Night on airport road. ( Bangalore in india )

by Ajit M B
(Bangalore,Karnataka,India.)

This is my first upload (hoping for best). This was taken with 2 seconds exposure, and f/5.6 no flash and ISO = 100.

I wanted to have this shot in more clear way tried lot ways of reducing f-stop and increasing shutter . . . but never helped.

Let me know if I can do it in any better way.

(for convenience links below open in new windows)

If you've ever driven around at night you will know the perils of night-time driving.

Can't see the road clearly, people step out unannounced and oncoming drivers enjoy showing you how bright they can shine their headlamps. Lovely.

Except that when they put every last watt into those lamps you are not only blinded, but for minutes afterwards you find yourself still blinking away the steaks of light from your eyes.

Interesting this. As annoying as it is for a car driver though it's attractive to photographers. One of the most searched for items in this website in fact is how to create streaks of light in night time photography.

There's a whole section of night photography tips and a special piece on how to create streaks of light.

In essence the way to create the effect is to place your camera on a tripod and open the shutter for a few seconds. Anything stationary comes out clear, and anything that moved during those few seconds comes out as a blur. The streaks of light you see in these photos is the car lights blurring as they cross the scene.

By the way, if you don't have a tripod you can place the camera on a solid surface, set up the scene, and then trip the shutter by using the self timer.

Things to consider? Well, the length of time the shutter is open is key here. If you have lots of traffic an exposure of around 10 seconds will do. For less traffic try longer exposures – up to a minute for some scenes.

To balance the exposure you should lower the aperture (which means setting a higher number f-stop). If exposure confuses you (and you wouldn't be the first, believe me!) have a look at this section on understanding exposure.

There is one other thing to consider, and this is where Ajit's shot can be easily improved – try to get a good vantage point.

In other words, get above the traffic if you can. Good places are bridges that go over busy roads, but anywhere high up will do.

This way you get lots of streaks all over the scene. If you take the photo at the same level as the traffic you get streaks all at the same height – not so good.

All in all this is a good attempt at this type of night time photography, and I apologise for taking so long in responding to this submission – I've had a lot on!

Thanks for the submission Ajit,

Darrell.
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