set your camera to “Bulb” mode (changing exposure time beyond 30 seconds usually reveals the “Bulb” mode).
- Take a picture by holding the shutter release button on the remote shutter release. Keep holding until the firework sequence ends and release the button right after.
- Play back the image on the camera’s LCD and make sure that the fireworks are properly focused and exposed.
Take plenty of images and don’t forget to occasionally review your images on the camera’s LCD.
Watch Out for Wind Direction
Fireworks generate quite a bit of smoke and you do not want too much of it in your images, or your fireworks images will look quite bad. Believe it or not, but the ideal condition for photographing fireworks is a slightly windy night! If there is a little bit of wind, find the direction of the wind and try to stand in parallel direction, so that the smoke moves out of your frame and doesn’t end up behind the fireworks or in front of you.
If it is a calm day and there is no wind, then try to focus on the initial explosions – they are probably going to give you the best results. Towards the end of the show, you will probably deal with way too much smoke everywhere, so your best bet might be to shoot shorter exposures and just focus on parts of the explosion. With shorter exposures, you will end up with less smoke in your images.
Photo Challenge
Here is a photo challenge for you – using the above tips, go out and photograph fireworks at a local fireworks show. Pick your best photo of the day, then post a link to it in the comments section below.

Hope this helps, happy upcoming Independence Day to our US readers!
Nice article. Helped a lot to understand the finer points of photographing fireworks. A few firework photos I took on NYE 2021 in Dubai recently linked below. Would love your feedback.
photos.app.goo.gl/EM9dQtC2w3C2PY8FA
Fab article! Thank you so much. I know it is now almost ten years old but I’ve only just come across it. Every year I take pictures of the local fireworks display that raises an amazing amount of funds for our primary school. I always get a few good shots but mostly down to luck. I’m reviewing all of my shots from tonight with my jaw to the floor. They are all absolutely amazing after following your advice. So pleased!
Hi Nasim. I just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your articles and the website in general. You and the other writers post some excellent, informative articles. This is no doubt the best photography site on the internet for anything photography related. And the people that post comments offer intelligent, constructive advice and observations. It’s a refreshing change from these other sites: i.e. DPreview, Fstoppers, etc. Thanks again and keep posting great articles.
The very best article I have read so far on fireworks photography! I only regret that I didn’t read it sooner because it would have been very helpful during our 4th of July vacation last week. Read many articles, but somewhat missed this one. Thanks for the in-depth instruction. Plan to use it soon.
A composite. I was about a quarter of a mile from the launch site, so the composite made the best composition. D750, f/9. 116mm, 8 sec. (or so), ISO100. I used bulb setting, otherwise steps were much as you described. It was fun!
www.amazon.com/photo…QmqImiS6tR
That’s a *great* photo. One of the best fireworks photo I’ve ever seen.
Last year, I went out (friends, family & kids in tow) to watch the Canada Day fireworks. I brought my D7500 with 18-140 lens and a tripod. Here’s one picture captured (I especially liked what appears as the Canadian Flag colours reflecting off the waters surface):
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This year, I went out to a smaller Canada Day fireworks venue (family and kids in tow again). Breaking with tradition, I only brought my pocket camera Coolpix A and no tripod. I shot handheld at 1/25 sec with higher iso (2200). Here’s what I got:
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I’m know I could have done better had I brought my tripod and dslr with some lens … but it was also nice to have enjoyed the live experience of the fireworks this year without worrying about all my “gear”. Thanks again for all your tips and knowledge. It’s always a pleasure reading and re-reading all the PL articles.
Nice article, Nasim. Thanks a lot!
Almost every aspect covered in one place.
When I was preparing for my first fireworks shoot I had to read tons of articles and every other were different.
But I would add few more things from my own practice.
Disable low iso noise reduction. Otherwise you’ll have to wait till you will be able to do next shoot. When fireworks started every second matters.
Then, make sure that mirror lock up and self timer disabled as well.
Shoot in live mode and check every shot to correct exposure if needed.
Usually one explosion lasts around 6 seconds so as your exposure. 7-10 seconds with f8 gives optimal resutls.
Interestingly, you may keep your shutter open during fewer explosions (10-30 seconds) and you still will get nicely exposed photos.
Also, I’ve seen other photographers were using black cardboard to cover lenses between explosions while keeping shutter open. Haven’t tried this trick yet.
Hi Nasim
This is one of best article I read about this topic. I been researching how to take pictures with my Nikon D7100 and I need to save the link for the next time I plan to take pictures of fireworks. Thanks!
Excellent article, as usual.
However, the new thin and pale font you used for the last two articles, is extremely difficult to read on small devices, such as phones or tablets.
Very helpful article! I followed the suggestions and was very happy with the results. Based on the sample shots in the article, I started with a 70-200 f2.8, which was too long. Fortunately, I had my 24-120 f4 with me and it worked great, with most shots were at 24mm/f10. The angle was higher than I expected, 75 degrees up. Glad I had a tall tripod, otherwise it would have been awkward. Here’s a link:
photos.app.goo.gl/v8vNMgjcxEEuCR2s7
SSM, are you referring to the font in the subtitle beneath the title? We also changed the size of the regular font in the article, which is why I ask.
Hi Spencer,
I agree with SSM. I had thought about asking about the fonts even before I saw his post. At first I thought it had to do with my own computer. I messed up my own fonts trying to figure out what had gone wrong. It was driving me crazy until I saw SSM’s post and realized that PL had changed its fonts. My own opinion is that these new fonts are terrible. They are hard to read because they are faint, and not very appealing to the eye as well. I suggest going back to your original fonts. Remember the old saying – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Hi Elaine, which font are you referring to? I believe the body font is exactly the same as before, but slightly larger, which should make it more legible rather than less (one of our main reasons for the change). The only new font I’m aware of is the subtitle, which is actually the same as one of our earlier fonts, but thinner. If that’s the tricky one to read, we can potentially make it a bit more on the bold side.
Hi Spencer,
It is actually body text that is coming out thinner and paler. That may relate to clear type more than font. I think that the spacing has changed, also, possibly from single to double spacing? Anyhow, text is the problem, as I indicated above, being much thinner and very pale, and harder to read. I don’t recognize the font, other than that it is a sans serif font. Usually arial is the sans serif of choice. I think it would be a bit bolder than this one. Speaking for myself, the larger type is nice. I hope I’ve been of help.
That has been very helpful, thanks Elaine!
Hi Nasim. Thank you for this in depth tutorial. Is so helpful. Might sound awkward.. what metering should I use when focusing? Like Matrix or Spot on Nikon D500? I’m just a starter..