There’ll be fireworks!

Who can resist the visual excitement of a big firework display? But be prepared to switch to manual exposure

When you shoot fireworks, the first thing to consider is composition. If possible, and while it’s daylight, check out where the fireworks will be released. Use the recce to consider how you can give your shot context, whether that is an iconic landmark like the London clock tower that houses Big Ben, or maybe just the crowd, if you’re at a local display.

Put your camera on a tripod, because shutter speeds will almost certainly be longer than 10 seconds. You’ll also need to use a remote or cable release to allow safe, vibration-free pressing of the shutter button without any delay.

Focusing is tricky in the dark, so switch to manual focus and focus the lens to infinity – the infinity position should be marked on the lens barrel. Alternatively, focus on something approximately a third of the way into the scene; but if you move the camera, remember to refocus the shot.

To capture good firework images, you must take full control of the exposure, using either Manual or Bulb Mode. As a starting point, working in Manual, select an aperture of f/8 and a shutter speed of about five seconds. When a firework goes up, fire the shutter using the remote release and review your results, then adjust the shutter speed accordingly for the next attempt. To get more than one firework exploding within the scene, select Bulb Mode, and have some black card you can hold over the front of the lens during the exposure. Press the shutter and lock it open, holding the black card over the front of the lens between bursts to prevent any ambient light entering. The shutter may be open for 15 or 30 seconds, but because you are holding the exposure back with the card, the sensor is only capturing the cascading light from each separate firework explosion. This way, you can make the display look even more spectacular.

If you feel you are overexposing the firework explosions too much, try to time the moment you open the shutter to just after you hear the bang of the explosion, and the light trails are shooting outwards.