How To: Blur Fireworks with Your DSLR for Some Wicked July 4th Photos

Try "unfocusing" your photographs for some dreamy, evocative and somewhat abstract takes on life. Check out the two tutorials (here and here) from Michelle Geoga of Lights! Camera! Photoshop! for tips on unleashing the blur-power of your camera. You can see plenty of example images there to help you out.

Tips for Blurring Fireworks

And since it's Fourth of July time, it's a great opportunity for you take some wonderful, blurry pics of the fireworks on display. Not sure how? Mark Rosal has some great tips on his Gomarky blog for taking some unbelievable fireworks photographs on July Fourth.

With his camera set up on a tripod, he set his ISO to 100, his aperture to around f/9.0, his shutter speed to around 1 second, and his lens to manual focus — at the closest range possible — so the fireworks are completely blurred.

The trick is to snap the photo right before the fireworks burst happens. Over the course of the exposure, turn your focus ring all the way to infinity. In other words, if you were to photograph the fireworks on infinity, they would be crisp and sharp.

For more information, make sure to visit Mark's blog.

Other Subjects to Blur ...

Here are some more non-fireworks examples from Michelle to help inspire your photo blurring.