How to Photograph Fireworks: Camera and Phone Settings That Work in 2026

We love watching fireworks shows, whether that’s the Fourth of July here in the USA, or Hogmanay back in Edinburgh, where we lived for four years. I’ve also been photographing them for over fifteen years as a professional travel photographer, at everything from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo to New Year celebrations around the world. Every photo in this guide is one I took myself, with the exact settings I used listed underneath.

Photographing fireworks is a pretty unique challenge, even for a professional. They happen quickly, the light changes rapidly, it’s dark and can be smoky, and it’s very easy to miss the shot through lack of preparation. Many people come home from a fun fireworks display to find themselves disappointed with blurry, fuzzy, or overexposed fireworks photos.

We’re here to help you change that. Most people are shooting fireworks on a phone these days, so we’ll cover that in detail, as well as everything you need to know to get great fireworks photos with a dedicated camera.

 

Quick Answer: Fireworks Settings That Work

If you’re reading this an hour before the show starts, here’s the short version.

On a camera: manual mode, shutter speed between 0.5 and 3 seconds, aperture f/8, ISO 100, manual focus set to infinity, and the camera on a tripod. Shoot RAW, get your best shots early in the display before the smoke builds, and adjust from there.

On a phone: turn the flash off, hold the phone steady (a pocket tripod, a wall, or a railing all work), and use the long exposure feature that’s already built into your phone. That’s Live Photos with the Long Exposure effect on an iPhone, the Motion mode on a Google Pixel, or Pro mode on a Samsung Galaxy. You don’t need to buy an app.

Here’s how that breaks down by what you’re holding:

What you’re shooting with	Method	Starting settings
Camera on a tripod	Full manual, RAW	0.5 to 3 seconds, f/8, ISO 100, focus at infinity
Camera, handheld	Manual, faster shutter	1/15 to 1/60 second, widest aperture, ISO 1600 and adjust
iPhone	Live Photos + Long Exposure effect	Flash off, Night mode off, hold very steady
Google Pixel	Camera app, Motion tab, Long Exposure	Flash off, brace the phone
Samsung Galaxy	Pro mode	Shutter 1 to 4 seconds, ISO 100 to 400, brace or tripod
Older or budget phone	Free manual camera app	Shutter 0.5 to 5 seconds, ISO as low as it goes

The rest of this guide goes through each of these in detail, along with my tips for what to look out for, and how to fix your shots when they aren’t working out mid-display.

 

How to take Pictures of Fireworks with a Phone

Let’s start with the device most people will actually be holding when the show starts.

The biggest change since we first wrote this guide is that you no longer need a special app to take good fireworks photos on a phone. When we originally published it, the standard advice was to download a third-party camera app so you could control the shutter speed manually. That was true in 2019. It isn’t any more. Recent iPhones, Google Pixels, and Samsung Galaxy phones all ship with a long exposure option built in, and for fireworks, the built-in route is both easier and usually better.

Each brand does hide it in a different place though, so find yours below, and practice getting to it before it gets dark.

 

iPhone: Use Live Photos and the Long Exposure Effect

The iPhone’s standard camera app still doesn’t let you set a shutter speed manually. What it does have is a rather clever workaround: Live Photos can be converted into a long exposure after the fact.

Here’s how it works:

• Make sure Live Photos is on. That’s the icon of concentric circles at the top of the camera app. If it has a line through it, tap it.
• Turn the flash off, and don’t use Night mode. Night mode disables Live Photos, so if your iPhone keeps trying to switch it on, tap it off.
• Take your photos as the fireworks explode, holding the phone as steady as you possibly can. Better still, prop it against something solid.
• Afterwards, open the photo in the Photos app, tap the “Live” badge in the top left corner, and choose “Long Exposure”.

The phone blends the few seconds of the Live Photo into a single image, and the fireworks turn into those lovely light trails across the sky. It’s a simulated exposure of around three seconds rather than a true long exposure, so it won’t quite match what a camera on a tripod can do, but the results can be surprisingly good. The feature is a bit hidden away, which probably explains why so few people seem to know it exists.

 

Google Pixel: Use the Long Exposure Motion Mode

Pixel owners have it easiest of all. Open the camera app, swipe along to the Motion tab, and choose Long Exposure. That’s it. The phone blends multiple frames for you and produces the light-trail effect directly, no editing step required.

One thing to know: Night Sight, the Pixel’s low-light mode, is designed for dark scenes where nothing is moving. Fireworks are the opposite of that, and Night Sight will tend to smear the moving bursts into mush. Use the Long Exposure mode for the fireworks themselves, and save Night Sight for photos of your group afterwards.

 

Samsung Galaxy: Use Pro Mode

Samsung takes the most camera-like approach, and it’s the one I know best, as my own phone is a Galaxy S23 Ultra. The built-in camera app has a Pro mode (swipe to “More” if you can’t see it) which gives you manual control over shutter speed and ISO, just like a real camera. Exact limits vary by model, but my S23 Ultra will happily do multi-second exposures in Pro mode, as will most recent Galaxy phones.

For fireworks, set the shutter speed to between 1 and 4 seconds, the ISO to somewhere between 100 and 400, and the focus to the far distance. At those shutter speeds you’ll want the phone braced against something or on a small tripod, exactly as you would with a camera.

If you have a recent flagship Galaxy, it’s also worth downloading Samsung’s free Expert RAW app from the Galaxy Store, which adds RAW capture for much more editing flexibility afterwards.

 

Older Phones: Use a Free Manual Camera App

If your phone is older, or a budget model without any of the above, the 2019 advice still applies: you’ll want an app that lets you set the shutter speed manually.

On Android, we recommend Open Camera, which is free, has no ads, and offers manual shutter control on any phone whose hardware supports it. On iPhone, VSCO Capture is a free standalone camera app with manual shutter and ISO controls. (We used to recommend the main VSCO app for this, but most of its manual tools have since moved behind a subscription.)

Whichever app you use, set the shutter speed to between 0.5 and 5 seconds, the ISO as low as it will go, and adjust as you go to suit the quantity of fireworks in the sky.

 

Phone Tips That Apply Whatever You’re Shooting On

A few things make a big difference on any phone.

First, stability. You will get noticeably better fireworks photos if you can keep the phone still during the exposure. A small tabletop tripod like this Vanguard (which comes with a smartphone mount) weighs very little and fits in a jacket pocket. Failing that, brace the phone on a wall, a railing, or against a lamp post. Your hands alone are the worst option, although the iPhone and Pixel modes above are built to tolerate a bit of wobble.

Second, disable the flash. Your phone will helpfully conclude the scene is dark and try to brighten it up. The flash won’t make any difference to fireworks several hundred metres away, but it will illuminate the heads of the people in front of you, which is rarely the look you’re after.

Third, set your focus before the show starts. Phones (and cameras) struggle to focus on a dark, empty sky. Tap to focus on something distant and bright, like a floodlit building or the moon, or use your app’s manual focus set to infinity.

 

Phone Settings Cheat Sheet for Firework Photography

To help you remember the above, here’s the quick list, plus a handy image you might want to pin for later reference.

• Steady the phone: pocket tripod, wall, or railing
• Flash off
• iPhone: Live Photos on, Night mode off, then apply the Long Exposure effect afterwards
• Pixel: Motion tab, Long Exposure mode
• Samsung: Pro mode, shutter 1 to 4 seconds, ISO 100 to 400
• Older phone: free manual camera app, shutter 0.5 to 5 seconds, ISO low
• Focus set in advance, on something distant
• Shoot early in the display, before the smoke builds

 

How to Photograph Fireworks with a Camera

Now for photographing fireworks with a camera like a DSLR, mirrorless, or point and shoot camera. This is where you can get the shots a phone still can’t quite manage: true long exposures, full control of the light, and RAW files with plenty of editing headroom.

 

Equipment you need to Photograph Fireworks

The two main things you need to photograph fireworks are a camera with manual settings, and a tripod.

The majority of DSLR cameras and mirrorless cameras have full manual settings, meaning you can adjust things like shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. Some compact cameras also have manual settings. If they don’t have full manual settings, then check to see if they have a fireworks mode.

If you have a camera with interchangeable lenses, I suggest you pick the widest angle lens you have (unless the fireworks are going to be very far away). This will let you get more of the scene in, and capture all the fireworks in their full glory.

The exception to this rule is if you want to try and get a foreground subject into your composition, and use lens compression to make it seem closer to the fireworks, in which case you’ll want more of a telephoto lens.

As well as a camera, we highly recommend a tripod for the best fireworks photos. You will be shooting at slow shutter speeds, meaning it’s going to be hard to hold the camera still in your hands. Hand holding at these slower shutter speeds will result in blurry pictures as a result of your hands moving, and a tripod will solve this problem. I’ve been using a Peak Design Travel Tripod for the last few years (I’ve used their gear since 2015), but any stable tripod will do the job. See our guide to the best travel tripods for options across a range of budgets.

Finally, this isn’t essential, but a remote shutter release can be useful. These let you trigger the camera’s shutter without physically pressing the button, which further reduces the risk of camera movement ruining the shot. If your camera has Bluetooth or WiFi, the manufacturer’s own app (Canon Camera Connect, for example) will do the same job for free, and failing either of those, the camera’s 2 second timer works too.

 

Camera Settings for Fireworks Photography

We recommend putting your camera into full manual mode for fireworks photography if you can. The light conditions are going to be changing very quickly as the fireworks launch and explode, and this will likely overwhelm your camera’s automatic functions.

Manual mode will let you control all the key settings on your camera that are essential to getting the correct exposure: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. If you don’t have full manual controls, then I’d recommend a mode that lets you set the shutter speed.

For fireworks photography, the exact settings you need for each of these will vary depending on how many fireworks are in the air, and if there are any foreground objects that are illuminated or creating light.

As a general starting point though, I’d suggest an ISO of between 100 and 400, a shutter speed of 0.5 to 3 seconds, and an aperture around f/8.

This gives you quite a lot of room to play with. If you find that your shots are coming out a little bit too dark, you can reduce the aperture to be f/5.6, and / or increase the ISO.

Adjusting the shutter speed will have a dramatic impact on how your final image looks. Shooting fireworks is similar to other long exposure photography. The longer you have the shutter open, the more of the movement of the fireworks you will capture, resulting in those lovely light trails across the sky.

Of course, you have to be careful with this effect. The longer the shutter is open, the more light you will capture, and it is easy to overexpose the shots. In addition, if there are a lot of fireworks in the sky at once, the light trails can blend together into one big mess.

My advice is to start from a baseline for your first shot, and then adjust the settings as you go depending on the quantity of fireworks, and the results you are getting.

The other key camera setting you will want to think about is focus. Ideally, your camera will have a manual focus option, which will let you set the focus once and then not have to worry about it.

This can be challenging in a dark environment, but you will likely find that setting the focus to the infinity option or just before it will work just fine, as the fireworks are likely to be some distance away.

Finally, you will want to shoot in RAW if your camera supports it. This will give you much greater control over your images when you edit them using one of our recommended photo editing applications.

Here are some fireworks photos shot on my Canon 6D DSLR camera and the associated settings to give you some ideas. I shoot on a mirrorless Canon R5 these days, but the settings work exactly the same way on any camera with manual controls.

 

 

 

Camera Settings Cheat Sheet for Fireworks

Here’s a quick cheat sheet to help you remember your fireworks photography camera settings.

• Camera in manual mode
• Camera set to RAW
• Shutter speed set to between 0.5 seconds and 3 seconds
• Aperture set to f/5.6 – f/8
• ISO set to 100 – 400
• Focus set to infinity (or close to!)
• Use a remote shutter release, or camera on 2 second timer
• Disable the built-in flash if the camera has one

That should get you started, but do review your photos as you go to be sure they are turning out as you want, and adjust as necessary as the sky changes. Here’s an image you can use to remember the above.

 

Firework Photography Tips

Taking photographs of fireworks is definitely challenging. Based on my many experiences shooting fireworks, I wanted to share some tips to help you get the best shots.

 

Tip 1 – Find a foreground subject

Whilst fireworks are quite pretty, I find that the best fireworks photos have something else in the shot to give context and scale. This could be the silhouette of a building, people, or something else in the scene that gives the viewer something else to catch their eye in the photo.

If you think of major fireworks festivals around the world for New Year’s Eve, the most iconic photos tend to have something else in the shot beyond the fireworks, such as the London Eye, Sydney Harbor Bridge, a boat, or Edinburgh Castle.

So definitely try and compose your shot to include something as well as the fireworks themselves – even if it’s a crowd of people.

Of course, we appreciate this isn’t always possible, so don’t worry if you can’t find any fun foreground – just work on your technique and get some great shots of the fireworks by themselves!

 

Tip 2 – Get your focus right in advance

Most cameras struggle to focus automatically in low light situations, and you don’t want to be waiting for the camera to hunt for its focus point when the fireworks display starts. This is especially the case for shorter fireworks displays.

As such, we advise that you set your camera to manual focus, with the focus set to the furthest distance it will go – on most cameras this will be marked as infinity. On Canon cameras, we’ve found that setting the focus dial on the lens to just before infinity works best.

 

Tip 3 – Zoom out further than you expect

One lesson I’ve learnt from shooting fireworks is that when I initially set up my camera, I tend to zoom in too much. As soon as the fireworks start shooting up into the sky, you may realise the fireworks are taking up more of the sky than you have in shot. This means you’ll have to zoom out and potentially recompose and refocus the shot – things that can lose you critical time.

My suggestion therefore, assuming you have a camera or lens that has a zoom function, is to zoom out as far as you can. You can always crop your images, or zoom in a bit as the show progresses.

 

Tip 4 – Be aware of the smoke

As the name suggests, fireworks involve fire, and fire means that there’s also going to be smoke.

This smoke can really affect the images you get, especially as the display progresses and there’s more and more of it from successive firework launches.

It’s hard to predict how the smoke will affect your images, as it will depend on weather and wind conditions, as well as the volume and type of the fireworks being launched. However, in our experience, the smoke generally builds up throughout the display, so the clearest photos will be achieved earlier on in the display.

As the display progresses, you might find yourself having to increase the shutter speed so as to pick out individual sparks in the sky, and to compose your image high above the launch point rather than having a big mess of white smoke which won’t look very good.

Compare these two shots of a fireworks display taken from the same location, one near the start, and one near the middle of the fireworks display. The castle in the shot is clear in the first image, but it was quickly obscured by the smoke in the later shot.

 

 

Tip 5 – Be prepared to change camera settings very quickly

A fireworks display is one of the more challenging photography environments you can try to take photos of. The amount of light available can change dramatically from moment to moment, and you’ll be operating your camera largely in the dark.

It’s really important therefore to know how to quickly adjust the key settings of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, and to be prepared to change them if your shots aren’t working out. If they’re too bright, you’ll want to increase the shutter speed, reduce the aperture size, or reduce the ISO. If they’re too dark, you’ll do the opposite.

On a compact camera without such fine grained controls, your best option will likely be to manually adjust the ISO if that’s an option. Alternatively, you can try some of the other modes the camera offers to see if these give better results. Try switching between landscape and portrait for example, to see if this helps.

Towards the end of the fireworks show, the volume of fireworks going into the sky tends to increase, meaning there is going to be more and more light. You’ll want to compensate for this by either increasing the aperture, reducing the shutter speed, or reducing the ISO.

This photo is an example of how you can easily overexpose a fireworks photo if you’re not careful.

 

Tip 6 – Mix it up with shorter and longer exposure shots

Not every photo of fireworks has to be a longer exposure shot. There are lots of different types of fireworks, and some of them leave long trails in the sky that you can capture without a long exposure.

These shots can even be shot hand held without a tripod. You just need to open your aperture as wide as possible, and if necessary increase the ISO.

The example of the shot below for example was taken at a relatively fast (for night time anyway!) shutter speed of 1/80th of a second, but you can still see a lot of the firework, which has left lovely trails across the sky.

 

Tip 7 – Try stacking multiple bursts into one image

Here’s a trick the pros use for those impossibly full skies you see in competition-winning fireworks photos: they’re often several photos combined.

If you keep your camera on a tripod in exactly the same position for the whole display, you can blend your favourite bursts together afterwards. In Photoshop (or any editor that supports layers), load your chosen frames as layers and set the blend mode of each upper layer to Lighten. Each layer then only adds the bright parts of its image, which means the fireworks accumulate while the sky stays dark. Five minutes of editing, and you have every good burst of the night in a single frame.

This only works if the camera didn’t move between shots, which is one more argument for the tripod.

 

Tip 8 – Don’t forget to edit your photos!

As with any photo, we highly advise taking the time to edit your fireworks photos to get the most out of them. If you’re shooting in RAW, this is going to be mandatory anyway, but even if you’re shooting on a smartphone or shooting JPG files you’ll be able to improve your photos by running them through an app like Snapseed.

We use Lightroom to edit our RAW files, and Snapseed (free on iOS and Android) to edit our mobile files. There are lots of software options though, and we’ve put together a guide to our favourite photography editing applications here to give you some ideas.

 

Fixing Common Fireworks Photo Problems

Fifteen years of shooting fireworks has taught us most of the ways these photos can go wrong. If your shots aren’t working mid-display, this is the fix list. Almost every fireworks photo problem can be fixed by changing one setting.

The problem	The likely cause	The fix
Photos are washed out or pure white	Too much light: shutter open too long, or too many bursts at once	Shorten the shutter speed to around 1 second, check ISO is at 100, or close the aperture to f/11
Photos are too dark	Not enough light reaching the sensor	Open the aperture to f/5.6, or raise the ISO a stop. Lengthening the shutter also works if the trails aren’t already too busy
Everything is blurry	Camera shake, or focus hunting in the dark	Check focus is set to infinity, then get the camera braced or on a tripod. Handheld? Keep the shutter at 1/30 or faster
Photos look hazy or foggy	Smoke build-up (not your camera’s fault!)	You can’t fix the smoke, so work around it: frame higher above the launch point, and prioritise shots early in the display
Trails look like tangled scribbles	Shutter open across too many overlapping bursts	Shorten the shutter speed, especially during the finale when the sky is at its busiest

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Photographing Fireworks

Over the years we’ve had plenty of fireworks questions from readers and from students on my travel photography course. Here are the ones that come up most often.

 

What are the best camera settings for fireworks?

Start with manual mode, a shutter speed of 0.5 to 3 seconds, an aperture of f/8, ISO 100, and manual focus set to infinity, with the camera on a tripod. Shoot in RAW if your camera supports it.

From that baseline, adjust as the display develops: shorten the shutter speed if shots are too bright or the sky is crowded with bursts, and open the aperture to f/5.6 or raise the ISO if shots are too dark.

 

How do you photograph fireworks with an iPhone?

Turn on Live Photos, turn off the flash and Night mode, hold the phone as steady as you can (or prop it on something), and take your shots as the fireworks explode. Then open each photo in the Photos app, tap the “Live” badge, and choose “Long Exposure” to turn the burst into light trails.

The standard iPhone camera app doesn’t offer manual shutter control, so this Live Photos route is the best built-in option. For true manual control you’ll need a third-party camera app.

 

How do you photograph fireworks without a tripod?

Use a faster shutter speed than the classic long-exposure recipe: somewhere between 1/15 and 1/60 of a second, with the aperture as wide as your lens allows, and the ISO at around 1600 to start. You won’t get the long light trails, but you’ll get sharp, dramatic bursts.

Also look for anything you can brace the camera or phone against: a wall, a railing, a lamp post, or even a friend’s shoulder. On phones, the built-in long exposure modes are designed to cope with a little hand wobble, so they’re still worth trying handheld.

 

Why are my fireworks photos blurry?

Blurry fireworks photos have one of two causes: the focus wasn’t right, or the camera moved during the exposure.

Fix the focus by setting it manually to infinity before the show starts, rather than letting the camera hunt in the dark. Fix the movement with a tripod or by bracing the camera, or by using a faster shutter speed if you’re shooting handheld.

 

Why do my fireworks photos look hazy or foggy?

That haze is almost always smoke from the fireworks themselves. It builds up steadily as the display goes on, especially on still nights, and there’s nothing your camera settings can do to remove it.

The solution is timing: take your most important shots in the first few minutes of the display, before the smoke accumulates. If the smoke has already built up, compose higher above the launch point where the air is clearer.

 

Can you photograph fireworks in auto mode?

You can, but the results are usually disappointing. Auto mode reads the dark sky, concludes it needs more light, and picks settings that overexpose the fireworks and blur their movement.

If your camera has a dedicated fireworks scene mode, that’s a better bet. On phones, the built-in long exposure features (Live Photos on iPhone, Motion mode on Pixel) do the thinking for you and beat auto mode comfortably.

 

When during a fireworks display should you take photos?

Early. The first few minutes give you the cleanest air before smoke builds up, and the pacing is usually slower, which means individual bursts stand out nicely against a dark sky.

The finale looks amazing in person but is actually the hardest part to photograph: the sky fills with overlapping bursts and smoke, and long exposures turn into a bright tangle. If you’re shooting the finale, shorten your shutter speed considerably.

 

What lens should I use for fireworks?

The widest lens you have, in most cases. Fireworks fill more of the sky than you expect, and a wide angle lets you capture the full spread plus some foreground for context. You can always crop in later.

The exception is when you’re a long way from the display, or you want to use lens compression to bring a foreground subject and the fireworks closer together, in which case a telephoto is the right choice.

 

Further Reading

We hope that this post has given you everything you need to know to take better photos of fireworks. If you’re interested in learning more photography techniques, we’ve put together a number of posts which we think you’ll find helpful.

• If you’d like a new camera to take pictures of an upcoming fireworks display, we have a detailed guide to the best travel cameras, as well as specific guides for the best compact camera, best mirrorless camera and best DSLR camera.
• If you have a camera but would like a new lens, we have a guide to the best camera lenses
• We have a lot of photography tips posts which will help you develop your photography skills. To start with, check out our guides to northern lights photography, lens compression, long exposure photography, snow photography, RAW in photography, use of ND filters, depth of field and photography composition, which should get you going
• Ever wondered how to replace the sky in a photo? We have a complete guide to sky replacement for you to check out. We also have a guide to the best photo editing applications.
• We also have a guide to why you need a tripod, and a guide to choosing a travel tripod
• Finally, if you want to improve your photography overall, you can join over 2,500 students on my travel photography course. I’ve been running this since 2016, and it has helped lots of people take their photography to the next level. Including learning how to use photo editing software properly!

And that’s it for our guide to taking photos of fireworks on both a camera and smartphone! As always, we’re happy to hear your feedback or questions – just pop them in the comments below.