Photographing fireworks

September 1, 2025568 Views 16 min read

Photographing fireworks is not difficult at all. However, photographing beautiful fireworks is a bit more difficult... Here's the thing: once the fireworks are set off and you press the button on your cell phone or camera, there is almost no chance that nothing will appear: you will always get some footage. However: you will quickly be faced with the following problems: sharpness of the image, too small or too large field of view, too bright areas, motion blur,... and so on. In this article, we explain one by one what you can pay attention to in order to take the better fireworks photo.

List of tips for taking good fireworks photos

The basis of everything: where do the fireworks take place?

It sounds rather obvious: of course you have to have a spectacle before you can photograph one. Usually you see pictures pop up on social media and think: I want that too. I would have wanted to be there, too. But then, of course, it's already too late. So following the media well is the message.

Fortunately, there are some good lists of places and times where there will be fireworks shows. For the Dutch speakers among our readers: if you search in France, you will have to search not only with the search term "feu d'artifice" but also with "évènement pyrotechnique" or "festival pyrotechnique", which is quite a mouthful but one that yields something.

For France, I use this list on "Agenda Pyro". There it lists by French department and by month all the places where fireworks take place. No one says this list is exhaustive. So others may take place. But bon, I am already happy with this comprehensive list. Sometimes nice overview maps appear here and there with all the fireworks in a certain area. See here a map, prepared by the French TV channel France 3, that shows no less than almost 350 places where fireworks took place in Hauts-de-France between July 12-14, 2025. Enough choice ?

For Flanders and Brussels, for example, you can look in the UIT database: see www.uitinvlaanderen.be. Sometimes a bit of searching there, but it works.

Find yourself a nice location

t yes, what is a nice location. Personally, I don't like to photograph a fireworks photo high in the sky. After all, if there is no earthly reference point in your photo (such as, say, a building, a bridge, a slag heap, a monument, ...), then the fireworks photo could basically have been taken anywhere. I prefer that you can tell from the photo WHERE the fireworks took place. That has documentary (and mostly aesthetic) value. Also, fireworks illuminate the surroundings. This can create beautiful and interesting color effects. It is also nice to have people in your photo peering at the fireworks.

Finding a nice location is one thing, a relatively quiet one is another. After all, you don't want to be disturbed (too much) by the other audience present, because there will always be one given that this is precisely the set-up of such a pyrotechnic spectacle.

Did you know ... you can also photograph a fireworks display from a very long distance away? How about the following scenario: on July 14 in France, I don't know how many fireworks are set off on the occasion of the National Holiday. Well, it is possible to capture several of them at once. How so? Well, by picking as the location ... a mountaintop, er, hilltop. I myself photographed in 2013 from the terraces of the renowned luxury hotel Hostellerie Kemmelberg the fireworks in several municipalities of the Franco-Flemish plain at the same time. By way of illustration, I provide here only result photos. Note that in this case of long distance photography, you may/should use much longer exposure times: the light intensity is much lower due to the long distance. To be clear: if I were to redo the same thing today with today's cameras and lenses, we are more than 12 years later anyway, the quality would be a whole lot better. But bon, here it is about the idea in terms of location. So you see: you can always be original somewhere. Maybe an idea to redo... and even better 😉.

Be on time at your location

Once you think you have found a location, get there on time. On time can mean possibly being on site more than an hour in advance. Think easily two hours minimum. You may need to find parking for your car first. For large events, this can be the problem. Furthermore, you need to get to the location you have in mind. If you have to reach it on foot, which is usually the case, then you have to factor in this travel time as well. Furthermore, once you arrive at the site, the location may be slightly different from what you expected. You may have to work out a plan B on site. This may be the case if your spot has already been taken... for example by another far-sighted photographer. 😉

Finally, setting up your equipment (tripod, camera, remote), choosing the right settings on your camera and remote and taking test shots will also take some time.

Setup with camera on tripod and remote control

Being on time has another practical advantage: it will still be ready when you arrive at the site. You can then set up your equipment without having to use a flashlight. Anyway, it is a good idea to always bring some extra lighting : remember that during the fireworks, basically all the main lighting will be extinguished. Sometimes people do leave accent lighting on (which is good for photographers, by the way - see the example of the bridge in Dunkirk), but it is always possible that during the fireworks you will need to intervene somewhere... and for which you need light.

In many cases, 2 hours will be a minimum amount of time to be on site in advance. However, experienced photographers can also get the job done in 15 minutes... 😉

A good tripod

Since you will want to work with exposure rates from easily a few seconds to, say, a dozen seconds, this is impossible to do properly without a tripod. That doesn't have to be an expensive tripod, just a sturdy one. That should be adapted to the kind of lens you are working with: a cell phone needs a very simple tripod, a heavy camera with zoom lens will need a somewhat sturdier model.

Since it is possible that you will be in a place with quite a crowd, it is possible that your tripod will need to be high enough to be able to photograph above the other people present. This will certainly be the case when you will want to place "something," a "subject," in the foreground of your photograph. Perhaps it will even be necessary to place your tripod on something else solid to achieve the necessary height.

Choose a proper shutter speed & aperture

The "right" shutter speed doesn't really exist. Let me explain: if you choose a, too short speed, then the effect of a fired flare arrow will not be able to be completely in one photo. One light arrow can quickly cause an effect of 2 or even several seconds. If you choose a speed that exceeds 10 seconds, then you will probably have too many effects in one photo which will start to look rather messy or overexposed.

You get the picture: it will be a compromise. Therefore, start with a shutter speed of about 4 to 5 seconds.

To avoid overexposure of your image, it is best to use an aperture of f/8 and a low ISO. Taking light measurements before the event and adjusting your camera accordingly is pointless: the light stripes caused by the fireworks are so bright that you cannot rely on these preliminary light measurements anyway.

In summary, take, for example, these values as a guideline: ISO 200 or ISO 400, f/8 with up to 5 seconds of exposure time.

One exception however: when you see that the final is coming, quickly switch to very short exposure times. Think of 1/2 to 1 second! So much is happening during the finale that your image will be overexposed immediately. It would be a pity not to capture the best moment of the fireworks.

Watch out for the "finale" of a fireworks display: this shot of only 5 seconds and very small aperture f/18 and ISO-400 clearly shows that it is best to choose even much smaller shutter speeds and/or ISO values. Think for example of 1/2 or 1 s and ISO-100. The central part of this picture is clearly overexposed and therefore not usable.

Another interesting tip is this: if you set your camera in the "B" position, you have complete control over when the picture begins and, not unimportantly, ends. You can then shoot along with the rhythm of the spectacle and adjust your shutter speeds constantly. For slow shutter speeds (less than 1 second) you cannot use this technique, but for shutter speeds of several seconds it works fine.

Choose a custom lens

If you are standing below or just about below the actual spectacle, then it will be best to use a wide-angle lens. Consider focal lengths of 10 to 24 mm.
If you stand farther away , then it is better to use a lens between 50 to 200 mm.

A zoom lens gives you the advantage , anyway, of being able to immediately change the angle of view during the fireworks: usually the fireworks start rather modestly and the light arrows don't go as high. But during the finale, suddenly the whole sky can be taken up by the fireworks. Then it is good that you can quickly switch to a shorter focal length such that you can photograph a bit wider in the sky.

Deactivate noise reduction on the camera

Some cameras will automatically take an extra shot (called a "dark picture" - called a "dark frame" in the jargon) with which to suppress certain noise. To do this, the camera takes an additional one for each photo you take. For example, if your shot took 5 seconds, the camera will take a "dark picture" of 5 seconds. While it does that, of course, the spectacle continues. Thus, you would lose 50% of the spectacle. And we obviously don't want that. Therefore: deactivate this noise reduction for long shots.

Work with a remote control

When you print with your camera to take a picture, you will push lightly on your camera and possibly cause vibrations. Especially when using telephoto lenses, this will potentially cause problems because those vibrations will show up in your shot. Therefore, choose a method to remotely control your camera. This can be done either with a so-called cable release or via an app on your cell phone.

You can't control everything....

Take all the precautions described above and you stand a good chance of taking great fireworks photos. However, some things are beyond your control. Don't get excited about them: accept the facts and prepare your next fireworks display. Examples of things over which you have no control are:
1) the spectacle value of the fireworks: there are different levels of fireworks: large and small, high and low, with many or few colors, and so on. Many times the organizer's budget determines the quality of the spectacle. Often the rule is: the smaller the municipality, the smaller the budget and therefore the lower the spectacle quality.
2) the meteorological conditions: when there is a lot of wind, the light trails will be blown out. Sometimes this can give your photo more spectacle value, sometimes not. If there is wind, the smoke can dissipate faster, which is normally better for your photo.
3) the rhythm of the light salvos: sometimes it is rather chaotic and numerous salvos follow each other very quickly, at other times it is rather slow. Also realize that one fireworks maker is not the other either: in other words, there are better and not so good ones 😉.

Post-processing...

Basically, once you have determined the image angle, you will not change your camera-lens combination - your field of view. You will then have obtained a whole series of pictures of the fireworks in the same direction. Once back home, you can then look at all the pictures one by one. The vast majority, despite all the tips given above, will not be considered beautiful and will therefore be ignored: light traces that have been blown out too much, too much smoke, overexposed parts, and so on. But among the dozens of photos there will be some particularly nice ones, and that's what we do it for.

Is this cheating or smart trading ?

Sometimes you see very spectacular photo results. You should not "just believe" these. Many of them are artfully put together by stacking several photos on top of each other in specialized software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop). You then take some of your best photos and superimpose them on top of each other. This way you get a nice picture but with a view that actually never took place... . And these photos often go around the world 😉 .

If you wanted to, you could use today's advanced cameras to film the entire spectacle and then run the video: at 25, 30 or 60 frames per second, you will be able to extract the best frames "as a photo". And then, if necessary, superimpose these to get the ultimate fireworks photo.