It’s that time of year and fireworks will soon fill the night sky to the oohs and aahs of us all. And fireworks are a great opportunity for photography. You can do things with a camera that enhance the memory, making images even greater than the actual fireworks were.

There are a number of things to consider, things that can make or break a good fireworks image.

Equipment: You will need a camera, of course, and preferably one that allows you to do a “bulb” shutter speed setting, meaning that you control when the shutter opens and also when it closes. Because long exposures will be involved, you need a stable platform for the camera, preferably a tripod. Next, you need a cable release. Camera shake is the enemy of good fireworks images. Play with the cable release ahead of time to see how it works. Ideally, with the camera in “bulb” you can press on the cable release to open the lens and release it to close the lens. Also, bring a small flashlight to help with making settings in the dark when most fireworks seem to occur.

Camera Settings: Most DSLRs are capable of “manual” setting. Use it. Then set the shutter speed to “bulb” if you have it. On Nikons, this is the setting just past the 30-second setting. I like to start with the aperture in the middle, around F/8. We’ll play with that later. Fireworks are pretty bright, so set the ISO to something pretty small, maybe ISO-200. Don’t use auto-ISO. I repeat, do NOT use auto-ISO. The little computer guy in the camera will go nuts trying to figure out a setting. If you have noise reduction for long exposures, turn it off. Otherwise, the camera will spend too much time doing things other than taking the pictures you want, and you will invariably miss the most spectacular shot of the night. If noise is an issue, you can clean it up later.

Composition: Get close enough to the fireworks that you can fill at least half the frame with fireworks. This is easier with a zoom lens, because you can adjust the size of the image by zooming in or out. Also, turning the camera vertical works best, but you can always crop to vertical in post-processing.

Focus: Use manual focus, not auto, and you can pre-focus out near infinity. Use the first couple of fireworks to fine-tune your focus. You want nice, crisp lines. If the lines are blurred, you’re not going to get good shots. If you have live-view, you can use it to check the focus. Make sure it's right, or everything else is a waste of time. Once you have it right, you should be able to leave it alone for the rest of the shoot.

Aperture: This is one of the two most important things for this shoot. As I said, start in the middle somewhere, like F/8. Take a shot of a firework and look at it. If the lines are blown out, close the aperture down a stop to F/11 and try again. If the lines are too thin, you need more light, so open a stop to F/5.6. Repeat this until you have the lines looking right. I seem to end up around F/16 a lot. Once you have the aperture right, you can generally leave it alone for the rest of the shoot.

Too much light - close the aperture down a stop.

Too little light, open the aperture up a stop.

Just right - Crisp lines and distinct colors.

Timing: This is the other most important thing and it’s where the artist that you are comes into play. Open the lens as a firework starts its ascent in order to get the rocket’s light trail. Leave it open as the firework bursts, then close it. Then check it and adjust the aperture if necessary.

Or you can leave the lens open for multiple bursts. Check the shots as you go and have fun. Remember you are controlling the light through the aperture and the timing and you are painting your frame with light.

Of course, once the grand finale starts, you will have to be quicker on the trigger to keep from blowing out your images with too much stuff.

Post-Processing: It is always possible to enhance the images even more during post-processing. For example, this was done in Topaz Adjust.