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

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 in the Lights! Camera! Photoshop! World 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 4th 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.

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 closet 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."

Go to his blog for more information.

Other Subjects to Blur...

And here are some more non-fireworks examples from Michelle.

Waiting at the Merry Go Round, Motion Blur, Shutter Speed

Portrait through Willow Tree, Blurry Foreground

Photo Road Trip, Slow Shutter

Portrait with Disco Ball for Background, Slow Shutter

Millenium Park Chicago, Motion Blur, Slow Shutter

Monroe and Michigan in Chicago, Motion Blur, Shutter Speed