Diwali 2025 is here, and this festival of lights transforms homes and streets into vibrant canvases of diyas, fireworks, and joyous gatherings. Capturing these fleeting moments with a smartphone can be both rewarding and challenging due to low light and fast-moving subjects. You have decked in your best clothes and jewelry and its only fair to be able to capture all of your celebratory moments perfectly.
Here are 10 practical tips to help you snap better Diwali photos and selfies this year.
1. Clean your lens for crisp shots
Start with a clean lens to ensure sharp images. Smudges and fingerprints can blur your photos, especially in low-light Diwali settings. Use a microfiber cloth to gently wipe your smartphone’s camera lens before shooting.
2. Shoot in high resolution
Maximise your phone’s potential by setting it to the highest resolution. Many smartphones, like the iPhone 16 Pro with its 48-megapixel main camera, default to lower resolutions to save storage. Switching to full resolution, enhances detail for vibrant Diwali shots.
3. Leverage golden hour lighting
Lighting is critical for festival photography. Avoid the harsh midday sun, which casts strong shadows. Instead, shoot during the golden hours, sunrise or sunset, for softer, warmer light that enhances colours and textures.
4. Position light sources wisely
Use diyas, fairy lights, or natural light to illuminate your subjects. Position people or objects so the light falls on them effectively, highlighting details like the flicker of a diya flame or the sparkle of rangoli.
5. Compose with intention
Frame your shots thoughtfully using composition techniques like the rule of thirds or leading lines. Avoid random snapshots by aligning diyas, people, or decorations to create visually compelling images.
6. Master focus and exposure
Tap your screen to set the focus point and adjust exposure for proper lighting. If your phone offers manual controls, use them to fine-tune brightness, especially in dim Diwali settings, to capture clear details.
7. Experiment with phone modes
Explore your phone’s modes like portrait, night, or Pro to suit different scenarios. Night mode is ideal for low-light diya shots, while portrait mode adds depth to close-ups of people or decorations.
8. Try creative angles
Move beyond eye-level shots. Capture diyas from ground level for dramatic perspectives or try overhead angles for rangoli or group shots. Macro shots of diya flames or fireworks can add variety.
9. Capture candid moments
The heart of Diwali lies in unscripted joy, people laughing, lighting sparklers, or sharing sweets. Photograph these natural interactions to tell authentic stories.
10. Edit with subtlety
Enhance your photos with editing apps to adjust colours, contrast, and sharpness. Keep edits minimal to avoid an artificial look, as over-processing can detract from the natural glow of Diwali.
Keep all of these smartphone tips in mind while taking photos this Diwali. Also, spend some time editing your photos before you upload them on social media. Try cropping the frame to remove all the unnecessary bits, edit your photos using the AI Editor (a tool available on most Android phones of today) to enhance brightness, remove unwanted objects, and make them pop a little more.
