Photographing Fireworks

Arial fireworks displays make great photos, and they're relatively easy to do with either a film camera or a digital camera.

Here's what you have to do:

Use a tripod. Absolutely essential, you can't hold your camera steady for the long exposures (1 second to 30 seconds) that give the best results of arial bursts

Choose the right spot. You want a clear view of the sky, without any lights in the foreground (the long exposure you will make allows foreground lights to burn in pretty heavily)

Set your camera manually. You'll be using long exposures to capture 1 or several bursts. 

Use a self-timer or cable release so you don't shake the camera.

Manually focus or set the camera to infinity (the "landscape" mode on many digital models)

Turn off the automatic flash.