I plan on trying to get some good fireworks pictures tomorrow. I have a tripod, shutter release cable and I do have "bulb" setting on my camera. Any insights would be appreciated. I had one person I know that did some awesome fireworks shots give me some info on how she did it, but then I got to thinking, I wonder what the wonderful people on FM might have to share about a failproof way to get the best results.

Thanks!

It's really quite easy and it sounds like you have it down.

The keys:

1. Tripod
2. Shutter Release
3. Bulb Mode
4. Manual
5. Small Aperatures

The hard part is framing. Don't think you need all that "L" glass, take what you have to cover a nice range. I'm taking my 11-16, 17-55 and 70 - 200 to cover anything that comes my way. The 70-200 is probably totally uncessary. But just about any glass will do because you aren't going to need tack sharp perfect images, even if you eventually print a shot large.

I think the shots where you see some of the landscape make better shots; i.e. bridges, flags, cityscape, etc.

Start here:

ISO 100
Bulb
f11

When you here the "thud" of the firework leaving the launcher, hit the release and hold it down until the firework completes (about 4-5 seconds) counting one one thousand, etc. Chimp and ride your aperature up or down until your exposing nicely. Once you have aperature set. Then you just repeat:

Press shutter on rocket release.
Release shutter on completion of firework expansion.

The biggest surprise for most is they think they need to be at some wide aperature. f8 to f16 has always worked best for me.

awesome! this confirms what my friend said