Five (+1) Awesome Unorthodox Ways To Use Fireworks In Photography

For our American friends the 4th of July poses a great opportunity to go out and have lots of fun with fireworks.

And there is only one thing better than playing with fireworks, and that is photographing them. Here are some great tutorials to incorporate fireworks of all kinds into your photography.

Of course, all regular safety measurements apply. Be smart and don’t set anything on fire.

Create Amazing Orbs and Spirals

You can use fireworks along with long exposure and a piece of string to create your “normal” lightpainting orbs and circles, only using the power of fireworks they are way, way cooler. The tutorial above covers the use of almost any type of fireworks you can think of and how you can apply it to light painting.

Make A Super Hero Fly With Sparkles

Sparkles are great for light painting, and especially great for adding just that missing bit of magic when it comes for flying super heroes.

Use sparkles to add a sense of motion to your flying super hero.

Use Sparkles For Type Bokeh

Sparkles create tiny dots of light. This makes them a perfect candidate as the out of focus element in shaped bokeh shots.

And using them in video is even cooler than using them in stills.

Shoot Out Of Focus Firework For Tranquil Effect

Even if you don’t setup up elaborate shots, you can still get an amazing effect by simply shooting the fireworks show completely out of focus.  Make sure you zoom in close enough and counter-intuitive go out of focus to get the full extent of the effect.

Turn Your Car In To A Sci-Fi Wonder

If the regular way of light painting your car did not take you far enough, light painting it with sparkles will take there and then some more. Using sparkles instead of the “regular” LED/flash light gives your car the fairy dust it needed to go super.

Sit Back, Enjoy The Show & Take Darn Good Photos

image by Anthony Cramp

If you just want to shoot fireworks and have killer pictures, we’ve got three killer tuts for perfect fireworks photography:

1. How to Photograph Fireworks Displays
2. 11 Tips for Sparkling Fireworks Photos
3. How to Photograph Fireworks – or – Have Fun on the Fourth of July

Happy 4th of July all

Have cool tips on shooting fireworks? Hit us in the comments