03 Jul 2025 Weekly Series Throwback Thursday

Fireworks Photography Tips for the 4th of July

Tomorrow is, of course, the 4th of July here in the United States.

4th of July Fireworks in Auburn at AUO (view full res)

Tomorrow is, of course, the 4th of July here in the United States. I’m using this update as my Throwback Thursday post to share some fireworks photos I took at the Auburn fireworks display a few years ago.

For those outside the U.S., this day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. This year, 2025, marks the 249th anniversary of American independence—which means next year’s celebration should be a super big one.

Our house is not really big into crowds anymore, so this year we will be watching the fireworks displays on TV instead of heading into town (although we can still hear them from Auburn or Opelika). Both Auburn and Opelika always put on a great show, and most years when we did go to the Auburn celebration we watched from the Auburn University Regional Airport (KAUO) grass areas, which was a perfect spot.

Being a photographer I've always wanted to get some good shots of the fireworks, so I thought I would write down some of the details I've used over the years about how to shoot fireworks with just about any camera.

4th of July Fireworks in Auburn at AUO (view full res)

How to Shoot Fireworks

Fireworks photography is actually one of the easier genres to capture. I approach it in much the same way I photograph lightning. (If you're interested in that, check out my post: How to Successfully and Safely Photograph Lightning.)

Shutter Speed

The basic idea is to leave the shutter open just long enough to capture the full burst of light—then close it. The "Bulb" setting on your camera works great for this if you have a shutter release cable or a Bluetooth remote, use that to trigger and hold open the shutter. Set your camera to "Bulb," and when you hear the thump of the firework mortar, press and hold the shutter button. Once the light fades, release the shutter button.

Focal Length and Aperture

You'll want to experiment with aperture and focal length, but generally, a setting just slightly less than wide open works well, f/2.8 or f/4 should work, or if your lens has a sweet spot for sharpness like f/5.6-8 use that. The shots below were mostly all taken at f/8, but that isn't critical. Focal lengths between 28mm and 50mm are usually ideal if you’re at a normal viewing distance. The idea there is to cover the entire frame with the streaks of light falling to the ground. I used a 35mm and 50mm prime lens for most of my shots.

Manual or AF?

Another key factor is focus. I shoot fireworks using manual focus, preset to a specific distance, and then just shoot away. That said, autofocus on modern mirrorless cameras has improved dramatically, even in low light—so you might be able to use AF by locking focus on the first burst. My manual method involves a bit of trial and error, but autofocus might be more reliable depending on your setup.

Remember the Foreground

The cool thing about shooting fireworks is the exact shutter time doesn't really matter, neither do the colors as they will render themselves different in post, but the foreground does matter. Be careful of power lines or other obstacles that you can't readily see in the dark foreground, when the light of the fireworks goes off, that will be highly visible.

In most of my Auburn fireworks shots I have a power line running through the foreground. I couldn't do anything about it at all on that day so I just had to live with it. Had I know ahead of time I would have moved to another spot closer or farther way. Luckily in today's post-processing world some of that can be fixed after the fact.

Capture Context if Possible

Another suggestion I would offer is to get some environmental shots of your surrounding area with the fireworks, if possible. On this occasion I was only able to get the fireworks in the frame, so it leaves out some context and makes the images a little more generic. Sometimes that's good, but often to tell a story you want a little more context around the fireworks, not just the explosion. This would require a wider angle lens or to just use your foreground with intention.

Using that setup above I was able to capture these images of the Auburn fireworks display using a middle range Nikon DSLR (at the time it was a Nikon D7000) and a pretty cheap Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-G lens (all really old stuff now). Be sure to try out both vertical and horizontal orientation shots as well.

Post Processing

There is also a lot of room for post-processing with fireworks as well. The white balance is something that many cameras are thrown off by, so adding some warmth, or removing it (like I did in the featured image at the top) can always add a nice touch to the final image.

Previous 4th of July Updates

Of course we have been to the Auburn show many times before. Below are a few other posts I've done with the Auburn fireworks display. The images in this post were done like my other Thursday Throwback posts. I took a day and redid the entire edit and post-processing, so while the images below are from a previous year, the edit is new as of July 2025.