Using bulb mode for the 1st time

Invicta

Invicta

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Name
Kevin
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I was out last night fishing until late and on the way home thought I would start learning about using bulb to see what result I could get as Im new to photography.
Being quite rural I had to wait until I had to cars passing to get the effect I wanted.I didn't have my tripod with me so the car roof was used.
Any tips or tricks to improve are more than welcome.

nightlights.jpg
 
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Not a bad first effort, I have checked the exif info and from that it shows a 13 second exposure @ f/20, ISO400. Based on these figures I would have suggested a longer exposure would have been better as this would have allowed you to achieve complete trails rather than the incomplete head light trail.

ISO400 is a bit high for the light trails, I tend to advise staying in the ISO100-200 bracket at you are using the length of exposure to expose the image correctly, also I think that the closing the aperture to such an extent has not helped I would have thought that f/11-14 would have been suitable for up to a 30-45 second exposure at this location based on ISO100

To the composition there is a little bit too much dead/black space in the foreground, zoom is your friend, or if you have to crop to get it right, also it looks to be leaning a little so some rotation is in order, personally I will avoid street lights where possible but this is not always realistic :shrug:

A big plus to this light trail is that there is still a little bit of colour in the sky which is great (y) and a longer exposure would have really brought this out more :D

Matt
MWHCVT
 
Thanks Matt that is brilliant and just the kind of info I was looking for.
I did take other shots at different setting but didn't have the car light trails and one of them just looked like it was day time with the street lights on.
 
i tried light trails the other night...but i was literally on the side of the road..got some strange effects from passing lorries covered in lights...but failed to setup in time for a passing double decker.. that would have been class..
 
Hi kevin,
Great first try.
As matt says leaving the shutter open twice as long almost certainly would have improved the trails.
Your aperture of f20 is ok which will give loads of dof so try differing times of shutter speeed to see if you can obtain better results before swapping aperture.

Aircraft in flight can provide an interesting additional trail in your picture if you are lucky enough to get one in there.
Sometimes you have not noticed a passing plane with its blinkers on until exposure is over and review showing the trail tells the story.

Its all about experimenting, but unlike with film cameras you do not have to wait as long to see your results.
With digital,You have the advantage of reviewing them instantly.

Have fun experimenting.(y)

PS Just noticed your location, you should be able to get some lovely star trails from there on a clear night Kevin but try a few mins exposure and work from there. The longer you leave the shutter open, the longer and more impressive the trails will be (remote/cable release desirable/essential as is a tripod for this aspect of bulb photography).You do not have the disadvantage of heavy light polution up there.....have fun with bulb !
 
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Thanks for the comments Obi :)
I just have to try and remember all the points that have been noted.
 
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