Fireworks shots (timely for July 4th)

[Scott Stephen]

Hi!

I was messing around tonight shooting the neighbor's high-priced amateur fireworks, in preparation for the night of the 4th. I was shooting in MANUAL, with ISO of 200, f/10, and working the shutter with a remote cable on BULB for basically 2-4 seconds, depending on the particular detonation. Looked good in camera, but have not downloaded yet.

I put the camera on the tripod, then set the camera to MF and turned off the IS. I set focus to "infinity". I read someone saying you should pre-focus on "something at equal distance", but that seemed kind of impossible, given that the main event was going to take place somewhere (where?) up "in thin air."

Anyone else planning to do this? Any input from past experience?

Happy 4th! (Or happy nice summer evening outside the US )

[Powers]

Hello,
Something that has worked for me is to autofocus on the initial fireworks, then set to manual for the next ones. This has worked for me on professional shows because they tend to stick to the same plane or area in the air for the show.
After getting autofocus locked, I then put it in manual, and adjust slightly if needed. This has given me great results for prints and or compositions. I tend to change focus just a bit for different areas or when I move positions of course, but once you get close, and set it to manual ( infinity ) then I have had great results. Not all the pictures are good of course, but I have enough for decent prints or photo album. Hope this helps, Happy 4th of July!