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CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / The Nighttime Sky

The best way to achieve focus for the fireworks is

to use the first explosion to set the focus and the

composition, and then change to manual focus

without moving the lens focusing ring. Just aim at

where you think the fireworks are going to go off

and wait until you see the first rocket launch;

then adjust where the camera is aimed so that the

composition is what you want and press the

shutter release button halfway down to activate

the auto focus while making sure the auto focus

point is on the right spot of the explosion.

The fireworks might go off in different parts of

the sky, but because you are usually quite far away

and the depth of field is very deep with an aper-

ture of f/10 or smaller, the area of acceptable

focus is quite broad and you should be good to go.

Every once in a while, I check the focus on the

camera’s LCD and make sure that at 100 percent

preview, the light trails are sharp. If the focus is

off, I wait until the next explosion and adjust the

focus manually.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO The Fourth of July fireworks display in
Ocean Beach, California, where the fireworks are set off from the pier.
Taken at 1/250 second, f/5.6, and ISO 200.

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