Light trails settings question

nilagin

nilagin

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I'm off to Brands Hatch on Saturday for the Britcar race which will be run in the dark / early evening.
Any tips on settings for pictures of light trails.
My camera is a Panasonic DMC FZ8 so not a DSLR but some Manual settings
ISO Sensitivity 100/200/400/800/1250
F ranges from 2.8/3.2/3.6/4.0/4.5/5.0/5.6/6.3/7.1/8.0
Shutter 1/1000 up to 60 secs.
Hopefully I'll then have a few successful shots to share.:D
 
Good question as I will be there on Saturday as well and want to get som decent shots with the 400d.
 
nilagin said:
I'm off to Brands Hatch on Saturday for the Britcar race which will be run in the dark / early evening.
Any tips on settings for pictures of light trails.
My camera is a Panasonic DMC FZ8 so not a DSLR but some Manual settings
ISO Sensitivity 100/200/400/800/1250
F ranges from 2.8/3.2/3.6/4.0/4.5/5.0/5.6/6.3/7.1/8.0
Shutter 1/1000 up to 60 secs.
Hopefully I'll then have a few successful shots to share.:D
Click to expand...

Tripod + Cable release if your have one?

Slow shutter speed e.g. 7-8 secs

Small F-Stop f8.0

Lowest ISO 100

and have fun!!! :D HTH :)
 
get an idea in your head about how long you want the light trails to be. watch a car go by and time it (or just count in your head) the amount of seconds it takes to cover the distance you have in mind. then set the camera shutter to that amount of time, and adjust the ISO to the lowest you can get away with.
use a remote and tripod and dont breathe!
Be careful to let the camera cool down between shots though, or you can overheat the sensor.

main.php
 
Thanks for the tips, especially the over heating bit wasn't aware of that. Just hope I can get some worthy shots now.
 
I did this event last year and will be back again this year but something for you to consider is that apart from the pitlane/main grandstand area, Brands has ZERO lighting.

So its a job to try not to get the sodium lighting that is there to not blast out the bit of the track you aren't on.

The lack of light btw will give you serious auto-focus issues too...

Lastly, don't forget to take off any filters - including the UV/skylight/protector type or you will get strange internal reflections (I did this last year!!)
 
For light trails choose the lowest ISO setting to minimise CCD noise. Exposures are largely exerimental in these regimes and the accuracy of camera metering can be doubtful so bracket for the best results. If your camera has mirror lock-up use that to allow vibrations to stop before actually firing the shutter- especially if using telephoto lenses.

Here's an example I took a few years ago on my Fuji S2 Pro. Exposure was 15 seconds- long enough to capture the passing car and correctly expose the landscape.
DSCF4850_filtered.jpg
 
Here you go, one from me:

lights.jpg


That was Britcar from 2006 - was on the bank opposite the indy circuit cut thru. That's 4 seconds at ISO 800. The blue trail is a little blue light one of the cars had on its aerial. The light trail bounces up and down because the track is bumpy and the suspension hard. BTW see what I mean about the pitlane sodium lighting...
 
This is one of better efforts :

8 second exposure, iso100.

Must be tricky to get these light trails in daylight. Is it possible ?

P1020793.jpg
 
Shutter speeds will also depend on where you are taking the pictures from, or in other words, how fast the cars are going at that point on the track and how many cars you want in the shot. I did the endurance race at Silverstone last year, and on the pit straight, 2-3 seconds was ample to get some great light trails [shame I wasnt clever enough to take a tripod :bonk:], whereas on slower sectors, longer shutter openings were needed.

have fun, a night race is something else (y)
 
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