I’m a professional photographer: Here’s how to get the best fireworks photos on your phone
July 4th, whether you are taking photos in the New Year, for another celebration, fireworks are always an amazing opportunity for photography. The bright light and vibrant colors contrast very well with the dark night sky, making your photos look beautiful and dramatic, and little effort on your part.
Taking photos at night was something you needed once, but today’s best camera phones, like the iPhone 16 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, and Galaxy S25 Ultra, can take stunning photos after dark. Even budget options like the Pixel 9a or Nothing Phone 3a can capture good looking images at night.
So here are my top tips as a professional photographer on how to take pictures of fireworks that will surprise your friends, whether you’re heading towards the explosion of your mobile phone or pointing to a mirrorless camera.
Try Night Mode
With most fireworks displays taking place at night at night, you’ll likely need to use the night mode of your phone to capture bright images. Like the iPhone 16 Pro, some phones have a night mode that automatically kicks when detected in the dark, while others may have a dedicated mode for taking photos at night. Before you go out to the show, see how to turn on night mode on your phone.
While the fireworks are not at all spectacular on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, filmed on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, this shot shows the importance of having more components in the scene than fireworks themselves.
Lock the exposure
Night mode will probably be the easiest way to get a good looking result with almost all effort, but that’s not entirely difficult. The main problem is trying to brighten the entire scene, which may not look good. These dark sky must remain dark because the fireworks themselves really stand out.
If your night mode shots look a little less glossy, press and hold the area of the image to lock the exposure, then use the slider to darken the image until you think it looks better. By locking such exposures, you will stop reverting to default after each image has been acquired. If your phone has PRO mode, you may manually set exposure to dark points.
Get creative with manual controls
Most phones should be able to get a good looking image with a little extra effort on your side, but you may also pay to be a little creative with the camera settings. One of my favorite tricks in fireworks photos is to use long exposures – perhaps a long 2 seconds – turns crisp fireworks into stripes of light in the sky. It has a very different look, but I really enjoy the abstract impression it gives.
Using a 1-second exposure allowed us to blur the fireworks movement and create this abstract result.
Some cameras have a pro mode that lets you manually control the shutter speed, but there are a variety of camera apps on both iOS and Android that offer this feature. My suggestion? Play around with your settings and see what you do to your image when you press the shutter button – you may be surprised how much you like the effect.
Place your hands steady
Even if you are using Night Mode, if you want sharp images, it’s important to keep your phone stable. Just hold it tight and you can make all the difference. Hold the phone with both hands and push your elbows in to give you a strong, stable stance. Try taking multiple photos each time, as at least one is more likely to be great and sharp.
It’s not necessarily convenient, but if you can put your phone or camera on a tripod, I’d appreciate the extra effort it took to carry that extra gear.
Think about the composition
Taking your own fireworks photo in the sky may look very cool, but thinking about the composition within the shot can make your image even more impressive. Try including foreground details, like others enjoying the exhibitions and interesting buildings and food stands. By including ground features, it gives the fireworks overhead a context of size, making it look even larger and grander when compared.
I loved putting this embraced couple in the bottom half of my frame. It tells the story of people who enjoy fireworks as well as those who enjoy them.
I’ll take a photo live and edit it later
While phones may capture a good looking shot with just the tap of the shutter button, post-processing with apps like Google Snap and Adobe Lightroom often makes all the difference. On my iPhone 16 Pro, I shoot with Proraw. This gives you more control over the color and contrast of the image later.
It even introduces clarity to the image, which can adjust the white balance to suit the scene, increase contrast, and even introduce clarity to the image, which can help brighter details in the sky pop out even more into the sky. There’s no right or wrong way to edit images, so my best advice is to play around with the sliders in the editing app of your choice and see what you can come up with.