Watch this photography tutorial video to learn how use long exposure to capture sparklers and fireworks.
1. Tripod: Put your camera on a tripod.
2. Manual Mode: Put your camera in manual mode and get ready to set all the variables: Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, and maybe flash.
3. Shutter: Adjust the shutter speed to BULB mode or a slow shutter speed of your choice. You could also try using a remote or a shutter release to reduce camera shake, if you wanna go totally pro with it.
4. Aperture: Adjust your aperture. You can experiment until you get the result you like, and then you can just leave the aperture alone if you are using the same sparklers. California candles are much brighter than sparklers though, so make sure to tighten up your aperture somewhere around f/11.
5. ISO: I like to leave my ISO number as low as possible to eliminate noise.
6. White Balance: Use a cool white balance because sparklers are very red. Try using Tungsten or Florescent, or the lowest number in Kelvin if your camera allows it. Mine goes down to 2500.
7. Flash: Using a flash will freeze your subject while preserving the long motion of the sparkler trails. If you do not use a flash, you will only see the sparkler trails. If you use no flash and also use a very wide aperture with a high ISO, then you will be able to see the sparkler trails AND the environment will be illuminated from the sparklers.
8. Post- Production: You can also post process your images to make psychedelic patterns in Photoshop. Visit my Sparkler Long Exposure Tutorial on my blog to find out more about this secret trick.
What Long Exposures have you created during this festive season? Post you shots using “Share your Shot” link in comments box below.
Evan Sharboneau is the Author of Tricks and Special Effects Photography eBook. A Mind-blowing photography resource featuring 270 pages and 9 hours of tutorial videos. Edition 2.0 is out: To learn more click here.
We did this last summer.
이것이 늘 궁금했는데 오늘 해결되었습니다. 감사합니다.
Thank you so much for the tutorial. My sister and I had a blast doing this photo experiment!
A bit messy. We will have to remember to keep the lines clean next time.
thanks…Evan is an innovator….more to come!
Viva Phoenix! Nice capture. I have great memories of that town- was there on a photoshoot once rented a mustang with no top and drove to great canyon at 100 miles/hour – beautiful drive !
I meant 2 second…I think.
Great tutorial! Love the fact that you talk about the types of sparklers you are using and why. Very informative. Can’t wait to post a shot using these ideas.
tried out the firework tips this weekend..a lot of trial and error, but this was my best shot. Thanks for the great tips as ever!
forgot to attach the shot!
space. Nice fireworks where was it?
This was at The Doin’s in Northville, NY. Had my tripod sitting on a pingpong table on the beach at the lake and used a 2″ shutter speed. First time trying fireworks thanks to you guys!
really good! It’s not easy getting a good fireworks image.
tell me about it! I think I got maybe 3 ok shots out of a trial and error of 152!
yes, would love to see how they turned out.