How to take amazing pics of fireworks on your phone

There’s one benefit of the clocks going back and the nights drawing in faster: fireworks. Nothing is more Insta-impressive than a firework photos packed with multicoloured bursts of flying light. But it’s hard to capture the true magic of what’s happening in the night sky on your camera phone.

So, here are some top tips. Whether you’re snapping close-ups of sparklers, or a display high above you, we can help you polish your pyrotechnic pics.

The quickest way to improve your fireworks photos is to tilt your phone 90 degrees to Landscape. This tells your phone to set its camera focus to ‘infinity’ and open the lens nice and wide.

When the flash is ‘on’, your phone will be geared up for high levels of light. So, your pics will come out really dark, or completely black. And if something’s directly in front of you, the flash will light them up and ignore the background. Which isn’t great for firework shots. If you have the option to switch off HDR, that will help too.

If your camera is in automatic mode, it will automatically adjust light levels, focus, sharpness, etc. to create the best possible shot.

Google Pixel 4 has one of the best smartphone cameras ever, and it doesn’t even come with a manual mode. Night Sight automatically sets the camera up for stunning low-light shots, so you can capture the bold and bright colours you’ll be seeing on Bonfire Night

Like the Pixel 4, when you launch the camera on iPhone 11, it determines whether it’s dark enough to activate Night Mode. In the corner, you’ll see a yellow oval with the number of seconds the iPhone needs to capture the photo. All you have to do, is tap the shutter and hold as still as possible. You’ll end up with brighter night shots with minimal image noise.

The Huawei P30 Pro has a top of the range camera that can handle anything you throw at it. If you love a good spec, it’s a: Leica quad camera system with a 40MP main camera, 20MP ultra-wide angle camera and 8MP telephoto camera. Did you get that? Put simply, tech reviewers everywhere, rave about the camera on the P30 Pro. So, if bonfire night is your bag, you’re in for a treat. There are lots of creative shooting modes. If you select the Light Painting mode and choose Light Graffiti, you’ll be able to capture flowing fireworks brilliantly.

To slow the shutter speed on an Android phone, open the camera settings to see ‘Pro’ or ‘Manual’ mode. Here you can fiddle with the shutter speed and the ISO to set them both as low as possible. It varies model by model, so check your phone manual to find out how to do it on yours.

If you can’t adjust your settings on your Android phone manually, you can download Camera Pro for Android for £2.49.

Sit down, lean against something, or even get yourself a tripod. If your shots are going to be slowed down, you’ll need to stay really still.

While you’re photographing the fireworks, hold your finger on the ‘shutter’ button to take a series of shots in one burst. It might just capture the perfect moment you’ve been looking for.

So, here’s hoping you get all the shots you need. Don’t wander too close to the bonfire, or burn your mouth on that toffee apple, and have the best time. We’re looking forward to seeing your shots.