This is one of many photos from Monday evening, July 4th holiday in the United States.   What worked for me is pretty normal stuff for fireworks shots.

• Tripod
• Low ISO (I used 100)
• Aperture of f/8 to f/16.  I used f/8 most of the time.
• Bulb exposure started when you want and released when you want.

A remote shutter release is nice, setting the camera for the zone of display and sitting back and pushing the shutter release when the shell starts up and holding for the burst.  This is to be played with. Timing here gave a palm tree effect.

In the photo shown, shutter was  held from just after the initial shot and ended directly after the burst.  There is a second one in there just ready to burst into sparkles.

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Sweet shot Tom.

Very nice - thanks for the information about the technique.

WOW !! What a masterpiece. Bravo Tom :-))) Yes and thanks for info. :)

Nice shot. I would add a bit. There can be problems obtaining the correct focus so I found it best to prefocus then leave the focus on manual so you don't get any hunting and subsequent blurring. I have used similar exposure settings.

At those distances just set the focus to infinite. Ofcourse take it off of autofocus ;)

I usually use a smaller aperture though. F16 and up.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. - Aristotle
-= Glass Eye Photography =- -= My Rendo Gallery =-

Great shot! Fireworks very sneaky, hard to get good one.

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Last thursday fireworks for the fair where fired off again. As I said in my previous comment I use smaller apertures than Tom.

• Click to see the bigger version *

My settings here:

Setup: Tripod, wireless trigger
Apeture: F18
Speed: ISO 200 (my D70 doesn't go any lower)
Focal Length: 22mm
Exposure: 14.0 seconds

As always with this particular fireworks display, it's fired from a pontoon offshore for safety reasons. Now I actually like this because it gives the added bonus of reflections on the water and people in the foreground. I found this makes my shots much more interesting. So my tip would be to try and get some environment in the shot be it buildings or people. This really shows of the scale of the fireworks.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. - Aristotle
-= Glass Eye Photography =- -= My Rendo Gallery =-

Yes, the environment does make a difference.  My need was to get the lighting and distractions out of the frame and there was precious little to use for foreground.  I shot some at water before, not know what I was doing back then but the reflections did add value to the photo.   Yours has the added advantage of "excitement" with the people in the scene.

14 sec is a long one!

Thanks very much for posting..      Tom

I guess by lighting you're referring to street lights? I can understand you wanting them out of frame.  Unless they're far away enough to be pinpricks of light in the rest of your scene they'll probably outshine the fireworks with the longer exposures.

This 14s one is definately one of the longest exposures in my set. But it averages between 6 and 14. The most difficult part of it is trying to imagine what you've captured. I'm constantly trying to see the photo in my head adding the stuff in the sky as it explodes. Do I keep it open a bit more... or close and start a new exposure.It basically boils down to... guessing :)

In the end I think that's really part of the fun of shooting fireworks (for me anyway). Waiting to be back at the computer seeing if you've captured something worthwile. Because checking to see what you've got while shooting is basically impossible, you just don't have the time aside from the fact that the teensy little screen just doesn't show the results well anyway.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. - Aristotle
-= Glass Eye Photography =- -= My Rendo Gallery =-

Just one additional comment about "setting the focus to infinity" is that whether you can do this depends on what type of camera you have. Newer DSLRs that use phase focussing employ lenses that allow focussing to go beyong infinity, so setting the focus all the way to that end will be disappointing. The older film lenses often stopped exactly at infinity which made that setting a bit easier. You will also encounter this problem shooting at a star field. Trying to guess at just where infinity really is, in the dark, is frustrating. Usually there is not enough light to achieve auto focus.

My solution, for stars, is to use a zoom lens (like 18-70 mm) and aim at a planet at full zoom. There will be enough light to achieve auto focus on Jupiter or Venus. Then turn to manual focus and be careful not to touch the focus ring. Set back to wide angle or whatever you want and start shooting. Don't focus on the Moon if you want to get stars in focus, it won't work.

Even easier for fireworks, grab your focus from the first burst, then switch to manual focus to prevent hunting.

Wayne