Fireworks thumbnails only

When shooting fireworks, it usually difficult to know the proper framing for the burst coming next. So, framing wide and cropping to taste later is usually my technique.

Fireworks rocket trails and bursts are as captive in a photo as they are in person.

Most of the fireworks at this event were framing nicely inside a 45mm focal length. This explosion went far beyond.

A blask blast of blue from a celebratory rocket.

Subjects often work very well compositionally when available in a quantity of three. Three is a very good number for compositions.

Purple, red and orange explode from this fireworks shell.

Rocket trails lead to the burst of red, white and blue colors. Using a 2-stop neutral density filter allowed me to use an f/8 aperture, which resulted in much sharper images than if I had used an f/16 aperture without the filter.

Getting the focal length right for your fireworks pictures is not easy. I generally want the entire rocket blast contained within the frame. What makes focal length selection difficult is that these blast range dramatically in size.
 
I usually select a focal length that will contain about 80-90% of the blasts. I crop the smaller explosions and determine if the ones that exceed the frame result in an interesting picture or not (the "nots" are deleted of course).
 
This firework blast fit perfectly in the frame. With the high resolution Canon EOS 5D II behind the capture, I have lots of freedom to crop into the picture. I can of course use the picture as-is, or, with completely black borders, I can extend any edge of the frame by adding more black.

My daughter thought that this fireworks blast looked like a dandelion. I think she's right. Determining the favorite shots from a fireworks shoot (when the right technique is used) is very difficult as each is different and most are beautiful.

Notice the small patch of smoke in the sky? At least some wind is helpful in clearing out the smoke that fireworks generate. In some cases, so much smoke can become present that getting a good image is challenging.

Multiple fireworks rockets explode in the night sky. Image brightness for fireworks photography is completely determined by the aperture setting since the rockets and explosions are never still. I sometimes use a neutral density filter when photographing fireworks to allow a wider aperture to be used (for sharper images due to less effects of diffraction being visible).