light trails, do you use flash?

davidh6781

davidh6781

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David
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just wanting to know this as it has always interested me, but tried painting with light but it was blury, then tried with flash but it was too bright lol.

Currently only on bridge cam, few weeks the SLR with me on my desk.

Any advice for light trails would be appreciated.
 
Dont think I would use flash for light trails, unless say you wanna freeze a car/bike or whatever, then I would use 2nd curtain sync, dont think the driver wouldnt be happy to blinded whilst driving, oh and use a tripod and cable release, that should stop the blurry bit
 
what about the spot metering red led thing, does that put peeps off.

I do see your point lol. what setting on the dial would be best and would bulb option be the way?
 
put the camera on manual, close the aperture to at least f13 for headlights and f11 for rear lights (that's what i've read) and then set the shutter speed to a few seconds, try and use a cable release or remote to reduce shake. You need a tripod to get really crisp shots and I wouldn't use a flash.

It also depends on how much trail you want. If its a really busy road try and experiment.

Close the aperture a lot, and then experiment with the shutter speed. keep playing with the settings until you find something that works :)

try this:
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-shoot-light-trails
 
You can use flash.

If you want to have rear trailing lights or front facing head lights with the car in shot.

Its all to do with 1st curtain & 2nd curtain sync.
 
Yes

Inspired%20by%20Edvar%20Munch_s%20_The%20Scream_.jpg
 
if theres someone or something in the foreground you want to show (like foodpoisons picture) then yes, but otherwise no. you say painting with light, by that do you mean like drawing with a sparkler or lighter? i did this when i had my bridge cam and i put it on manual in a dark room, then something like 10 or 15 second shutter speed then an aperture to make it still a bit underexposed (sorry i cant quite remember, it was over a year ago) and then put the self timer on, took it, ran infront of camera and drew stuff with a lighter.
 
This is one of 4 very first attempts at light trails taken off a foot bridge over a road in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago.What I didn't allow for was the traffic lights either side of the bridge,as you can see traffic is only going one way,which ever way I pointed the camera the bloody lights would change.
I sat the camera on the wall and used the timer, which is when the traffic stopped of course!!:bang:
 
F22 for 30 seconds. It was my first attempt taken just after 10pm on Wednesday. Tripod is a must.

3664360599_9f94bc58bf_b.jpg
 
Hi David

Did this with a olympus sp550 uz
did 4 photos then joined them together in pain shop pro using the D twice
David1.jpg


also did some light trail as well but lost them when pc crashed
 
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