First, the shooting location and shooting theme
Choose a place to set off fireworks. The height is the best if you shoot fireworks on a big scene. At the same time, it is better to set off fireworks in nearby buildings, because from the simple composition principle, photos with reference objects are more vivid. If you shoot fireworks alone, you can't let the audience know how big the fireworks are. With the contrast of buildings, fireworks will be more spectacular.
Second, the weather, wind, wind direction
Also pay attention to the weather forecast of the day, pay attention to the wind direction and wind force, windy weather is a good day to set off fireworks. High air humidity and high visibility are also conducive to the shooting of fireworks. However, if the wind is not enough or there is no wind, it will be more troublesome to shoot, because there will be thick smoke after the fireworks are released, which will reduce or even isolate the effect of the next fireworks if it is not dispersed as soon as possible. In addition, try not to shoot fireworks in the headwind and downwind. If you blow against the wind, smoke will affect your sight. If the wind blows, white smoke will become the background behind the fireworks, affecting the bright light of the fireworks.
Equipment: tripod, cable releaser, black cardboard, fully charged battery.
It is best to bring a tripod and a cable release or shutter remote control, because it is a low-light shooting, and exposure takes a long shutter time.
Fourth, the control of shutter, composition and wide-angle application.
As mentioned above, some objects are the best, and their size is related to the shooting point where you stand. If you are near a building, the subject and object of the composition may be the building, and the distant fireworks may be the foil. On the other hand, if you are high and buildings are in front of you, then fireworks will be spectacular, and the performance is fireworks.
B the start time of the shutter should be well controlled. You can press the shutter at any time when you hear the sound of fireworks rising.
If you lack experience in shooting fireworks, or don't know the open position of fireworks, you can shoot with a wide angle and cut out your satisfactory composition later.
Setting of shooting parameters: focal length, white balance, ISO, shutter, aperture and metering skills.
Let's talk about some fixed parameters first, and the focal length is set to infinity in manual focusing mode; This is because you don't know where the fireworks will open and you can't know the focus in advance.
The setting of white balance varies from machine to machine, because different brands and models of machines may have certain differences. If it's a digital machine, you can try to take two pictures in fluorescent mode or warm light mode before the fireworks show, and then compare them to see which one is more to your taste. If you are still not satisfied, you can make fine adjustments. Generally, digital SLR will have the function of fine-tuning white balance.
The setting of ISO cannot be too high or too low. If it is too high, it will produce noise and affect the film quality. Too low will affect the shutter time of shooting or lead to underexposure.
The most difficult thing to control is the exposure combination: the setting of aperture and shutter. We have grasped the most important point: a planned fireworks display has certain regularity, and a hundred flowers will not blossom at once. It usually takes five to six seconds for a fireworks to rise to * and disappear, and the most beautiful time should be between the first two or three seconds. So let's control the shutter time at this time. Of course, different fireworks have different exceptions. In a word, observation is very important. If we want to shoot a complete fireworks, but we can't let the next fireworks affect the picture, then we should open the shutter when the fireworks rise and close the shutter when the next fireworks appear or even before the fireworks disappear.
(Turning around) Here is a trick for beginners. Before the fireworks show begins, use a camera to measure the surrounding environment. If there are bright neon lights as a reference, it is best to set the shooting mode to "S" shutter priority and adjust the shutter for 2 to 3 seconds, then you will get the aperture value, such as F8, but this is not the aperture value for shooting fireworks, because the brightness of fireworks will definitely be higher than your current environment, so let's imagine the brightness of fireworks. If you increase the aperture value, just adjust it to F 1 1. Experience tells us that the smaller the aperture value, the smaller the requirement for shutter time, that is, the larger the adjustable range of shutter. However, if you are near neon buildings, the fireworks in the sky will be relatively dim. At this time, you need to lower the aperture value a little, and you don't need too much, because the object of performance may not be fireworks anymore.
After the test, set the camera shooting mode to "M" manual gear, set the aperture to above F 1 1, open the shutter to door B, and wait for the fireworks to appear. When shooting the first film, if you are not satisfied, you can adjust the aperture value immediately.
Sixth, advanced skills: second exposure, using black cardboard to get multiple fireworks, zoom lens, using gray filter, no tripod shooting.
If fireworks are set off from a height, the brightness of the building will be lower than that of fireworks. If you want to take photos with the same brightness, you can take photos at night or in machine mode before setting off fireworks, and then pay attention to the tripod and camera not to shift. Take another photo when there are fireworks, and then combine the two photos later. A camera with multiple exposure function is better.
If you want fireworks that appear at different times to appear in the same photo, you can keep door B open all the time, then cover your wide-angle lens with black cardboard after shooting a fireworks, and move the camera slightly horizontally, remove the black cardboard when the next fireworks appear, and so on until there are enough fireworks in the photo that will not overlap.
In addition, if you use a zoom lens, you can also try to stretch the lens during exposure, which will get unexpected results. In addition, the use of gray filters will help improve the clarity of fireworks.
When you don't have a tripod, you should shoot from a wide angle, turn on the pre-lift function of the reflector to find something to rely on, or simply take a deep breath on the clean grass, hold your breath immediately after vomiting, and then press the shutter to shoot. When the shutter is closed, you can continue breathing.
Post-production: RAW format, optional colors, curve adjustment and USM sharpening.
Post-adjustment is also important. Due to the limited space, here are a few words: the shooting format of RAW is more conducive to post-adjustment; Through optional color adjustment tools, the brightness and saturation of neon lights and fireworks of various colors can be adjusted to make the picture more layered; The adjustment of curve tools can make fireworks look more dazzling; USM sharpening can carefully adjust the sharpness of the picture, reduce or even disappear some blurring caused by long-term exposure, and make the photo more textured.