How to Take Better Fireworks Photos with a Phone CameraA collection of tips for beautiful, impressive fireworks pictures using mobile phones, covering settings equipment for Fireworks Photos.
The Camera app on your mobile phone or tablet can take some pretty incredible pictures throughout the day, and more recent phones can even make night-time photographs look wonderful. However, you can't just point and shoot if you want to capture some beautiful, impressive fireworks pictures.
Disable the Flash for Fireworks Photos
Your flash will do nothing when taking pictures of fireworks in the night-time sky. It may also make your photos worse and annoy other folks around you. The fireworks themselves are all the lighting you want in your photos. Tap the flash icon and turn it to "Off," not "Auto."
Enable HDR Mode
High Dynamic Range blends three different photos taken very quickly together at different exposures. There's the original photograph at normal exposure, then there's one that focuses on the darkest areas and one on the brightest. The blended image is more vivid and detailed than the normal exposure alone.
Fireworks move fast so taking three different pictures in rapid succession will help to capture light trails, duplication effects, and blurs which you normally wouldn't be able to capture.
In the Camera app, tap on the "HDR" button, then choose "On," not "Auto." If you do not see the "HDR" button, have a look in the camera app settings.
If you are not entirely sold on the idea of trying out HDR for your fireworks photos, then you will have to make sure that you keep the original photograph as well, not just the HDR version. Most camera apps can store originals as well as HDR-processed variations.
Try Out Live Photos to Capture Fireworks Photos
If you have an iPhone 6 or above, another thing you might want to try is Live Photos, which records a tiny video. To enable Live Photos, tap on the circular Live Photos icon in the Camera.
Live Photos has a few advantages - you'll be able to capture many frames with one tap allowing you to choose the best one, you record a video with sound, and you can convert the Live Photo into a long exposure if you're running iOS 11 and higher.
When viewing a Live Photo in the Photos app, swipe up on the display to get entry to the Live Photo effects, which include Loop, Bounce, and the one we want, Long Exposure.
The "Long Exposure" effect uses software to simulate a long exposure, which will blur things out and create "bright streaks across the night sky," as Apple puts it.
Use the Exposure Lock
As the show gets started, take a few photos to check the settings. Whenever you get a picture with decent exposure and focus, you'll want to try to recreate what you just did but don't take the picture yet. The exact method for locking exposure varies but on an iPhone, simply tap-and-hold the display screen when the following set of fireworks explodes until you see "AE/AF Lock" symbol.
Avoid Using Digital Zoom
Most digital camera apps will allow you to zoom in on a subject within the Camera app, however, they all use digital zoom unless you have an iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus or iPhone X. These have an integrated 2x optical zoom.
Use Burst Mode and Take Lots of Photos
When it comes to fast-moving subjects, taking more pictures is always better than fewer photos. The more photos you take the higher the chance of taking pictures at that best possible moment.
To help you take more pictures quicker, most cameras have a burst mode. On the iPhone camera simply hold down on the shutter button or one of the volume buttons, and it will automatically begin taking photo after photo in rapid succession. Let go when you want to stop.
Shoot a Few Videos Instead of Fireworks Photos
If you are not getting the results you wish to have with pictures, try converting over to video form. This way, you'll be able to steal a frame from one of them as a regular picture.
Keep Your Phone Steady
To get really clear fireworks pictures, keep your mobile phone as steady as possible, especially when using the 2x optical zoom. Find something to place your mobile on so your shaky hands aren't the only support. You could also try propping your body up against a tree or similar object to steady yourself and your arms.
If you want to keep things steady, there's no better way than with a tripod, or put your phone in the selfie stick and rest the stick in a jar or vase.
If you are attempting to keep things steady without a tripod, or even if you have a tripod, you'll be able to use most wired headphones with volume buttons to trigger the shutter. Simply plug them into the jack plug and press the volume up or down to take a picture.
