Fireworks - What'd I do wrong?

[thegray_ghost]

I was so excited about shooting fireworks for the first time with my DSLR; however, I was quickly disappointed when I reviewed them. They all look like a bunch of neon lights. What did I do wrong? Both pictures I have attached were taken at f/10. The single red one was a 4.8 sec exposure and the mutli color one was 5 sec exposure.

[clockdoc]

Hi,
For starters I'd say you had your camera in autofocus and the system was searching for focus when you shot the images. I have read that it is best to use manual focus and focus on infinity.

[kirbinster]

Agree, the foucs is off. I took a bunch last week and what I did was to manually focus on a distant object. You can't (at least of my Nikon D40) turn the focus all the way to the extreme as that is actuall a little past the infinity point. I read somewhere else that on the D40 it is a good idea to use the autofocus to focus on "infinity" then leave the lens in auto focus but select manual focus on the body - this keeps the focus from drifting due to vibrations from the shutter.


Here are a few I took a few days ago on bulb at F7.1 with my 18-55mm lens with my Nikon D40 on an ISO200 setting: