On this date in 1776, the Declaration of Independence of the United States was declared. 243 years later, we’re celebrating America’s birthday in the way we know how — with fireworks. Red, white and blue parades. And more fireworks.

If you plan on making photos of this evening’s or weekend’s fireworks, we’ve got some great tips for you. Check out some of our recent Fourth of July articles below to get you started in making something truly unique in celebrating our country!

Don’t forget to share your favorite fireworks photos to our Flickr group!

Portrait Tips: Sparkler portraits - Photographing fireworks is one of the most fun things you can do on the Fourth of July — but it’s also a great way to ruin your family’s fun. While everyone is trying to enjoy the show, you’re sitting there cussing at your camera and running around to get a different angle while your spouse wrangles kids who are throwing potato salad at each other. Fortunately, there’s a great way to redeem yourself: Sparkler portraits. I can’t wait to make these this year — last year we were in a forest and couldn’t use sparklers for fire danger. Warning Remember, you’re trying to make a fun activity for the kiddos, so don’t get stuck and focused on making the perfect picture. Let the kids have fun — they’ll surprise you with their creativity. Tuck the ideas away for next week when the sparklers are half price and you can spend some time with a model making the perfect picture. Right now, just let the kids have fun and don’t let them burn each other.Camera settings The key to making these pictures is time, so shutter speed is your creative setting and you’ll adjust everything else to give you the time you need to let the kids make shapes and spell their names. Start here: Manual mode Shutter speed: 3 seconds Aperture: f/8 ISO: 100 White balance: Daylight Focus on the kids, then switch to manual focus Do the kids need more time? Make the shutter speed longer. Is the picture too bright? Make the aperture smaller — f/11, f/16, f/22 Need more light in the background? Raise the ISO a little. Add flash Adding flash with sparkler portraits is where this gets really fun. The flash will freeze the kid’s face and make a sharp picture with the lights blurring all over elsewhere. Read this article for complete instructions on how to use your flash. Practice!!! These are pictures of my kids practicing this technique in the living room with flashlights this morning. They had some fun for about 15 minutes and then got tired of me telling them what to do. But tomorrow night with friends they’ll have a blast telling the other neighborhood kids how cool it’ll be and they’ll help set up the pictures. Ideas to try with a sparkler Have a kid write their name Draw crazy shapes with the light Draw smiley faces Have several kids each write one letter of a word — it’ll be backward, but go with it Outline something else, like a car Have several kids dance around one kid who holds still and gets flashed I can’t wait to see your results. Upload them to the Photofocus Facebook Group and tag me. For more ideas, check out my course on Viewbug, “Ten Portraits with One Light.” Portrait Tips come out each week, and you can see them all right here.
Get fired up for fireworks - Fireworks come but once a year for many of us. It calls for specialized settings in order to get the most out of our 30-40 minute opportunity each year. I know I’ve always got to go back and review the previous year’s camera settings in order to improve my crop of good ones each time I shoot. Gear An absolute must is a tripod (or, at the very least a bean or rice bag on which to rest your camera). Stability is important. Almost any camera will work, preferably one with manual settings. You want to be in control of almost everything, as the camera will be seeing all the dark sky and try to over-expose your scene. The camera should have a remote shutter release, or as many of the newer cameras have, a WiFi connection with a phone app like the Lumix and Olympus cameras. This ensures the camera is not jostled when starting the exposures. Wild and crazy I take my fireworks shooting to an extreme. Since there are only one or two opportunities each year I try to get the most out of it. Here is a setup I use for multiple cameras. A Tripad supports several iOS devices. I’m using an iPhone and two iPads. Each device is paired with a camera. Because of the Lumix Image App I can see what each camera is viewing on each device and fire frames at will. Each camera has a different lens and some slightly different settings of shutter speed and/or aperture. Note: For those that haven’t seen a Tripad it makes a table using your tripod for legs. Unfortunately, they are no longer made. You might try Tether Tools for pro-grade accessories or cobble some sort of stand for support. If you are using a single camera a table is not necessary. Number one shows the Peak Design camera strap clasps that allow a camera strap to be added or taken away very quickly. All of my cameras are so equipped. That way I can also mix and match the size and type of straps depending upon the shooting day. Settings Here are some settings that have worked for me. Depending upon your type of camera you may need to make some adjustments. For example, since I photograph with micro four-thirds cameras, my preferred ISO is 200. I recommend you shoot with the native ISO for your camera. For most full-frame cameras the native ISO would be 100. Check with your camera manufacturer to confirm. I’ve had photographers in the past ask me to review why they had less than stellar results and part of it is too high an ISO that was set because it was dark. Remember that we are photographing the burst and not the scene in front of us. One thing for those with Lumix or other advanced amateur cameras such as the Lumix FZ2500, Lumix G7, etc., be sure to look in the Scene Menu for Artistic Nightscape (as a former Lumix Ambassador Lumix cameras are the ones with which I am familiar). This setting will allow you to have a longer exposure with a smaller aperture. Test this before you go out because you will have to tweak settings just a bit and you don’t want to not be ready for the big show. Get out at night and choose the setting and change the front dial until you get a shutter speed of two to five seconds. The aperture should be f/8 or above. If you are in a dark area, you can practice a bit with car trail lights to get an idea how things are working. Then you can keep an eye on the live view image and adjust the exposure compensation to tweak your captures to taste. Post production There are a number of ways to get the best from your fireworks files and different ways to use them. I’ll share some post production tips and tricks in a future post. Have fun getting your images! Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Celebrate the Fourth of July with free presets and a special offer on Perfectly Clear! - To celebrate the season of independence, EyeQ is offering Perfectly Clear Complete for $69. That’s a whopping $60 savings off the regular $129 price. You’ll also receive the Fabulous Fireworks Presets pack free, to really make your fireworks photos shine! Click here to claim your savings on Perfectly Clear Complete today! Hurry — offer ends soon. Already have Perfectly Clear? You can download the Fabulous Fireworks Presets pack too. Just click here to get started.
Four creative techniques for photographing fireworks - Fireworks photography is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. The traditional approach for shooting fireworks is to set your camera on a tripod and open the shutter for a few seconds while the fireworks explode. Last year I started experimenting with handheld fireworks photography to see what new looks I could create. I found the process to be lots of fun and I even created a few images that worked out well. Here are four techniques you can try for creating new and interesting fireworks images. Zoom during exposure This method is the easiest to do of all the techniques I describe. The approach is simple but still produces some really cool images. Basically, just zoom the lens during the exposure. Technique Set shutter speed for approximately 1/4 to 1/2s Focus on fireworks that are exploding or focus at infinity Press shutter release button. Ideally, you’ll try to time the opening of the shutter with the beginning of an explosion. Rapidly zoom the lens during the exposure Rotate camera during exposure Rotating the camera during the exposure will produce interesting circular patterns. If you want the rotation to appear centered around the middle of your frame, then try to rotate the camera exactly around the lens barrel. Technique Set the shutter speed for 1/4 to 1/6s Focus on fireworks that are exploding or focus at infinity Press shutter release button Rotate the camera around the lens barrel during the time when the explosion is largest Zoom and rotate during exposure I like this method because it results in shapes that look like star galaxies. The key is to coordinate camera rotation at the same time you are zooming the lens. Technique Set the shutter speed for 1/4 to 1/6s Focus on fireworks that are exploding or focus at infinity Press shutter release button Simultaneously rotate the camera with one hand and zoom the lens barrel with the other hand Pan or shake camera during exposure Here’s another fun approach that can result in unique images. The idea is to move the camera in random directions during the exposure. Technique Set the shutter speed for about one second Focus on fireworks that are exploding or focus at infinity Press the shutter release button Pan the camera from right to left, from top to bottom or diagonally from corner to corner. This generally works best when the burst is at its largest size. Summary Fireworks photography doesn’t have to follow the traditional rules. Hopefully, these techniques give you some great ideas to try on your own. Do you have any unique fireworks photos of your own to share? If so, leave a link down in the comments. I’d love to see them!
Save $25 on Luminar 3 with Fourth of July offer - Starting today, July 2, 2019, Skylum is running a secret Fourth of July offer, offering $25 off its Luminar 3 Signature Edition package. This brings the cost down to just $60! You’ll also receive a Hollywood-inspired Looks pack by Los Angeles-based commercial photographer Ilya Nodia. Hurry! The savings end on July 10, 2019. Click here to claim your savings today! Lead photo: Zoritsa Valova on Unsplash
Seven tips to photograph fireworks and architecture - With summer comes national holidays (July 1 in Canada, July 4 in the US and July 14 in France) and fireworks. Chances are, many of you will be going to see fireworks and will want to photograph them. If you’re in a large city, it’s worth planning your shots to get some interesting architecture or cityscape composition. 1. Find a location First, prepare your shot. The best location to view the fireworks might not be great for photos. It’s probably too close and too crowded. Figure out where the fireworks are shot off from and start looking at Google Maps, Google Earth and Street View. Figure out where you can see the fireworks and the skyline. Find an interesting building that could be a good foreground. I planned the shot below so I could see three different shows. The two small ones on the left were just a nice bonus! They were all shot at different times the same night and then blended together in Photoshop. 2. Focus on one or two compositions It’s unlikely you’ll be able to shoot many different compositions during a single firework show. I recommend taking the time to carefully plan one composition and make sure you shoot a lot of different frames during the show, to have a bunch of options. If you’re careful, plan two or three compositions you can easily switch between without changing your settings. Better yet, set up two cameras on two tripods! 3. Leave some room It’s not always easy to estimate how high the fireworks will go, so make sure you leave enough room in the sky. It’s better to crop in post-processing than to have the top or the side of the fireworks cut off. 4. Photograph in manual mode Shooting in the city is tough on your meter because there are so many light sources. I recommend you shoot in manual mode to have full control and to make sure your camera doesn’t under- or over-expose. If you’re planning on a single composition, go with manual focus too. 5. Use a small aperture To get thinner and sharper light streaks, use a small aperture. I recommend around f/8 to f/11, as shooting at smaller aperture might be tough at night. 6. Aim for a two-second exposure Since you’re in manual mode, it’s easy to aim for a specific shutter speed. If your exposure time is too short, you won’t get light streaks. If it’s too long, you will get too many fireworks that will probably overlap and become messy. I recommend using a shutter speed around two seconds. You may need to increase your ISO to get to that shutter speed between f/8 and f/11, but it’s worth it! Depending on the show, you may need to adjust a bit, between say 1 and 5 seconds. Experiment and see what works best! 7. Don’t over-expose One of the easiest mistakes to make with fireworks is to overexpose because some can be really bright. After the first few fireworks, check your exposure and adjust the shutter speed to make sure you don’t blow out the highlights. If you have to underexpose for the fireworks, the city might be too dark. To avoid that, make sure you capture a few frames with the city properly exposed before the show starts. You can always blend one of those with the fireworks images later. I hope these tips will help you get some great shots! But don’t forget, enjoy the show and the company too!

Lead photo by Scott Wyden Kivowitz