Learning to take interesting pictures in the dark

[andy eccles]

I took a photo of the M3 the other night of which I'm quite proud. Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

I'm very much a beginner at photography and my camera isn't a particularly clever one with any bells or whistles, and I'm learning how to use the manual modes to achieve different effects.

Perhaps you could show me yours so that I may find some inspiration!!



This is parked in a southbound sliproad onto the new bypass just north of Baldock, Hertfordshire. There are three different cars passing in a row on the carriageway at around 70, with this photo having a 15 second exposure.

Thinking about it, this photo would be even better if the road in the background was swoopy and bendy. I'll work on finding a suitable one!

[GetCarter]

andy eccles said:

Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

You should have bought a silver one! (only kidding - I've had two now... yours looks Carbon Black right?)

www.stevecarter.com/cartercars.htm

You obviously have the eye and the will - and that's a nice pic. Twisty Swoopy & bendy are always better IMHO. We have a couple of resident car pic experts (Top Gear/Car mag types) that will, I'm sure add something sensible to the thread.


>> Edited by GetCarter on Sunday 26th March 14:54

[andy eccles]

Cheers Steve. Couldn't find a Silver one I could afford, or that didn't have red seats :-( but I like the black, it was my second choice.

Agree regarding the comments about the brakes on your website, although I have found them to be wanting on some particular roads too. Have some Performance Friction components lined up to test out, so we'll see how they prove!

[GetCarter]

Here's a link to Matt's site.

www.MattWatkinson.com

He does some clever things with suckers (also known as Editors)

[poah]

the rear lights are being made to be hazy due to the exposure. turn it down to make them look like normal lights. also try not to take the picture in the dark rather take it in low light dusk.

[andy eccles]

Thanks.

Cheers Poah for those tips. I did wonder about the haze around the lights.

[LongQ]

Just a thought but if you are going to use unofficial roadside studios masquerading as other aspects of road engineering you might want to mask any plates you show in your images. Especially when posting on a public forum.

On aspect of night time photos which seems to be gaining popularity in the digital age is the concept of taking a number of shots, exposed for different parts of the intended final result, and then combining them using an editor. Could work well with your shot if you had another, shorter exposure, image of the car to overlay on the light stream background. Being fairly dark all around it should make the blending relatively simple I would think. Taking 2 or 3 shots of the car with no light tails behind it and different exposures would give you some variations to play with. Tripod required and nothing moved (except the traffic!) between shots of course.

[Andy Mac]

I did almost the same thing when I forst got my camera. Ended up in my liccle bros Audi 80, with a long exposure... Linked, as they are fairly large piccies.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c23

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c23

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c23

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c23

[badbeachbuggy]

andy eccles said:

Perhaps you could show me yours so that I may find some inspiration!!

Nice composition Andy, I like the way the trailing light matches up with the tail light of the beemer. Here's a couple of mine for you...

[Andy Mac]

They are locely and crisp!

[Andy Mac]

Some from the motorway...

http://andymac1976.zoto.com/img/50/c0

http://andymac1976.zoto.com/img/50/0f

[_dobbo_]

andy eccles said:

I took a photo of the M3 the other night of which I'm quite proud. Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

As has been said before, nice composition, but the rear lights are a bit overpowering.

I reckon if you retake it with the lights off you might get a better result. If that ends up with your BMW just as a black blob with light trails behind it, consider playing a torch beam over the car for the duration of the 15 second exposure. This could give you some interesting results.

This was done here by BadBeachBuggy a while ago to very nice effect. I'll leave him to post a pic or two.

[andy eccles]

Thanks very much everyone for all of those ideas so far - I need to consult my camera manual to work out how to adjust exposure in manual mode, I suppose it's possible it doesn't have that feature.

Dobbo, the problem with the car being a shadow was exactly what I was having with the lights off - but I had never thought of using a torch during the exposure. That's a superb idea.

Before I got back and read this thread, I thought I'd try the same sort of photo at a roundabout with streetlights, but the effect is lost because of the excessive stars of light. I'll try your torch idea, back to a bendy road but with no streetlights...





I'll be back with after I've found the ideal location!!

>> Edited by andy eccles on Sunday 26th March 20:39

[LongQ]

andy eccles said:

I'll be back with after I've found the ideal location!!

This may be of background interest - the shot called 'Taxi' on 26th March 2006.

It will move down the archive as time passes.

http://thedailyexposure.blogspot.com/

There are a lot of long exposure night shots on the blog if you trawl back through it. Well worth doing that anyway on this blog whether the shotsa are day or night.


Somewhere I have a DVD from the front of one of the mags that discusses the requirements for editing a shot with light trails. Has a curvy road I think. Mostly achieved in photoshop as a combination of 2 completely different images iirc.

The other think to play with, if you have an off camera flash available, would be a bit like the torch idea but to set off a low power manual flash part way through the exposure - assuming you can set the exposure for a specified period as a manual setting. Not sure I would do that wandering about on a slip road though. A torch might be less of an attraction and easier to explain should someone spot you and investigate.