thanks so would you soot in Shutter priority mode? full manual mode? aperture mode?
also i have "L" series wide angle canon glass--it just seems my landscape shots dont have much character. How do you make sure land, sea, fireworks, buildings get the right proportions?
I have the 16-35L
lmk thanks
I'd go full manual and adjust 1 thing at a time. Once you get an exposure you are happy with you should not need to change anything other than composition and framing. I'm not great at landscapes either, but the biggest thing I have learned to to have a subject in both the foreground, middle and background. So I'd envision something like the people watching the fireworks in the foreground with maybe the city or neighborhood in the "middle" with the fireworks in the background.
Before I got into using digital cameras that have a "fireworks" scene selection, I used a simple exposure bracketing method with my 35mm film camera using full manual controls. First, using a tripod is a must, along with either a cable release, or employing the delay timer on the shutter to prevent camera shake.
You want to set the aperture as small as possible to ensure a full depth of field and therefore no focusing required from a short distance out to infinity. (For those that don't know, photos where the foreground is blurry and the subject is sharp is due to setting the aperture on the lense as large as possible which shortens the depth of field, where the opposite occurs with a very small aperture).
Then, you will want to try a couple of different things. If your camera has an aperture priority mode, then all you have to do is set the aperture at F16 and after you release the shutter, it will stay open until enough light comes in from a couple of the displays for the meter to consider being enough.
The full manual method is also worth trying. Again, with the lens set to F16, use the cable release with the shutter speed set to "bulb" or "B" where you can hold it open as long as you want. While there are fireworks going off, bracket some exposures. Do some at 10 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, etc. Even out to a minute, you can make some cool photos. The neat thing about this method is some shots will seem to have several bursts happening at the same time all over the frame, but were actually layered on one by one as they went off while the shutter was open.
Night photography in general can be one of the more rewarding and interesting things to practice, IMO.
Good Luck!!!