7 ways to ensure you’ll get the most stunning fireworks photos with your phone

Happy Independence Day! Arguably the best day for fireworks is upon us.

If you’ve got an event you’re already planning on going to, to see some beautiful fireworks, make the most of it and set yourself up to take some truly great photos with these tips.

1. Make sure your phone is fully charged. You don’t want your phone to die right when the show begins.

2. Ensure you have room for the photos. This seems like an obvious tip, but who hasn’t positioned themselves to take the BEST photo ever, only to get a notification that your data is full?

3. Get to your spot early. You want to be sure you find the perfect location -- possibly a little less crowded, not in a spot where smoke from fireworks will crowd your view and where you'll have a perfect shot of the fireworks.

4. Turn the flash off and leave it that way. This will keep the shutter open longer, allowing it to capture the fireworks. Smartphones usually turn the flash on automatically during nighttime shots. However, when your phone flashes in the dark, it’s only lighting up objects in the immediate 5- to 10-foot vicinity, according to asurion.com, therefore underexposing things in the distance, like fireworks.

5. Turn off the high dynamic range, or HDR. This feature tells your camera to combine a series of shots at different exposures to combine them into a single shot. While it’s a great option for still shots with lots of different lighting, it can make for blurry images when you’re shooting something in motion, as each frame will look different.

6. Simply put, experiment. Switch views on your phone camera, try different positions and absolutely play with editing later. You never know how fantastic a shot might be after a few tweaks.

7. Look into different smartphone apps that might supercharge your phone’s ability to make your photos even more beautiful.

Plain and simple, you don’t have to be a professional photographer to get some amazing photos. Follow the aforementioned steps and you’ll be well on your way to getting some photos worth bragging about on Instagram.