While fireworks are a subject matter i can only shoot once or twice a year, fireworks have become something of a specialty of mine. Optimizing lighting with respect to color and it's contrast with the background of utter darkness is a facinating challenge, and prone to beneficial accidents, like a single figure illuminated by the glow of the explosion above. 

It''s also difficult, balancing the light exposure of the explosions and black night around it while avoiding red noise.

I typically use masking techniques to separate different aspects of the composition, and optimize each layer for it's respective subject matter.