I shot some great photos of July 4th fireworks last year with my Canon S3. You can see them via the gallery page (pages 3 and 4 of the Canon S3 gallery).

The Canon S3 IS has a fireworks mode. Turn the dial to select the scene setting and then use the left/right button to select Fireworks. Hold the camera steady and snap away. It does noise reduction, so one picture every five seconds is about as fast as you can go. There is nothing else to set. The exposure time is fixed at 2s and the aperture is set to f8.

I found the best shots came from pointing the camera where the fireworks were not and then hoping that they came into the frame. If you simply accept that fireworks are faster then you are and that you will never actually "take a photo" of one going off that looks any good, things go better. I generally kept the camera zoomed quite a long way in and that worked well to eliminate lights and background objects.

Tags: Canon, S3, Fireworks