Light Trails 1st attempt C&C

foamcutter

First attempt at doing light trails at night. I could have picked a warmer and busier night.
Learnt that you have to remove any filters from the lens to get blemish free shots.



Here is a shot with a filter still screwed on. There is a slight shake in the street lights.
Would you use a remote release in this situation? TIA

Gone Fishin

Not a bad first attempt, you are on the right track. I presume you were using a tripod and were you on a solid surface when taking the photos? The only reason that I ask is that the both images look blurry (particularly the second photo, look at the lights in the background). I took some from a metal pedestrian bridge in Fairview and realised that the bridge was shaking ever so slightly but it showed up in the photos. Keep practising.

Tallon

Love them

bogmanfan

Nice work. They do seem to be very slightly blurred. Try using the self-timer to eliminate any camera shake. Here's one I took recently myself

Thecageyone

Brilliant first attempts. You have the right idea, using the timer function, even set to 2 seconds, will ensure the camera is as steady as can be in the conditions. Or get yourself a cheap remote, doesn't have to be anything fancy, just one with a lock function, if you plan to go above 30 seconds into bulb mode, a remote is essential for that.

Culann

Nice. To remove shake even more see if your camera has a mirror lock-up function, which moves the mirror out of the way before the exposure and before the timer starts.

whyulittle

What happened in the second shot, where it looks like a car spun or something?

joepenguin

Lovin the second one!

Abelloid

whyulittle wrote: »

What happened in the second shot, where it looks like a car spun or something?

Thanks, I was too lazy to ask about that..

Necronomicon

I like them (some really cool ones in your pix photostream too). A remote would definitely help with the blur, but in the absence of one set it to a two-second timer. I find that 30 seconds is loads to get a nice trail effect. As Culann mentioned above, if you have mirror lock-up this will further help.

The one thing I'd say is that the white lights in the second shot look a bit blown out, would you mind posting your settings (couldn't find the exif on pix.ie)?

I went out recently and did some myself, if you're interested in comparing settings have a look here.

Thecageyone

Soon you'll be putting yourself into those long exposures, like This

foamcutter

Thanks for all the tips and advice.
A good few of the shots suffered some blurring, so I'll try the timer idea before getting a remote. I'll have to check the book to see how to 'lock the mirror up' (won't be the last time to refer to it).

@Gone Fishin I hope the bridge is solid, it's a road bridge (concrete & steel) I think the shake was me, pressing the shutter.

@whyulittle No, I think it was caused by having a filter on. Most of the first batch of pic's had that weird defect. I didn't get any after removing the filter. So, there were no crazy accidents or UFO's in Dundalk last night.

@Necronomicon. Cheers for the comment. f/8 30 sec ISO 200

@Thecageyone I think it will be a while before I'll be doing that...... I don't want to get run over on the Motorway ;-) Nice shot/idea BTW

foamcutter

@Necronomicon for comparison this one was f/14 25sec ISO 200 with a standard 55mm lens

Necronomicon

Nice one - do you plan on heading back and perfecting the trails? It looks like a nice spot, great view. Fwiw, I felt that my best results were f/22 with ISO 100 if you feel like experimenting with other settings.

foamcutter

@Necronomicon
Yep. It's very close to where I live, but I might leave it till there's a full moon or until the nights get warmer. It would be good to experiment some more.
I quite liked the shots when there were only 3-4 cars and you get a single trail so it will probably mean a late night gig.
I hope to try out the suggestions on the Dublin Docklands photowalk this week, weather and work permitting.

I like the trails on your Flickr acc in particular Red Means Stop

Abelloid

Really want to give this a go now, I have experimented a little but have some good tips from here now to work with. Thanks.

Thecageyone

foamcutter wrote: »

@Necronomicon for comparison this one was f/14 25sec ISO 200 with a standard 55mm lens

That's much tastier foamcutter, IMHO, really want to get out and do more of this type thing myself since I got a new tripod for Christmas. Feckin' freezing out there though! :eek: