Fireworks Photography

Last night I walked down the street to the Avenue de Saxe in Paris to photograph the fireworks show over the Eiffel Tower. This was my first attempt to shoot fireworks, but I've researched it enough on the Internet to feel I could capture some good images.

First, I was totally surprised by the number of people outside our apartment at 10:45pm. When I arrived at the the Avenue de Saxe it was impossible to find a good spot to set up my tripod because of the large number of people already there.

I found a relatively good spot with an almost straight on view of the Tower. I set up the tripod, attached the Nikon D300 with a cable release cord. I set the camera to manual mode, set my ISO to 200, f/stop to f/8.0 and shutter speed to Bulb. I would guess with each exposure regarding the length of time I needed to keep the shutter open.

It wasn't totally dark around 11:00pm so I tested several shots and only needed about a one second exposure to capture the Tower and not have it overexposed.

Once the fireworks started I just keep firing the cable release and holding the button down for about a second. I could see instantly on the LCD screen if I needed a bit longer or shorter exposure. I learned quickly it really depended on what the fireworks were doing. If there were lots of fireworks going off and the sky was filled with light, I didn't need a full second.

I kept firing as the sky exploded with multiple colors of light. It wasn't hard to capture the big bursts. Once the big burst started to grow, I hit the cable release and held it down for about a second, viewed the LCD and liked what I saw.

The sky behind the Eiffel Tower was very dramatic so I decided to add it to the composition rather than go in tight with a longer lens. After about 20 minutes and 268 images later, I packed up and walked the one block back home.