Road Photos

[james_tigerwoods]

I was going to go over to the Humber bridge this weekend to take photos, but I'm not sure I'm going to have the time so I've come with an alternate plan - there's a motorway near me and a bridge/overpass that I can walk over.

I've always been intrigued by those motorway/motion photos and I was wondering if anyone has some advice that they can give me to take that sort of photo. I've got a tripod and a remote control - do I just need to set the camera to "Bulb" and hold the shutter open for a bit - if so, how long?

Thanks

James

[eightseventhree]

at night

30 sec exposure
100 ISO
aperture about f/10 (Nikon d40 18-55 sweet spot is about 8)

Should do it


take a look here

http://www.flickr.com/groups/traffic_trails/pool/

see what other people have used settings wise


Also don't use any kind of flash for obvious reasons

Edited by eightseventhree on Thursday 7th August 11:57

[DIW35]

If you're taking the photo in daylight, if you put the camera on bulb setting, there's every chance that the resulting photo will be overexposed.

To get the motion blur you are looking for, you need a long(ish) exposure. Using the smallest aperture (highest f number) and lowest ISO will give you the longest exposure.

If you are taking the picture at night, you will find that you can be a bit more flexible with your exposure time before seeing any untoward effects.

[AndWhy]

Wouldn't recommend too narrow an aperture (f number above 11 or so) because some of your light trails may fade out and will certainly be more dim, as less light is able to pass through the lens. Conversely, don't go too wide or you'll lose definition of your individual light trails.

Also, if you can avoid streetlit areas you'll save yourself aggro with the exposure and with light pollution - streetlights in your shot will burn out much quicker than vehicle trails as the streetlights are static.

Best to use the hour from sunset - gives you deep colours in the sky rather than just black - and slowly increase your exposure length. But this time of year it's often not dark enough to make this kind of shot work until 9-9.30 (down south), by which time much of the traffic has been and gone. Reckon on refining your technique over your next couple of attempts and perfect it at PM rush hour in early November.

[RobDickinson]

For the length of shot , time how long it takes a car to get from A to B (where A/B is the start / end of how much light trails you want). Thats going to be your target.

[james_tigerwoods]

It rained. A lot. This was the best effort - I got thoroughly soaked and bored waiting for the road to clear both ways....

The truck that drove past soaking me further was the low point..



Sad, I know, but this was just near where I was and I was soaked already I took a few of these:

[Doug86]

1:


2:


3:


Those are some that I have taken. Is that the sort of thing you want to do?

[james_tigerwoods]

Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm wanting to do....

[Doug86]

As you can see from the EXIF data on mine I went with this set up:

30 Second Exposure (could use bulb if you want)
ISO 200
Tripod
Busy dual carrigeway

[james_tigerwoods]

My first night shot - and, I think the better of the set I took:



No prizes for guessing my location here...

A selection of the rest, well, it went a little downhill, not helped by the lack of traffic! I need to improve these as they're a bit out of focus







ETA: I might try this at dusk next time....

Edited by james_tigerwoods on Monday 18th August 07:29