How to shoot sparkler with beautiful bokeh in the studio or home setting

A sparkler photo shoot can prove to be very challenging. In this blog post, we cover our experience with photographing one in the studio or at home.

Here is a ‘how-to’ blog for you!

It’s the festive season with Diwali around the corner. We set out to create a beautiful image that we could use for our social media and ecards that we sent out to everyone. Here is how we did it.

THE GEAR

Following gear was used in this

1. Nikon 800E - you could use any DSLR

2. 105 macro Nikkor lens

3. Tripod

4. Sparkler (Preferably colorful)

5. Yellow Plastic Beans

6. Table as base

7. Glass

8. Bucket of water filled (For safety)

THE SETUP

• An unlit sparkle is first set up inside a glass with the yellow beans to keep it standing. The plastic beans are fireproof which helps maintain safety inside the studio.

• The glass is set on a table.

• The camera is set up on a tripod about 190 mm from the table.

• The sparkler was lit by a lighter!

CAMERA SETTINGS

After a little trial and error, we came down to the following camera setting

Camera settings for the shot: ISO 800, aperture: f2.8 and shutter: 1/8000

 Now we are ready to shoot! As the sparkler burns very bright, the image has to be created in a dark studio with as little or no light as possible. We used a tripod so that all the images would be consistent in look and feel. Maintain a safe distance between the camera and the table. There will be a lot of flying spark that can be dangerous. So please ensure that there is no flammable material nearby. We kept a bucket of water handy since our studio does not have a carpet. Do not attempt this shoot in a carpeted area.

Once light up the sparkler you will have little time to get your shot. So we suggest that you click as many photos as you can in that time. Best it to focus before the sparkler is light up. We pre-focused and then put the lens on manual focus and kept shooting. This ensured that we got all the shots in focus! That’s it! It’s as easy as that.