Eagle Eye: Photography Techniques

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Photography Techniques - Night Traffic

Night Traffic:
- If you want to shoot light trails caused by the headlights/taillights of cars on a road, the same settings used in Night Landscape can be used for capturing night traffic photos.
- Use Shutter Priority mode to set the time between 10-20 seconds and let the camera adjust the rest of the settings.
- Use of a tripod is absolutely necessary since the shutter speed is very slow. Also, use of remote release or self timer is very useful to remove the shakes caused by pressing the shutter button on the camera.
- Set the Shutter speed slower for more streaks of light (e.g. 20s) and faster for less streaks of light (e.g. 5s).
- Alternatively, Bulb mode can be used where you want control over how much time the shutter needs to be open. In this mode, the shutter will be open from the moment you press the shutter button until you release it (use a remote shutter to reduce shaking while holding the shutter button) giving flexibility over timing the shot as a car enters the frame and then leaves the frame creating a long streak of light.
- Use a higher f/number between f/8 and f/16 if the photo is over exposed and requires lesser light in the photo. This will also ensure that the light streaks are very fine lines of red or yellow and not thick bright lines.
- Set a low ISO (e.g. ISO 100) for minimum noise.
- If in low light, the camera has trouble finding the correct focus, use Manual focus.
- Enable Long Exposure Noise Reduction setting if available in your camera to reduce the noise in the photo.
- This method can also be used to capture light trails of a light-decorated Merry-go-Round/Amusement rides in carnivals/funfairs in the night.