A38 light trails at dusk

Looks pretty good to me, think I'd have preffered a dead centre shot / crop and probably a longer exposure for more of the trails. Just keep at it! Looks like a good spot for practice at least.
 
uberdude said:
Looks pretty good to me, think I'd have preffered a dead centre shot / crop and probably a longer exposure for more of the trails. Just keep at it! Looks like a good spot for practice at least.
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Thanks. I couldn't make my mind up whether to make it central or not to be honest. I was aiming for the curve to be top/left from rule of two thirds point of view, but as it curves around at the horizon.....hmmm...maybe I'll make it more central next time

exposure wise I had to adjust it up considerably, so a longer exposure would certainly work. possibly need to pick up an ND filter too for this type of thing. I have a Hoya ND8 in the bag, but it won;t fit my kit lens...
 
Give it a week or two and it will be pitch black, plenty of traffic too, get their early to set up & focus then wait for the darkness! No need for filter at night.
 
There's no need for any filters for this type of thing and in actual fact a filter could cause flare issues, what I would say is if you had stopped your lens down rather than shooting wide open that would really have helped you get a much longer exposure, you may find it helpful to give my guide linked in my signature a read (y)

As to composition I have to agree on this location a perfectly central location would work really well it looks a little odd with this slightly off centre composition

Matt
MWHCVT
 
nothing wrong for a first post.
Have never done this myself.Too lazy to go out at night
 
Don't wait until it's dark if you want it to turn out like every other light trails shot. Nothing wrong with a bit of ambient light and a nice background.

Make sure you get your horizon level, too. :)
 
Oli R C said:
Don't wait until it's dark if you want it to turn out like every other light trails shot. Nothing wrong with a bit of ambient light and a nice background.

Make sure you get your horizon level, too. :)
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Weirdly it is.....ripley is on a hill, the land slopes away from it down to the a38 and round that bend the a38 goes down as well
I did try rotating it half a degree or so and it made the trees look wonky to me, so I left it! :)
 
siblingchris said:
Weirdly it is.....ripley is on a hill, the land slopes away from it down to the a38 and round that bend the a38 goes down as well
I did try rotating it half a degree or so and it made the trees look wonky to me, so I left it! :)
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I feared that may be the case. :LOL:
 
Good first post

Oli R C said:
Don't wait until it's dark if you want it to turn out like every other light trails shot. Nothing wrong with a bit of ambient light and a nice background.

Make sure you get your horizon level, too. :)
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+1
 
Looks like the bridge on Pentrich road at Swanwick, looking south towards Ripley.......maybe wrong :thinking::thinking:
 
I will be trying this with my new d7000 over the m4 near junction 15 near Swindon...
 
Next time I do this I think I still want some ambient light but for it to be later when I can leave it for a longer exposure.....also waiting for a clear night to hopefully get some stars in the sky....that's my plan anyway!
 
siblingchris said:
Next time I do this I think I still want some ambient light but for it to be later when I can leave it for a longer exposure.....also waiting for a clear night to hopefully get some stars in the sky....that's my plan anyway!
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if you want to get stars and trails in a single exposure your going to have to think very carefully about your composition
 
So here is my second attempt from later in the evening

It is a 30s shot on manual, f11, iso 100 I wanted to try with bulb mode, but the wireless remote I ordered does not seem to work so this would have been nigh in impossible without camera shake

Wondering what I could do next to get longer exposure without totally blowing out all the road with light trails?

Also wondering if I could take two shots to get a better exposed sky and combine them together....

This has had some pp on on it, bit of sharpening and iPhoto "aura" effect...



A38 Light Trails at Night by Sibling Chris, on Flickr
 
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There is camera shake in that on :( looking at it I would suggest it was when you started the exposure if your trigger was not working you would have been better off to set a two second shutter delay, this would give the camera/tripod time to settle

If you want to get longer without blowing the lights you'll need to stop down further
 
MWHCVT said:
There is camera shake in that on :( looking at it I would suggest it was when you started the exposure if your trigger was not working you would have been better off to set a two second shutter delay, this would give the camera/tripod time to settle

If you want to get longer without blowing the lights you'll need to stop down further
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That may well be the iphoto editing on my ipad tbf
Not actually worked on the RAW original....
 
MWHCVT said:
How would your editing have caused the camera shake?
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You are assuming that ther is camera shake. What leads you to that conclusion? I am not definitely saying there isn't, but I know I added some effects in iPhoto that may not have resulted in a totally clear image. As I said not had chance to sit with the unadultered RAW file yet...
 
siblingchris said:
You are assuming that ther is camera shake. What leads you to that conclusion? I am not definitely saying there isn't, but I know I added some effects in iPhoto that may not have resulted in a totally clear image. As I said not had chance to sit with the unadultered RAW file yet...
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I'm not assuming, there is I can see movement in both the street light's/buildings in the distance and also where there are car's that were in frame as the exposure started, let's just call it experience, I've only shot a few thousand light trails...
 
MWHCVT said:
I'm not assuming, there is I can see movement in both the street light's/buildings in the distance and also where there are car's that were in frame as the exposure started, let's just call it experience, I've only shot a few thousand light trails...
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I know you have ;)
I guess I was just experiencing your response as a little patronising, but that is probably my issue not yours :)

Just been sat down in front of the computer screen rather than my ipad and I can see what you mean now. At least I can see the movement in the street lights on the hill and at the start of the little trails. What is odd though if you look at the cats' eyes in the road for example they don't show evidence of this movement. Perhaps that is because they were not lit when I pressed the button?

Good thing is I have my wireless shutter remote working now, so will try this again at some point over the coming week. I'll get there eventually!
 
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siblingchris said:
I know you have ;)
I guess I was just experiencing your response as a little patronising, but that is probably my issue not yours :)

Just been sat down in front of the computer screen rather than my ipad and I can see what you mean now. At least I can see the movement in the street lights on the hill and at the start of the little trails. What is odd though if you look at the cats' eyes in the road for example they don't show evidence of this movement. Perhaps that is because they were not lit when I pressed the button?

Good thing is I have my wireless shutter remote working now, so will try this again at some point over the coming week. I'll get there eventually!
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Apart from on a very small number of new road's cats eye's are not illuminated they work of reflections (y) there are a few roads that now have LED's for cats eye's but not many (y) so if there were no cars close to you which I can tell there were not at the start of this exposure there you wouldn't see the movement in them (y)

I'm glad that you've now got your trigger working that should really help you out (y)
 
Really like them Chris. I really want to have a go at this. Let me know if you erm...fancy some company next time :)
 
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