Sparkler Photography with a DSLR

I’m pulling from the archives today – I posted this last year, and the kids wanted to do it again this year. If you missed it here ya’ go! Have fun with your sparkler drawings tonight!! Have a safe and fun Fourth of July!
Have you ever wondered how people take pictures of sparkler drawings? The ones where they draw in the air and you can see the whole thing? I’m going to show you how it is done! We did this on the Fourth of July and everybody wanted to take a turn.
I have a Canon Rebel – so if you have a Nikon it will be very similar. Even some point and shoots will let you do it if they allow you to adjust the shutter speed.

In order to take these pictures you need to turn it to Tv mode which is the one that allows you to control the shutter speed.

Then you need to turn the little know in front of the ISO button. Depending on which way you turn it you can speed up or slow down the shutter speed.

On the display screen you will see the shutter speed changing. We tried keeping it open for 30 seconds but that was a little too long so we ended up doing 15 seconds.

This is what it looks like when your shutter speed is open for 15 seconds. You can do it in increments of 5 seconds with a maximum of 30 seconds.
Then you need to set your camera up on a tripod or on a flat surface to take the pictures.




Enjoy,