Light trails - low light no flash gun

J

JayCee

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Hi.

I'm a complete beginner at this and would like to know if it's possible to take outdoor night time shots without flash guns. Relying only on the natural light and, lowering the ISO and increasing the shutter speed to like 10+ seconds. Of course this would be done with a tripod.

(excuse my ignorance and lack of knowledge if this is a simple thing as I really am not sure)

Kind regards,

Jay
 
JayCee,

It is possible indeed. What tyoes of photos do you want to photograph out side? in your subject title you mention light trails- im assuming you mean cars going past etc.

If that is the case then it is very very simple to do with and you dont need a flash. Just a tripod and the time to do alot of experimentation.
 
It's mostly going to be images of crowds within the city using the buildings as the backdrop.

Apart from what I know by reducing ISO and such is there anything else I would need to do?

Also how about taking night shots on the go? (Same situation)
 
Cool. Thanks! More learning material :) Much appreciated guys. If there's anything else please feel free to show me. Always willing to learn :)
 
JayCee said:
It's mostly going to be images of crowds within the city using the buildings as the backdrop.

Apart from what I know by reducing ISO and such is there anything else I would need to do?

Also how about taking night shots on the go? (Same situation)
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If you want to get your shutter speeds up for night photography, you'll need to raise the ISO, not lower it. This will of course create more digital noise, but that can work quite well in nighttime street photography.
 
So in order to take night time photography with light trails I'd have to raise the ISO? I was under the impression that I'd have to lower it as I was told that and thought that was that. :thinking:
 
I take it you want the effect of trails left behind people with buildings in sharp focus? You need a tripod and a dark filter in front of your lens, ISO 100 and low shutter speed and small aperture, ie. f22. SHould do the job with a bit of experimentation.
 
Exactly what I was looking for!. Looks like a lot of fun with new experiments :) Hopefully it won't be too hard to get the hang of :D
 
JayCee said:
So in order to take night time photography with light trails I'd have to raise the ISO? I was under the impression that I'd have to lower it as I was told that and thought that was that. :thinking:
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Sorry, was confused by your 1st post when you said about raising the shutter speed and the bit about crowds and buildings. To get sharp shots of people at night would require a raised ISO and shutter speed. If you want to show movement of the people, then yes, ISO 100 and slower shutter speeds, as is the case with light trails.
 
Although I would warn against dropping the shutter speed too much - there gets a point where people are simply not visible in the frame due to the motion blur.
 
fabs said:
Sorry, was confused by your 1st post when you said about raising the shutter speed and the bit about crowds and buildings. To get sharp shots of people at night would require a raised ISO and shutter speed. If you want to show movement of the people, then yes, ISO 100 and slower shutter speeds, as is the case with light trails.
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No problem. It's good advice anyway. At least I know relatively what to do when I need sharp shots at night. You're advice do not go wasted :)

RichardtheSane said:
Although I would warn against dropping the shutter speed too much - there gets a point where people are simply not visible in the frame due to the motion blur.
Click to expand...

So basically lower it just enough to get the effect but not too much or it'll just blur. I'll keep that in mind thanks. I think what's most important as everyone pointed out is experiment to get the right setting for me :)
 
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