July 4th Fireworks Photo Tips
I have one perfect tip for you
Happy Birthday America and welcome to what will be some of the greatest fireworks shows of recent times, coinciding with the America 250 celebrations.
Many of you will want to grab your phone and get great photos to share with your friends on social media. Many of you will take them, but never get around to doing anything with them, but that’s another story.
I’ve been advising people how to get great fireworks shots with your phone for years, and let me tell you, it’s gotten way easier. I no longer have to recommend specialized apps to slow the exposure, tripods or any other accessories. And for most folks who don’t know their way around manual settings on a big camera, they’ll get way better photos with their phones.
Basics: Don’t even think of using your flash, because it’s worthless in most situations, especially when photographing the night skies. Turn off Night Mode or Night Sight if it’s on, because it will slow down the process and produce blurry photos. Use the .5 or 1x lens on your phone to get a wider view of the fireworks. You won’t need closeups. Try to also focus on the people in the crowd, and try to have an object in the foreground, so we see the fireworks blasting by it, which makes the shot more interesting.
Now I have one perfect tip for everyone. Ready? This works great on any phone, whether that be an iPhone, Galaxy or Pixel.
When you get to the fireworks location, grab yourself a good spot with a nice clean view of the skies. If there’s someone in front of you, don’t worry too much about it. Just hold the phone a little higher, over their heads. Don’t worry, there’s lots of space up in the skies.
Now, to make sure you don’t miss anything, focus first on shooting video of the fireworks. Make several video clips, in 15-30 second bursts that will look great on social media. I usually advise to ditch vertical video, because you lose too much of the image on the sides, but in this case, you can get great vertical shots, since that’s the direction the fireworks are going anyway.
The second part of the tip: did you know you could snap photos at the exact same time as you are making video clips?
Again, on the iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel, once you press the red record button on your phone in video mode, a little white button appears on the screen, and if you click that, you get simultaneous photos and video. What you won’t hear is the shutter making an audible snap, but that’s okay. Trust me—this works.
(Thanks Rich DeMuro for inviting me to chat about this on KTLA this week!)
But How’s the Quality?
The snap you take of the fireworks isn’t at the full resolution you’d get from photo mode, but do you care? Were you planning on making a big 20x30 canvas print of it? I’m guessing no, you were planning to post to social media, in conjunction with some video clips, where it will look just fine.
How to get Better Quality
Make sure you set the camera to film at 4K, which will give you the best resolution. Your stills have be higher quality than if you shot at 1080p, for instance. And consider shooting on Live Photos (Apple) or Motion Photos (Android,) if quality is a concern.
With Live/Motion, you get 3 seconds of added video with every photo you snap, and the photos are at full resolution, with the added benefit of mobile technology. When you snap a photo on an iPhone, Pixel or Galaxy, nine shots are taken at the same time, at different exposure levels and merged into one miraculously. They will look better than the video snaps, but again, I don’t think you’ll want to go to the bother of this. The video snaps will suit most people just fine.
I’m around all day Saturday if you have any questions about fireworks shots. Just click below and get in touch.
Where I would go to see the Fireworks if I Could
San Francisco in a heartbeat. For only the third time in 75 years, the city of San Francisco is going to send fireworks into the sky against the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge, the most iconic bridge anywhere, IMHO and I want that shot!
I love the GG Bridge with all my heart—it’s the subject of what I think is the best episode of Photowalks to date.
However, I’m not willing to go through the pain associated with getting the shot. Parking lots will be closed, neighborhoods shut down, hotels have jacked up rates (my favorite San Francisco hotel, the Columbus Motor Inn, is asking $380 for the night!) and it sounds like a madhouse just for one photo.
I’ll have to be satisfied with seeing your photos, Bay Area residents. Send me your best shots, OK?
iPhone Photography Award Winners
The latest edition of the iPhone Photography Awards were announced this week, and as always, feature great work. How about the above photo of a erupting volcano, shot on the iPhone 15 Pro?
Even if I always seem to be advocating for the latest editions of the phone, for the best quality videos and photos, CNET notes that only seven of the 40 winning photos in the main categories were shot on an iPhone 17 Pro, the most current model.
So what do I know?
Happy Birthday, America
The 250th celebration of the founding of the United States has been commercialized and politicized, leaving a bad taste in many people’s mouths.
But let me just say that I learned a lot criss-crossing the country in the last year, and if you can drown out the noise, just know that it was some amazing stuff the founding fathers went through to fight the King and create their own country. If you have the chance to visit the key locations where George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and the rest of the gang fought for seven long years to make the USA a reality, I highly recommend it. Many of the places they spent time in strategizing are still standing, all these years later.
(Yes, they were horrible to natives and people of color, but that’s another story.)
In the last calendar year, I’ve visited all the key America 250 spots, from Boston, Providence, Newport, New Haven and New York, to Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Alexandria, VA, Charleston, SC, Savannah and St. Augustine, Florida. (I got to 9 of the 13 colonies: sorry Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey and North Carolina, I’ll catch you next time.)
I put a 90-minute compilation of the trip together for your viewing pleasure. Just click above to watch.
Sunday on Photowalks: Fairbanks, Alaska
We’ve got the first of our four-part Alaska series kicking off Sunday, with part 1 from Fairbanks, Alaska.
If you’re not up on Fairbanks, it’s in the interior of the state, serves as a gateway to Denali National Park and is best known for really long summer days, really cold winters and amazing night skies during that time. We were there during the summer solstice (22 hours of sunlight) and all the fests that accompanied the once a year event.
The show debuts Sunday at 10 a.m. ET on Scripps News, and will be seen on YouTube after that.
Thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen. Happy 4th, Happy birthday America and remember that if you enjoyed this edition, please share it with a friend. It really helps.
Jeff