A highlight at many large events is fireworks in the evening. But capturing the marvelous formations of light in a photograph is not as easy as you may think it is when you are looking at them.

Let's forget the automatic settings on your digital camera for the time being. Because of low light, you will need to set an exposure that is long enough
to capture fireworks. Good pictures of such situations call only be taken well using the camera's full manual mode. To begin With, set an exposure time of '1130' or '1/15' seconds, an ISO of about '200' and an aperture priority (f-stop) of '5.6' to '8'.

The relatively low is value makes sure that the image does not look underexposed; and the medium aperture ensures a neat depth of field. Check the photos on the camera's display immediately after clicking them. If the pictures are overexposed, increase the aperture to '11' or '16'. If the picture turns out too dark, decrease the aperture to two or three points below the previous level. The settings we have recommended usually give you a beautiful 'light haze' around the explosions of color. If, however, you want to freeze the explosions in the air, you should set very low exposures.

Try to get a feel for the right exposure. The camera's exposure bracketing feature can help with this. This means that you should take pictures in comparable light situations with the same aperture and varying exposure times. This way you can find out what aperture-time combination gives you the result you want.

Tip When working with such long exposure settings, a tripod is a must to avoid blurs due to shaky hands.