The smartphone is the worst conceivable means of capturing fireworks photographically. But the old adage “the best camera is the one you have with you” still applies Silvester and thus also when photographing fireworks. But you can drastically improve the images with a few tricks. So here are the five tips for better photos when photographing fireworks with your smartphone.
Tip 1: The right camera app
Many smartphone manufacturers already supply impressive camera software. This is also sorely needed when photographing New Year’s Eve fireworks. In most cases, the automatics are simply overwhelmed and manual work is therefore required. So it is important to check before the fireworks whether the native app has a manual mode. If so, you’re almost ready to go. If not, take a look at the PlayStore or the Apple App store advisable. There are also free apps that conjure up a manual mode on the smartphone.
Tip 2: Photograph the location at the fireworks
If you want to record fireworks with your smartphone, the location is essential. If you have a large SLR camera or a mirrorless system camera with interchangeable lenses, you can zoom in on fireworks or sections of them if necessary. Optical zooms are the specialists’ trump card here. This is only available to a limited extent on smartphones. Even the best cameras on the smartphone market offer little zoom quality, especially in the dark. This makes you less flexible. That’s why the location is crucial when photographing a fireworks display with your smartphone. So decide beforehand whether you want to capture an entire ensemble of rockets, curtains of stars and arcs of light, or whether snippets are enough and you can get much closer to the action.
Tip 3: Long exposure times, low ISO value, manual focus
The manual settings are crucial when photographing fireworks. Basically, many professionals work with slightly longer exposure times than you are used to from daytime photography. There are two reasons for this: On the one hand, you can keep the ISO values low with a longer exposure time, which benefits the noise behavior. On the other hand, fireworks appear livelier with longer (between 2 and 10 seconds) exposure times. This is also due to the traces of light that come to light and bring dynamics into the picture.
You can simply disable the autofocus. Usually he can’t focus on an exploding missile fast enough. If there’s no fire in the sky, it’ll be poking around in the dark most of the time and won’t produce any reasonable results. Therefore: Auto focus off, manual focus on. For the first explosions, focus on the plane they are in. Then you can take care of the exposure time and the ISO value and be sure that the following firecrackers will still be sharp.
We want to shoot with a fairly long exposure time. This immediately leads to the next tip. Because for two seconds or more, nobody can hold their smartphone so still that there is no shaking. So it is clear that we have to stabilize the mobile phone. The silver bullet is a tripod with a cell phone holder. Such constructions promise maximum stability. If there is a lot of wind, you can weigh down many tripods with a weight so that the influence is also minimized.
If you don’t feel like lugging a tripod into the cold New Year’s Eve, you have to do something else. Storage areas such as walls, railings or tables and chairs offer some good alternatives to the tripod. But a road sign can also be used to stabilize. Press the smartphone sideways on the leg of the shield and bring calmness to the camera.
Extra tip: Gimbals are great alternatives to static stabilizers. With tiny motors, the intelligent tripods compensate for trembling or entire movements. In addition, many of the electronic helpers have a built-in remote trigger, which eliminates the need for shaky touching on the display. Another advantage of gimbals is that, in addition to stilling photos, they are also ideal for smooth video rides. With such a gimbal you kill two birds with one stone.
Tip 5: Lots of photos, lots of energy
When photographing fireworks, there is often a good deal of luck involved in getting a series of chic images. The motives change quickly and one can react to an event in detail. That is why patience and prudence is not the decisive factor here, but speed. So rather delete a few pics following the show than have five pics just past the event.
The whole thing costs a lot of energy and the smartphone will certainly be used for other things on New Year’s Eve. It is therefore recommended that one Power bank ready for following the fireworks. For many smartphones, 20 minutes of charging is enough to have enough energy for the rest of the night. A compact power bank is the energy bar that the smartphone needs following hard work at the fireworks.
Extra tip: Keep your eyes open and cell phone away
Shots of fireworks are sure to be spectacular images and look great on the wall at home. But there are often professional photographers and many other enthusiastic snappers, especially around the large central fireworks in German cities. So if you want to remember the fireworks, you can use these photographers. During this time you can enjoy the fireworks live and without a display between your eyes and the spectacle. Then you might have a little more to remember on New Year’s Eve.
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