Light Trail Advice Question

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chrisb1357

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Hi all,

I am looking on what best settings to use to try and get some good light trails from a motorway bridge at dusk or night. I have a Canon 350D, Shutter cable and tripod.

Thanks
Chris
 
Small aperture and long shutter speeds.
 
Garry79 said:
Small aperture and long shutter speeds.
Click to expand...

^^ what he says :p

Low ISO too - helps you get longer shutter speeds, the length of exposure you want depends on how light it is, how much of a trail you want really.

Av Mode
ISO 100
F 16

Should give you something :)
 
what settings would you have the AF Mode and Metering Mode.

At the minute i have them set at AI Servo and Centre Focus but have never used any others before. Would you suggest changing these settings

Thaks
Chris
 
Hi Chris

Is this what you mean

I took this on a motorway Bridge over looking Botany Bay Chorley Click For Larger Image



Canon Eos 400D
Tripod
Cable Release
Bulb in manual mode
manual focus
Exposure: 30 sec
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100

HTH

Dave
 
chrisb1357 said:
what settings would you have the AF Mode and Metering Mode.

At the minute i have them set at AI Servo and Centre Focus but have never used any others before. Would you suggest changing these settings

Thaks
Chris
Click to expand...

I would go with manual focus to be honest, if it is dark you might find you lens "searching" for a focus point, and it wont fire if it can't lock onto anything. I would set it to manual and try and pick a nice midway point and focus on that, if you shoot at something like F16 then you are going to have a pretty big depth of field to play with :)

as for metering I would go for evaluative, but you might find that getting confused with the headlights or street lights etc, might be worth having a go in fully manual ;) Start of with the settings davenjulie posted and go from there :)
 
I'm still trying to get my head round all the terminology..

Small aperture is a larger number? so f16 is a larger aperture?
Why then are the nifty fiftys good for night scenes if they are f1.8 or is that just their lower value?

I tried a flyover shot but a lack of cars and a cold night led to bad results.. so will be trying again on a busier bridge or a better time.
 
leon1p said:
I'm still trying to get my head round all the terminology..

Small aperture is a larger number? so f16 is a larger aperture?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's really f/16, where f is the focal length of the lens. So. f/16 means that the diameter of the aperture will be 1/16th of the focal length.
 
parish said:
Yes, it's really f/16, where f is the focal length of the lens. So. f/16 means that the diameter of the aperture will be 1/16th of the focal length.
Click to expand...

haha - you just made that so much more confusing :p I don't think I know what a f number is anymore :p
 
leon1p said:
I'm still trying to get my head round all the terminology.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that bit :p

Small aperture is a larger number? so f16 is a larger aperture?
Click to expand...

No, F16 is a small aperture - the larger the number the smaller the aperture ring becomes, giving a bigger depth of field (big, small, big....perfect sense :p )

Why then are the nifty fiftys good for night scenes if they are f1.8 or is that just their lower value?
Click to expand...

1.8 is a very wide aperture allowing a lot of light in, therefore letting you shoot in lower light, but with a very small depth of field

I tried a flyover shot but a lack of cars and a cold night led to bad results.. so will be trying again on a busier bridge or a better time.
Click to expand...

In my limited experience it works better in the winter so you can get rush out type traffic but in the dark.
 
That does make sense.. all i need to remember is the forward slash! divide by a larger number = smaller result. Smaller aperture = less light, meaning you can afford to have the shutter open longer to catch more motion!

:woot: I know that's exactly what i've been reading up on the last while but this is the clearest i've been about it!

So can you explain the offside rule :D
 
I tried a train once too - was quite good fun (excuse the horrific border)
 
So can you explain the offside rule
Click to expand...

It has something to do with a shoeshop, a queue at the till and a purse being thrown..... I think. :shrug:
 
You guys should try star trials using slides (would have to anyway, digital can't do 4 hours exposure, the sensor will get too hot and the battery won't last that long), now that is a challenge.
 
Hi all,

Decided to go out for a bit tonight to a spot that i thought would be good which turned out they now have motorway lights so i still gave it ago even knowing i would get a orange glow from them.

Will be looking for another part to take from without any lights next time

It was very orange due to the glow so i have done my best to use light room to remove this

Here is my first ever light trail
2702494612_74b81885bd_o.jpg
 
You can get a lot of 'unusual' light trails at dusk where the speed limit changes. I took quite a few where the limit goes from national- 40mph, the brake lights can look like morse code.

This shot was a lorry, it shook the camera as it went past :D

(the rest were crisp/correctly exposed :))

wiggles.jpg
 
mrgubby said:
the brake lights can look like morse code.
Click to expand...

Are you sure it's not like sine wave ;) thankfully your a keen photographer and not in charge of military command hehe

That is cool though! I took some shots this weekend but they also came out very orange.. I would really like it to be more like foodpoisons pic but maybe that because there are no street lights in it?
 
Hi all,

Been out again tonight to try for a second go at light trail photos. Here are the best 3 out the 10 i took.

2722895753_435a8bf8dc_o.jpg


2723717276_23665e0e13_o.jpg


2723716858_40dc1fb3f5_o.jpg


Thanks
Chris
 
like the 2nd one very sharp and clean looking I would take out the light top right on the horizon
 
chrisb1357 said:
Hi all,

Been out again tonight to try for a second go at light trail photos. Here are the best 3 out the 10 i took.


2723716858_40dc1fb3f5_o.jpg


Thanks
Chris
Click to expand...



i hope that the top set of red lights is a lorrie n not a flying car lol.
 
parish said:
Yes, it's really f/16, where f is the focal length of the lens. So. f/16 means that the diameter of the aperture will be 1/16th of the focal length.
Click to expand...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that makes things SOOO much clearer! I can't believe I never knew that! I knew a larger f-number meant a smaller aperture, but that explains why! I swear I searched high and low and couldn't find anything that clear (it's one of those fundamental things that seems to be taken for granted as understood by everyone)! Thanks a lot!

Chris
 
My contribution to the thread :)

shaky_hands.jpg


Sitting in the passenger seat of a moving car.
 
dizzledazzle said:
The lights that start at the front of the picture are from when you took the shot, the ones behind are where the shutter closed..

if you see what i mean!
Click to expand...

Ah of course... In other words.. it's not the same car! I couldn't figure that out either. :lol:
 
Very nice Chris.
I like the selective colouring.
 
as its turned into a 'show your best light trail' thread.. :)

last sat night
main.php


I normally use tripod, remote, and mirror lockup.
set camera to ISO 100. Tv mode.. watch a car go past and count how many seconds it would take to make the length of trail you want. then set Tv mode to that amount.

be careful though, as if you do it too much in one go you can overheat the sensor (normally shows up as bright blue dots)
 
:)
badgerbaiter said:
as its turned into a 'show your best light trail' thread.. :)

last sat night
main.php


I normally use tripod, remote, and mirror lockup.
set camera to ISO 100. Tv mode.. watch a car go past and count how many seconds it would take to make the length of trail you want. then set Tv mode to that amount.

be careful though, as if you do it too much in one go you can overheat the sensor (normally shows up as bright blue dots)
Click to expand...



COOL Shot;););)
 
Chris - to avoid the headlights shining directly into the lens - just move a bit to one side or other.

Middle shot for me too - could even have been stopped down one more.

Why do the bright spots disappear? - Because they have changed angle as the car comes round the corner and then they merge with the streaking trails as they become more side on to you.
 
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