More trails, but these are a little differant

[The Edge]

This is the best of the bunch i think, just needs a crop in the left to finish it off.

http://premium1.uploadit.org/chrismartin00/2.jpg

Comments & Critique welcome :)

[markyg]

How did u achieve those red trails m8? Even my car isn`t that fast!:P

[matty]

nice shot, traffic trails are a long exposure mark!

[markyg]

nice shot, traffic trails are a long exposure mark!

Erm excuse the ignorance...exposure?

[matty]

exposure is the lenght of time the shutter stays open for, long exposures let what goes on infront of the camera to be captured, so a passing car on a 10 sec exposure will show as a streak of light.

See my gallery for more long exposure things with torches and stress balls

[The Edge]

Marky G:

These shots look great and are quite easy to do.

You need a tripod, darkness, flowing traffic and a camera with a self timer.

Set the camera up on the tripod in aperture priority and in self timer mode, aim it, set it with an aperture that gives you a long exposure (30 seconds in this case), wait for traffic and fire :)

That gives you a basic traffic trail.

Tips:

Orange streetlights are less good. I like the style in the pic posted.

The above tecnique only scratches the surface of what you can do. A cable release will enable longer exposures (Bulb mode) than is possible using the method above. I don't have one yet - filters first.

[Pook]

This is the best of the bunch i think, just needs a crop in the left to finish it off.



Comments & Critique welcome :)

Looks bloody cold.. I know that much :lol:

Well done.. you're getting better. Once you got the technique right, which to be honest, I think you have... start to look for better locations.. ones that would make a great shot WITHOUT the trails.. THEN do a time exposure.. that way, you get a truly great shot.

Have you noticed something about doing shots like this? There's always more traffic going one way than the other :lol:

[Steve]

Pook has again got this spot on, the way to progress this is to find an interesting location that also happens to have passing traffic. By doing a time exposure shot there at night and getting a good balance of foreground and background subject matter exposed correctly, all the elements will drop into place and return a great picture. Light trails in a picture are not enough to make a picture just as a sunset with no subject matter will not hold anyone’s attention.