How to Photograph Fireworks with the S95

Fireworks photography is similar to night photography. Use a slow shutter speed, so you can record those dramatic, colorful light trails as they explode through the sky. That also means you'll need a tripod to capture a steady, unblurred shot. Caution is needed to avoid exposing the shutter for too long as the fireworks would appear as bunch of white lights.

For the most part, I find that the preset fireworks scene mode achieves good results. It turns the flash to off, sets autofocus to infinity, switches to vivid colors, adjusts the shutter speed and aperture for long exposure and lowers the ISO.

In summary:

• set the camera to its lowest ISO setting, which will minimize the camera's tendency to generate distracting digital noise during the long exposure
• turn off automatic focus and set the camera's focus to infinity, so it doesn't search helplessly for a subject in the dark when you're trying to start the exposure
• control the aperture setting to a low f/stop, preferably f/8
• choose a slow shutter speed depending upon the amount of ambient light and how many fireworks are in the sky

The longer your exposure, the more fireworks you'll capture at once, and the longer your light trails will be. So you might want to start with a shutter speed around 1 to 4 seconds and see if you like the results. For really long exposures, try covering the lens with your hand or the lens cap between bursts to avoid over-exposing the picture.