Bonfire Night is a perfect opportunity to take some great photos of fireworks on your smartphone. Here are some simple tips to ensure you get the best shots.
Take the perfect firework photo
1. Stabilise your phone camera. For best results you’ll want to use a tripod, but if one is not to hand you can also position your phone on a flat surface or stabilise yourself by sitting down or leaning against a wall. Smartphone cameras that feature optical image stabilisation are a good choice.
2. Turn off the flash. It won’t be able to effectively light up the sky and will alter the colours visible in the fireworks.
3. Turn off the digital zoom, since this will reduce the quality of the image.
4. Turn off HDR or auto-HDR, which slows the capture speed and may result in blurry images.
5. Reduce the ISO figure. A high ISO can help a camera pick out details in the dark, but the fireworks should light up the sky on their own. A low ISO will reduce the chance of overexposure.
6. Adjust the aperture to control how much light is let into the camera.
7. Use burst mode to capture multiple images – at least one will capture the moment you wanted and you can always delete the rest.
The illustrations for this tutorial were provided by Samsung, manufacturer of the Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8.
Author: Marie Black, Editorial Director
Marie is Editorial Director at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she's worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our EMEA and LatAm editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry's transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.