Winston&Crew: Shoot First

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Shoot First: Starburst. Long exposures can create great results. And when photographing fireworks, the results can be wonderful. Just like our eyes, cameras need light to work and that’s the tricky part when taking fireworks photos; there isn’t much light at night besides what’s coming from the explosion. To make sure the camera gets enough light, lengthen the exposure time to give the camera more time to see, disable the flash and mount the camera on a steady tripod so the fireworks’ falling embers will have long comet-like tails while anything else in-frame (like a city skyline) remain motionless. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a tripod handy when I took this shot (I travel light and fast especially when out with friends) so I set the camera’s ISO to its maximum of 3200 to increase its light sensitivity and set the shutter to 1/30 of a second to capture the firework trails. There wasn’t much need for editing aside from minor exposure and contrast adjustments as this was the shot I was most impressed with.

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