How to use a smartphone to take pictures of New Year’s Eve fireworks?
The year 2020 is irresistibly coming to an end. This year’s celebrations will be completely different for many of us than in previous years. And for some, not much will change. Although some cities will not be organizing traditional New Year’s fireworks this year, this does not mean that people around you will give up. It is therefore highly likely that today’s sky will still be littered with visual effects of various kinds.
Farewell to the old year and the welcome of the new year is simply closely associated with fireworks. For those who would like to immortalize this New Year’s Eve theater with their smartphones, here are some simple tips. In this tutorial, we’ll just talk about how to take pictures of fireworks with a smartphone, and what you’ll need.
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Tripod as a good helper
Since you will be shooting in the dark, we definitely recommend using a tripod. Although your phone has good optical stabilization, a tripod is a huge help. First of all, it allows you to change the photo settings at your own discretion, but we’ll get to that later. At the same time, however, it will provide you with sharp photos even in low light, which is typical for shooting fireworks.
Capturing flashes of light in complete darkness is an art even with a professional camera, not yet with a phone. You won’t need a huge tripod, maybe a smaller tripod in your hand is enough – but the basis is to place the phone in a static position.
Get to know the camera application
Shooting fireworks can be a really frustrating experience. When you finally manage to set everything up well, the fireworks may be over for now. Therefore, the best thing to do is to prepare in advance. The absolute basis is to get to know the camera application on your phone perfectly. What are the functions where the settings and modes are hidden, how to switch between them as quickly as possible and how to check the results as quickly as possible.
Before midnight, you can try everything for dirt. Simply go outside and try to capture as much as possible, for example, the Christmas lights on the house or cottage where you are celebrating. It’s much more challenging than it may seem. For example, a blinking Christmas chain around a Christmas tree in complete darkness will be a good help. Try to take a picture of the tree so that it can be seen and at the same time so that the candles look as natural as possible.
Try manual mode
Today, almost every new phone offers a manual shooting mode in the camera application. If your smartphone doesn’t have it, try, for example, Camera FV-5 Lite or similar, which allows you to change shooting parameters. Especially when shooting fireworks, there is a good chance that the automatic mode will not take such a nice photo as you would imagine.
On most smartphones, you will correct two main factors – shutter speed and ISO. If you have a tripod, you can set a slower shutter speed, even for a few seconds. This is exactly how long it will take to capture a photo. The result can be nice light trails that fireworks leave in the sky.
The ISO value, in turn, changes the sensitivity of the sensor to light – the higher the value, the more light the sensor can capture, but at the cost of digital noise. Therefore, handle this value carefully – the lower you set it, the less noise there will be in the resulting photos.
Try the preset night shooting modes
As with manual mode, night modes are part of many smartphones. Some models have advanced night modes that are designed to capture as much light as possible in your photo. This may not always be welcome when photographing fireworks, but it’s good to at least know about these options and have them on hand in case you need them.
At the same time, some phones have special modes for capturing the mentioned light trails or other night photos. Even if you avoid these features on your mobile phone when taking pictures with your phone, be sure to give them a chance at this special event. You may be surprised at the great results you get. If your phone has the ability to record slow-motion or extra-slow-motion video, be sure to try this as well – you can capture truly unique moments with the beautiful effects of fireworks.
No flash, please
It makes absolutely no sense to photograph objects at night with a flash a few tens of meters away. Be careful and definitely avoid it. Trying to catch fireworks will not help you at all, it can even ruin the whole result.
Be careful not to get the camera glass dirty
Although it sounds like complete banality, it can cause a lot of inconvenience when photographing lights at night. It is the smudges on the camera glass that are responsible for the unsightly spreading of light in the photo, which can have catastrophic consequences for fireworks photos. Therefore, always make sure that the glass on the camera is clean before taking a picture, ideally before each photo, when you take the phone in your hand. Also pay attention to any mist, for example from steam from cups with hot punch or mead.
Be patient, but adapt to the situation
If you master all the technical elements and settings, there is nothing left but to check the results while shooting. It may happen that the fireworks will be extremely bright and it will be necessary to lower the ISO value or shorten the shutter so that the photos are not burned unnecessarily. Or, while shooting, you will notice that the results are darker than you expected and you will need to extend or increase the ISO shutter speed.
However, fireworks are extremely variable and it is not at all easy to capture them as beautifully as possible. You can at least prepare in advance and think about how you want to take pictures of them at midnight, then you will have less worries. But don’t do anything about it when you can’t capture beautiful photos for the first time – keep trying, change settings and look for optimal values for your specific conditions.
How to photograph fireworks: Summary
Shooting fireworks is really not an easy task even for advanced photographers. Add to that the limitations of cameras on smartphones, which may seem like an impossible task. However, the opposite is true, although it requires good preparation.
- Clean the lens
- Familiarize yourself with the shooting application
- Play with ISO and exposure
- Allow yourself enough time to prepare
- Turn off the flash
- If you can, use a tripod
- Try night mode
If you are going somewhere where you expect really spectacular fireworks, you will definitely do well if you prepare for it in advance. Or maybe you’re celebrating with friends or family. However, they will also appreciate it if you remind them of the welcome of 2021 with beautiful photographs of fireworks over time. If you manage to capture nice photos of fireworks, you can also add them to our PHOTO Mania.
