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5 Easy Ways to Capture Fireworks with Your Phone

Fireworks have been an exciting part of summer for decades and one of the most anticipated Fourth of July events! Capturing the dazzling aerial displays with a smartphone has become part of the overall experience but can be a challenge if you rely solely on auto settings. We’ve rounded up a few tips to help you take stunning fireworks photos this Fourth of July. Use a Tripod When taking photos of fireworks, your phone’s camera needs to hold the shutter open; however, the longer the shutter is open, the more susceptible your photo is to motion blur. Using a tripod will ensure there will be no movement and will help your photos to be crisp. If you do not have a tripod, you can also keep your smartphone steady with the help of a chair or any other still object. Turn Off the Flash Even though you will be snapping photos at night, you will want to turn your flash off. This will let your phone’s camera know that it only has available light from the fireworks to take a photo. Use Burst Mode When fireworks explode, they are changing rapidly in the sky with the rising and falling of their bright colors. Using burst mode when taking pictures will take many pictures at once so you don’t miss a thing. When you finish taking the photo, you can go through each photo that was taken in short succession from each other and choose the best one. Turn off Phone’s HDR Many smartphone cameras include the HDR feature or High Dynamic Range. When you take a photo with HDR, your camera takes three photos at once with three different types of exposures, and then compiles that into one image to get what should be the ideal picture; meant to represent an image that is closer to what you see in real life rather than what the camera picks up in the different exposures. However, since fireworks are changing what they look like in real life rapidly, varying exposures of the fireworks alters what they look like even more. In the case of fireworks, HDR seems to do the opposite of what it was designed to do and changes what they actually look like in real life. To take more accurate pictures of fireworks, disable the HDR on your phone. Switch to Landscape Mode Setting your phone to landscape view instead of portrait will narrow what your camera lens can focus on. This incorporates both near and far objects into what the camera will focus on, which is great for taking pictures of fireworks because they are often at a great distance. Also, it creates more room for a horizon-style photo when multiple fireworks explode across the sky at once! The Difference is Clear You will also want to ensure your phone remains fully charged so you don’t miss a single moment. At The Wireless Experience, we offer premium mobile phone accessories like the Ventev Powerdash r900 Portable charger, perfect for keeping your phone charged all Fourth of July long! Stop by any of our 80 locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts or Maryland today.

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