Going to the fireworks is a relatively easy and stress-free experience. You rock up to a muddy field with your family and friends, stand around drinking over-priced mulled wine and stare into the sky for around 15 minutes.
But trying to take some not-embarrassing pictures to put on social media to prove you have a life and were having fun? Now that’s much more difficult.
Thankfully, the very helpful people at Samsung have come up with some genuinely useful tips to help you step up your Instagram fireworks game.
Step 1: A steady hand
The first and most important thing you need to know: stability is everything. Ideally, you should use a small tripod but if you don’t have access to such luxuries, just try sitting down or leaning against a solid structure.
Step 2: No flash
You should never, under any circumstances, use flash. Even though you’re in low light conditions, the flash won’t be able to light up enough of the sky to make a big impact. Results will be better without it and instead you’ll show the depth of colour needed for the perfect pic.
Step 3: No digital zoom
Sounds pretty basic but when it comes to fireworks, your camera will capture much more detail if you aren’t zoomed in.
Step 4: Get the settings right
First, HDR (High Dynamic Range) should be turned off because long exposure slows down the capture which won’t be ideal for burst shoot images.
ISO (sensitivity of the digital camera sensor) should be set to a low value such as 100 to reduce the chance of overexposure.
And you can adjust the aperture to fine tune the image brightness as it controls the light coming into the camera.
If all this sounds a bit scarily technical, just set all the settings to automatic and use exposure compensation functions to adjust the brightness of your images after you’ve taken them.
Step 5: Burst shoot
You should capture as many snaps as you can by using the burst shoot function.
Step 6: Try another angle
It sounds counter-intuitive but try pointing your camera away from the sky. Surprisingly, some of the best photos of fireworks are selfies with fireworks in the background.
(Images: iStock)
