Nowadays, almost every single guest at your wedding will be carrying a smartphone with them. On top of that, they will likely be taking a lot of pictures with their built-in camera so they can share them on their favorite social media or photo sharing platform. This can be a really great asset since you can get a lot of great pictures from your guests in addition to the ones you get from your professional photographer. Most of the photo opportunities will be pretty straight forward and easy to capture on a smartphone camera, but there are a few exceptions to that concept. Most notably is the act of photographing sparklers with a smartphone which can prove difficult unless the conditions are just right.
The main issue with photographing sparklers with a smartphone camera is that you don’t have control over things like altering your shutter speed or exposure time. There are a few apps that do a decent job cloning these features, but they aren’t quite good enough to get the job done most of the time. Instead, you’ll need to make sure the conditions are right when you’re using your wedding sparklers so that they are easy to pick up on your smaller lenses. Here are a few tips to help you get great pictures of your wedding sparklers using almost any smartphone camera.
Proper Lighting When Photographing Sparklers with a Smartphone
When it comes to photographing sparklers with a smartphone, having a little bit of light is very important. It may seem like having everything pitch black around the person holding the burning wedding sparkler is the proper choice, but this can cause the camera to come in and out of focus. By having enough light, the lens can properly adjust itself to capture every single spark.
Surrounding Objects
Rather than just trying to capture the sparkler, try to get some of the surrounding details such as people, buildings, or other objects to give the camera something to lock onto. Since the sparks created by burning wedding sparklers are quite random and wild, having some stationary objects in the shot can be exactly what the doctor ordered when photographing sparklers with a smartphone and trying to keep things in focus.
Turn Off Flash Photographing Sparklers with a Smartphone
This one should go without saying, but using your flash will not yield a very good result when trying to take a picture of sparklers with a smartphone camera. There should be plenty of light created by the sparkler itself, and if you follow the other tips from above you shouldn’t have any issue seeing what’s happening on your phone’s screen.
Use an App
Though it won’t solve all the problems you face when trying to photograph sparklers, using an app to create a “slow shutter” effect will help you get the best photos possible. This will allow your phone to use the equivalent of a long exposure shot which is your best chance at picking up the details of the burning wedding sparklers.
Take Lots of Pictures
You should try to take a lot of pictures of the sparklers to get the perfect photo. Photographing sparklers with a smartphone is a bit touch and go, so volume is absolutely crucial. There is always success in numbers, so if you take a hundred pictures then you’re bound to get one or two that turn out fantastic.
Though not every guest’s phone will have a high enough quality camera to pull it off, taking pictures of wedding sparklers using a smartphone is definitely achievable with a high degree of success. Just make sure you have a lot of guests trying to take the photos and you should be okay. If all else fails, you can rest assured that your professional wedding photographer will get a few good pictures of your sparklers since they’ll be using something a little better quality than the camera found on most smartphones.
