Author Topic: How To: Light Trails  (Read 20901 times)

Offline Mr_F

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #30 on: 20 August 2012, 09:22 »
Nice one DubFan,

I did the gorilla pod round the headrest, was amazing to watch people slow down when they saw the lcd display on the back of the camera, some of the black cabs got a bit nervous!!!

Have a new wide angle lens, so want to see how that makes the shots, first attempt was sub-par so want to give it ago with the new lens.
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Panthera

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #31 on: 21 August 2012, 14:42 »
I had a go at this last year in London when I did some night photography (Eye, Tower Bridge, St Paul's etc) and I got this as my first real attempt. Its okay to start with, a good start I think, but I need to 'play more' and find a better location with a better flow of traffic...


Bigbenlights by djmhughesuk, on Flickr


Offline jonnym

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #32 on: 16 November 2012, 22:42 »
what shutter speeds do people use? Going to test this out tomorrow....

Offline Ridg

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #33 on: 17 November 2012, 10:02 »
what shutter speeds do people use? Going to test this out tomorrow....

Varies, let's say you're shooting the M25 at rush hour, there's going to be so many cars you'll need a shorter shutter speed otherwise the combination of all the head/tail lights will over expose the scene, if you're shooting say the M62 at midnight then you can use a longer shutter speed as there won't be as much traffic.

NB aperture, ISO and all affect the "required" shutter speed too.

Also consider other light sources when you zoom in or out too e.g. zooming in or out to remove say a lamp post / street light from the frame will change the amount of light hitting the sensor.

Best advice is put the camera in manual, shoot and try different settings till you're happy; if you don't have a remote shutter release set the camera to self timer as that will reduce camera shake from you pressing the button.

Offline T_J_G

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #34 on: 17 November 2012, 10:05 »
Another tip is to look at pics on Flickr and look at their EXIF data to see their settings.

Offline DubFan

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #35 on: 17 November 2012, 10:11 »
what shutter speeds do people use? Going to test this out tomorrow....

It depends on a) how busy the road is (you need a slower shutter speed to capture more car headlights if it's a quiet road) and b) how dark the street is (ie how much of the street will be sufficiently lit).

This shot below, was a 5 second shutter speed and even on Oxford Street I could have done with more traffic (for once).

Oxford Circus at Night by AlistairBeavis, on Flickr

This one was 8 seconds:

All Souls at Night by AlistairBeavis, on Flickr

This was taken at Dawn so just as the sun was coming up but still got decent trails in a 2 second exposure due to the amount of traffic.

fence trails by AlistairBeavis, on Flickr

Other points:
Both were taken in Shutter Priority (S-mode on my Sony, "Tv" mode on Canons I think), so that you pick shutter speed and the camera picks the relevant aperture. You could put your camera into full manual mode and pick your own aperture though.
Use a low ISO too (these were both ISO 100) because if you put it too high you'll get lots of grainy noise and could over-expose the shot with such a long shutter speed.
You'll also need to focus manually before you press the shutter.
If you don't have a remote shutter release, put the camera in self-timer mode, (2 sec delay is enough) so you don't wobble the camera when pressing the shutter.

Note: Take lots of shots and be prepared for 95% of them to be rubbish. You might get cars stopping in front of you, or not enough cars or the wrong settings.
(I took loads on Oxford Street and got plenty of wierd looks from people too)



LakerLover

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #36 on: 26 January 2013, 02:22 »
WOW started my first light trail about 2 hours ago on my Canon SLR and cant stop............. F**king loving it!! cant wait to get out and try it out!! Thanks guys!! Im buzzing  :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Offline VWhitehawk

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Re: How To: Light Trails
« Reply #37 on: 30 June 2014, 20:26 »




These were a couple i managed to get when I was messing around on holiday, the first one is on the bottom, not bad on a moving bus with no tripod...