Skip to Content

How to: Focus Racking Fireworks

focus racking, fireworks, Japan, photography, photo, picture, photographer, Hai Huynh

To achieve these fun results, it is a simple matter of, given you have the right gear, re-focusing during a long exposure shot.

In either Manual or Shutter Priority mode, set the exposure to between 1 to 2 seconds (experiment a little).

Set the ISO to 100 to avoid over-exposure and, if in Manual mode, set the aperture to the the lowest f/ value available to start with and adjust upward as required.

Using a short to medium telephoto lens, start out-of-focus, press the shutter and quickly re-focus during the explosion.

Using a tripod helps to get smooth shapes but hand-holding can also work to create interesting effects.

focus racking, fireworks, Japan, photography, photo, picture, photographer, Hai Huynh

focus racking, fireworks, Japan, photography, photo, picture, photographer, Hai Huynh

focus racking, fireworks, Japan, photography, photo, picture, photographer, Hai Huynh

focus racking, fireworks, Japan, photography, photo, picture, photographer, Hai Huynh

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Les Petits Pas de Juls

Wednesday 1st of January 2014

Interesting! I have no idea if there will be fireworks tonight where we are (aka in the middle of almost nowhere in Southern Patagonia!) but if so, I'll have to give it a try!

Happy New Year! And Happy Trails to both of you! Enjoy!

Jul'

Hai Huynh

Monday 23rd of June 2014

Happy New Year! Better 7 months late than never, sorry about that. How'd you go? Did you get any weird shots of fireworks?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.