Fireworks are one of the most popular seasonal events worldwide. Held through out the year, the fireworks captivate people with spectacular large-scale bursts that fill the night sky, as well as more casual handheld sparklers that anyone can enjoy.
Although their beauty lasts only for a brief moment, capturing fireworks beautifully in photographs allows you to relive those stunning moments anytime, regardless of the season.
To capture the beautiful trails of fireworks, it's important to stabilize your camera on a tripod and use a slow shutter speed. However, to prevent overexposure, use an ND filter to control the amount of light entering the lens. By utilizing filters, you can preserve a vivid and striking photo that reflects the same excitement as what you see with your own eyes.
ND filter prevents blowouts in fireworks photos
The brightness of fireworks is adjusted by the aperture (f-number), but sometimes even an f/16 setting can be too bright. This is where an ND filter comes in handy. An ND filter reduces the amount of light entering the camera. Specifically, using an ND4 or ND8 filter allows you to control the light, giving you a wider range of f-numbers to work with. With an ND filter, you can easily handle situations where you need to stop down even further than f/16 (to f/22 or f/32, for example) depending on the brightness of the fireworks.
Recommended filters
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HOYA PROND4 (ND 0.6) |
HOYA PROND EX 8 (ND 0.9) |
HOYA PROND16 (ND 1.2) |
Variable ND filters
Variable ND filters are handy filters that allow you to adjust the light reduction simply by rotating the front ring. With fixed-density ND filters like ND4 or ND8, you need to adjust exposure using the aperture. However, with a variable ND filter, you can keep your camera settings unchanged and fine-tune the exposure to match the brightness of the fireworks just by rotating the filter's front ring.
Recommended filters
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HOYA Variable Density II |
STAR FILTERS: Add Sparkle to Points of Light
To enhance the sparkling impression of skyrockets, a cross filter is recommended. Star filters extend lines from point light sources to emphasize their brilliance, making the bursts of fireworks appear glittering and radiant. They're great not only for photos but also for video. Star filters come in different types, varying in the number and length of cross lines. The HOYA SPARKLE series is especially recommended.
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Recommended filters
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HOYA SPARKLE 4X |
HOYA SPARKLE 6X |
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HOYA STAR 4X |
HOYA STAR 6X |
HOYA STAR 8X |
SOFT filters: Gently diffuse light
Using a soft filter allows you to enlarge the sparkles and softly diffuse the light overall, creating a dreamy, ethereal expression of the fireworks' glow. Setting a brighter exposure will enhance this glow even further.
The MIST DIFFUSER BLACK No0.5 filter softens light sources with its unique diffusion effect, creating a cinematic atmosphere. By gently blurring the bright bursts of fireworks, it produces a more magical overall image, making it especially recommended for aerial fireworks. It is also ideal for photographing handheld sparklers. Since the colors of fireworks can become overexposed and washed out during shooting, it is impossible to fully restore their original colors afterward. Therefore, it is best to limit post-processing to slight lightening only, in order to preserve the true colors of the fireworks.
Recommended filters
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HOYA MIST DIFFUSER BLACK No0.5 |
Try using suggested filters to capture fireworks more beautifully and memorably than ever before.