Most of us take thousands of photos and videos each year on our smartphones, but no one may be as cool as the few fireworks that we can capture. With the festivities of July 4 in progress, the American sky is about to burst the colors of fireworks across the country. In fact, some fireworks shows already start early and will continue throughout the weekend.
If you plan to take pictures of the shiny sky, you will be happy to know that your favorite Android phone is more than capable of capturing the moment. However, the simple fact of pointing your phone’s camera on the sky and taking photos will not lead to the best results. You must change the camera settings of your phone and add accessories if you have them to get the perfect photo.
These are the best tips and tricks that every Android phone user should know the fireworks photos before the weekend of July 4.
Use a tripod for stabilization
Fireworks photos can be difficult to capture and for a good reason. When fireworks explode in the night sky, your phone tries to capture incredibly lively colors in a dark environment. Computer photography in smartphones is advanced, but it can always fight in situations like this. He must understand the amount of light to take while capturing moving objects.
Holding your stable phone is the most important way to make sure that your fireworks photos are not blurred or granular. If you have a tripod, you should use it. I prefer the mobile peak design tripod – it is compact and stable.
However, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to stabilize your phone camera. Find out if you have a telephone case with a berçonnerie, a battery bank that serves as a phone support or a telephone wallet that can support your device. Anything that can provide additional stabilization will do the trick, so use what you have. If you want to buy a dedicated solution, we have a guide for the best phone tripods.
In addition, if you have a rocking phone like the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 or Galaxy Z Flip 6, then you probably don’t need it, as you can simply place it on a flat surface and anxious the upper part of the screen. Large foldables such as the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold or Galaxy Z Fold 6 will work in the same way. It’s your own integrated tripod!
Manually control your exhibition
Lighting is the key to knowing if your phone takes great photos of fireworks or bad. This does not mean that you have to activate the flash – it will do more harm than good. Instead, you will need to manually control the exposure parameter of your phone. This will dictate the light that the camera captures, preventing overexposed and granular shots.
If it sounds difficult, don’t worry, this is not the case. In fact, you probably do it already. You can easily adjust the exposure by pressing and holding the brightest part of the screen in the viewfinder of your camera and looking at the self-corrective exposure. During a fireworks show, you will want to point the phone on the sky, press one of the fireworks that explode and lock the level of exhibition in place. In this way, you will only have to do it once for the whole show.
On a pixel phone, type and hold the brightest part of your screen until you see a locking icon appear will define the level of exposure. Samsung Galaxy users must press and maintain until the exposure user interface appears, where they can manually slide the exposure cursor and press the lock icon to adjust it. In this type of situation, less light (exhibition) is better – the fireworks will do the work to light the sky for you.
Use night or astrophotography modes
You may prefer to set your exposure manually, but alternately, night mode can be a easier way to prepare the camera for your phone for fireworks. Night modes are designed to extend the exposure time, which leads to a clearer image. This can be a good thing, but the longer exposure time means that stabilization is even more important – you will really want to use a tripod or a phone stand in this mode.
On a Google Pixel phone, you can activate the night mode by going into the application modes of the Pixel camera until you find Night show. Samsung Galaxy Phone users will have to slide until they see a More Tab, then press Night.
If your phone has a mode of astrophotography, you can try to capture photos of fireworks with this rocking. Some users have been very successful in taking fire to this mode, but it was really not designed for this purpose, so we would not recommend using it to all Your photos. We have a complete guide to pixel astrophotography mode.
Try Pro or Manual mode in the camera application of your phone
If you know your way around a camera, activating the pro or Manual mode in the camera application of your phone may be the best way to make sure you get the perfect photo. In these modes, you can define the ISO manually, modify the shutter speed and access orders at the expert level. On a Samsung Galaxy phone, you can slide towards More Tab and press Pro To activate it. Although there is no real pro mode on a Google Pixel phone, you can access Professional controls by pressing Equipment icon In the Pixel Camera application.
If you do not know what iso or balance whites, you should probably not use the pro or manual mode on your smartphone. It is best to stick to the simpler controls and exposure modes in this case. However, if you know these options, manual control can lead to photos of clearer and no longer criselian fireworks.
If in doubt, take a video
The last advice you should keep in mind when taking fireworks photos: in case of doubt, take a video. Videos are much more flexible than photos for several reasons. To start, you can take photos while Save your video, so you get the best of both worlds. It is also possible to take a specific framework from a video after the fact to be used as an autonomous photo. Finally, you can adjust the exposure when recording a video by pressing the screen.
For all these reasons, the videos could give you the best chance of getting an excellent photo if you are overwhelmed by all the parameters and options of this guide. This will simply give you more source material with which to work with, and sometimes finding the perfect fireworks are a set of figures.
Although there are a ton of large Android camera phones, the Google Pixel 9 series and the Galaxy S25 series are probably better suited to fireworks. The Pixel 9 has excellent nightlife and astrophotography modes, while the Galaxy S25 has the pro Superior camera mode.
Ideal for night photos
The Google Pixel 9 has a 50 MP main camera sensor which is excellent for capturing night photos and fireworks. You can use nighttime and astrophotography modes included to find the perfect image.
Professional mode packaging
The Samsung Galaxy S25 has a triple camera system with a large main sensor and a telephoto lens, so it will be perfect for fireworks. In addition, it has a pro mode that allows you to adjust your camera to your specific needs.