I had never shot fireworks before this year, my dog has always been very afraid of the sounds so I normally spend the night laying on the bed holding her when she shakes. She lost her hearing this year which of course is horrible but because of it I was able to go out and try this. I know some of them are a little off center, they are hard to predict.
Thank you. I followed my basic settings from a video I found on Youtube. I was able to get this moon image using the same persons videos.
Great job! For your next assignment, try focus pulling, where you manually rotate the focus ring while the shutter is open. Gives you some wild results.
I have the camera in Bulb Mode with a Cable release and do it entirely by feel. Obviously, the lens needs to be set to manual focus. I watch the mortar go up and press the release just before it explodes. While holding the shutter open, I'll rotate the focus ring, while the firework expands, and release the button once I get full rotation. Helps to get an idea where infinity is on the lens as it not all the way at one end. Usually it's just before the end of the rotation.
If you open the shutter with the lens on infinity and then rotate out, You'll get an effect like this where the firework blurs out at the tips.
Going the other way, out of focus to infinity, will give you almost a sea anemone effect.
