How to capture light trails
How to Shoot Fantastic Light Trail Photography
If you want to create some truly amazing light trail photography, then you need to know a few things about how to shoot and edit them. In this article, we will teach you everything you need to know in order to create photos that will amaze your friends and family. So let’s get started!
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Light Trail Photography: What Are Light Trails?
Light trails are one of the best ways to add a wow factor to your urban night photography. Traffic and car light trails show the frenetic rhythm of life in large cities. You can freeze moving lights with a fast enough shutter speed. Or you can record them as luminous trails with long enough shutter speeds.
To illustrate the concept, I borrowed my son’s motorised train and built a short track on a table. The train has front lights that go on when it is moving. The image below shows the result of a 15 seconds long exposure.
My son has a slow-moving train with front lights. With a 15 second exposure, I could record the light movement of the toy train.During the time the shutter was open, the train was moving and so were the lights. Those moving lights became trails running across the scene. But where is the train? Because the train was moving and because it is much darker than its light, the sensor barely recorded it.
Same goes for car trails. Cars are moving, and their bodies are usually darker than their head/tail lights. Only the trails from the car lights are visible in the final image.
How to Photograph Light Trails
Light trails photography is not demanding in terms of photographic gear. Any camera will do the job. The location and time of the day are more important than the camera. Also, keep a sturdy tripod handy if you don’t want blurred images.
Camera Settings
The best camera settings for light trails photography are the following.
- Shoot in RAW;
- Choose the lowest ISO values;
- Set your aperture to the sweet spot of your lens, in the f/4 to f/11 range;
- Use a shutter speed of about 10-30 seconds.
Test your settings and check whether you get trails of a decent length. Also, check that you have not clipped the highlights to pure white.
You want to keep some colors in the trails and avoid patches of pure white that are not pleasant to see.
Trails right before nightfall. f/8, ISO 100, 5 secondsBecause you are on a tripod, it is good practice to disable image stabilization.
The exception to this are bridges or similar “floating” structures. Passing traffic can create vibrations here that will cause camera shake and ruin your image.
Experiment with long exposure noise reduction. This will tell you whether you should keep it active or not. This will allow your light streak photography to be sharp and not blurry.
Be aware that the camera will take a second photo. This will be for the same amount of time without opening the shutter when you use this technique. It happens immediately after the first picture.
This can slow down your photographic session.
Not All Light Trails Are Created Equal
Roundabouts are nice locations, but with too much traffic, they can give very messy images.
Too many trails going all in different directions create a confusing image.The best car trails are all going in the same direction to guide the viewer’s eye through the frame. This composition technique is called leading lines.
I also prefer the thin trails you get from relatively wide lenses.
Telephoto lenses give thicker ones.
Locations for Light Trails
You need moving traffic. This can be from a high vantage point over the city or when you’re walking the streets.
Choose a busy location and the best time with a decent flow of incoming night traffic.
Summer months at high latitudes are not the best times for light trails photography.
High Vantage Points
High vantage points are great to get a bird’s eye view over the city. You will be able to get amazing light trails if you can see the streets. Unfortunately, not all vantage points are the same.
I climbed on the roof of my building on top of a hill in Brussels. While the view was breathtaking, I could not see any road.
While being high up over the city, this location is not good for light trails, as no streets are visible.Tunnels and Bridges
If your city has tunnels for cars or bridges, you can photograph the traffic below.
You might be using a long telephoto lens for long exposures on a bridge or similar structures. Keep in mind that vibrations from passing traffic can easily blur your images.
Long Avenues
Long, straight avenues are the perfect locations. You’ll see the trails getting lost into the distance.
A telephoto lens is a must for this kind of light streak photography.
Roundabouts
Roundabouts are interesting locations to create a different kind of trails. Particularly with a fisheye lens.
Try capturing the cars while circling the roundabout. You will get a kind of urban carousel, particularly if you can elevate your camera high above the ground.
Monuments and Buildings
There are a few notable exceptions, such as light trails running all along a winding road on a mountain peak. But light trails alone are rarely interesting enough.
Include famous landmarks, such as monuments or a characteristic building. These are the perfect subjects for strong light trails photography.
Railways
There might be some railways passing in your city. If you have a bridge over them, you can take light trails from passing trains.
It is not common to photograph two trains crossing. Photograph the first. Then wait until you can photograph a second train coming from the opposite direction. Then combine the two images in Photoshop. This way you will get both red and yellow trails. This is why car trail lights are perfect, as they have two different sets of lights.
A bridge on a railway in Brussels suburbs. Brussels is visible far in the distance.Airports
If you have a nice view of some runaways of a busy airport, you are in for fantastic plane trails.
Usually, trails from passing planes are visible in night light trail photography.
They appear as a series of dots in the sky.
But at landing or take off, pilots switch on a strong front light that does not blink. This leaves a continuous light trail that climbs into the sky.
Landscapes
You can add light trails to a nocturnal landscape. Light trail photography further emphasises your chosen landscape, adding light and extra interest.
Light trails in a winter night under a full Moon (with Jupiter next to it). I took this with my Sony RX100 Mk ii pocketable compact camera. Exif: 43mm EFL, f/3.2, ISO 100, 20s.There may be no passing cars, but more often than not, there is at least one car nearby: yours. This still gives you a chance for light streak photography.
It is easier if you can get help from a friend. But you could also drive your car and use a remote shutter release cable to fire the shutter.
While packing up after a Milky Way photography session, I had the idea to take a nocturnal landscape including light trails from my car running on the road in front of me.
Gear and Accessories for Light Trails
To capture light trails, you do not need any fancy equipment or a lot of gear. You only need to know how to shoot light trails, starting with a long exposure.
Camera
Any camera. From the cheapest compact camera up to the most expensive pro graded DSLR. All it needs to have is the manual mode for the slowest shutter speed of a few seconds at least.
The slowest shutter speed of 30 seconds is quite standard, and this is plenty of time to create light trails.
You can even use modern camera phones. There are many apps available that will help you to capture light trails. On iOS devices, you can try Slow Shutter Cam, which allows you to use shutter speeds of up to 60 seconds and even Bulb.
A proof of concept for light trails photography with iPhone 7 and Slow Shutter Cam app.Sensor Size and Image Quality
It is often said that full frame cameras are better for low light photography. This is particularly true when you cannot use very slow shutter speeds and have to increase the ISO.
In light trail photography, we are not in a hurry when it comes to collecting the light. Instead, we want to expose for several seconds at least.
You do not need to increase the ISO from its lowest setting. And you can use the aperture that ensures the best image quality for your lens. Whether this is f/4 or f/8. In these conditions, small sensor cameras can give quite clean files. Particularly if you can shot in RAW.
This is a 100% crop from a raw file straight from my Sony RX10, which has a 1″ type sensor. With a crop factor of 2.7x, this sensor is large for compact camera standards but rather small compared to a full frame sensor.Lenses for Light Trails
Any lens will work for light trails.
- Lens Aperture: Light trails are best done in low light conditions. They are the result of capturing long exposures of the traffic flowing along the city streets. This means you don’t need a fast lens;
- Autofocus and IS: Manual lenses are great too.
You do not need autofocus nor lens stabilization. You will be using a tripod; - Focal length: This depends on your location. You can use anything from an ultra-wide-angle to a telephoto lens.
Fisheye and wide-angle lenses are best used for bird’s eye views over city streets. Use these from a high vantage point or to get tall monuments in the frame.
With traffic passing under Brussels’ most iconic landmark, I had to use a fisheye lens to get the entire Atomium in the frame.Telephoto lenses work best when you look down a road. The trails get lost into the distance, thanks to their perspective compression effects. The comparisons below show the same scene taken at 38mm and 152mm.
The perspective compression on the road is quite evident. And we can make out the individual trails all the way to the end of the road. But the wide-angle lens lets you see more of the surroundings. The trails get thinner and, to me, more elegant.
The choice of focal length often depends on location and on your personal taste.
But a superzoom lens, like the Sigma 18-200m f3.5-6.3, is a good choice for light trail photography.
In this respect, super-zoom bridge cameras are also great. The Nikon P900 is a very interesting choice.
38mm (top) and 152mm (bottom) focal lengths on the same scene.Must-Have Accessories For Light Trails
Tripod
You’ll photograph light trails at dusk or at night with slow shutter speed. A tripod is essential. Be aware that in some locations the use of tripods is against the law.
In this case, if someone asks you to pack your tripod away, it is best to apologise and move on. Find another location for your light trail photography.
I own several tripods, but I usually prefer to take the lightest Manfrotto Compact Action. It is stable and can go very high. This allows me to take photos from above fences and railings. Or it can go very low, allowing me to photograph from ground level.
The Joby Gorillapod SLR Zoom is a great compact and lightweight tripod for city walks.
Particularly if you are using a camera phone or a small mirrorless. It will allow you to fix your camera to rails, fences, poles etc.
Remote Shutter
To avoid camera shake, use a remote shutter or Wi-Fi app to fire the shutter. If you can’t control your camera remotely, use the self-timer set to 2 seconds. You can either use a cable release or a wireless one.
Graduated and ND filters
Filters have little use in light trail photography. Even with a graduated filter at dusk, you will not be able to take long enough exposures. Nighttime is what you need.
You can use a strong ND filter, like the 10-stops B+W ND3 (110) or the Lee Big Stopper, as in the example below. To record the trail I clipped the sky (first photo).
So I took a second image with the 10-stops ND filter on.
This was to keep and saturate the colors in the sky and buildings (second photo). Then I combined the two in the final image with a good sky and some trails (third photo).
You may have noticed that the trails are very faint and no trails are visible in the image with the ND filter on. This is because there is not enough contrast between the brightness of the ambient light at dusk and the car’s taillights.
After sunset, the ambient light is much dimmer. You can use a light ND filter to reach longer exposures and have longer trails.
Some high-end bridge and compact camera may have a build-in (electronic) ND filter. Check your manual if you have such a function. HDR photography can also help at dusk if you have no filters with you.
Image Stacking for Light Trails
Stack together different long exposures, same as you would do to create a starlight trail. This is a simple way to increase the number of trails and their length.
Snap many photos of the scene, load them into Photoshop as layers and blend them in Lighten mode.
This way you blend only the brightest pixels and will have more trails than in the single images.
If you are using a camera phone with the Slow Shutter Cam app, you can stack images in real-time within the app. You do this by recording several long exposures before clearing the captured image.
Olympus Live Composite
If you have an Olympus mirrorless camera, there is a function called Live Composite. It’s meant for long exposures, star trails, fireworks, lightning and light trails photography.
It allows you to follow the formation of the image live. You can stop the recording process when happy with the result. The electronics will take care to avoid clipping the highlights.
Try using a radial blur filter in Photoshop with the zoom blur to simulate zoom blurring for more artistic images.Conclusion
Light trails photography does not require tons of expensive photography gear.
And it’s simple to create.
If you love urban photography, you will have great fun. And you’ll get to see the city come to life as you have never seen before. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
Examples of Light Trails Photography
Light Trails is one of the topics we cover in our creative photography course, Wow Factor Photography.
Below are some of the photos taken by our students. If you’d like to learn more, check out the course here.
Light Trails Photo by Jim DoddLight Trails Photo by Gary WileyLight Trails Photo by Jonathan AdedijiLight Trails Photo by Sadique Mohammad AkhtarLight Trails Photo by StuartLight Trails Photo by Dineda NyepanLight Trails Photo by Rosana JoubanianRollei Compact Traveler No.1 Travel Tripod
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How to Shoot Light Trails
Shooting traffic is an accessible way to achieve beautiful light trail photography and learn the fundamental rules of low-light and manual techniques. We look at the basics.
At some point, every photographer creates images featuring traffic trails. It’s a well-trodden path, as the vast majority of us live near roads or in built-up urban areas. While traffic trails are a great subject in themselves, they’re a particularly nice way to introduce you to the manual mode of your camera and will also give you some good training in low-light photography.
Photographing traffic trails is a simple and fun technique that can be done at all times of the year. We run through some quick and easy tips and look at some of the best images from Photocrowd users.
'Clarke Quay River Taxi' by Seow Swee Meng, Canon EOS 6D, 16-35mm, 30secs at f/11, ISO 100
1. Gather the essential kit
Tripod
A tripod is vital.
Shooting handheld with long shutters speeds will introduce camera shake into your image and ruin otherwise great shots.
Cable release or wireless remote
Avoid direct contact with your camera and reduce the risk of camera shake by using a cable release or wireless remote. This is particularly important if you’re using Bulb mode, which will mean having to manually keep the shutter pressed.
Lens hood
A lens hood is not strictly speaking an essential piece of kit but it can help to avoid lens flare from ambient light creeping into your image, a real issue in urban areas.
Comfortable shoes
A must for any genre of photography that involves going out on location. You’re likely to be walking around for a while attempting to find the right location, so make sure you have a good pair of shoes or boots.
Warm clothing
As well as comfortable shoes, it’s important to make sure you’re wrapped up warm, particularly if you’re working in the autumn and winter months.
Torch
You should also consider a torch to help you find your way around dark environments. You could perhaps use a headtorch to keep your hands free or use the a torch app on your phone.
'Light' by Philip Joyce, Sony ILCA-77M2, 100-300mm, 30secs at f/7.1, ISO 125
2. Shoot just after sunset
While we often think of traffic-trail photography as a night-based genre, it’s better to think of it as evening-based. Shooting in the middle of the night means you’re likely to find less traffic. If you shoot just after sunset, you’re more likely to encounter the many cars returning from work, particularly if you live in a city.
Shooting around this time means you can, if you want, include a little ambient light in the sky, rather than the standard black sky we see in so many of these images.
'Ring of Light' by Kavin Koon, Canon EOS 6D, 11-16mm, 30secs at f/16, ISO 100
3. Find an interesting location
Urban areas are good places to find unique angles and locations.
Popular methods are to stand by the side of the road and photograph the traffic as it comes towards you, or you can find an overpass and angle your camera down at a busy motorway or main road.
Finding an even more elevated position can lead to some fantastic images, for example through a window looking down onto the city or, if you can find access, a roof.
That said, a light trail winding its way through a blackened landscape in the countryside can lead to a truly beautiful and atmospheric image.
'Arches Light' by Mike Stuckey, Nikon D750, 20mm, 15secs at f/5.6, ISO 250
4. Don’t neglect the basic rules of composition
It can be easy to fall into the trap of relying on the aesthetic nature of light trails to carry the image and forget you still need to follow the basic rules of composition. Each image needs to follow such basic principles as the rule of thirds, compositional balance and feature points of interest, and include an interesting foreground and background.
Don’t forget that as the traffic trails will be the most striking component of your image, they will become the most important compositional element of your shot. You’ll need to previsualise your shot before even pressing the shutter.
'Big Ben and Westminster' by George Papapostolou, Nikon D610, 16-35mm, 10secs at f/13, ISO 100
5. Work in manual mode
Shooting traffic trails requires you to achieve maximum control over your shutter, aperture and ISO. That means it’s vital you work in manual mode. While you could set your camera to shutter priority (traffic trails, of course, rely on long shutter speeds), it’s better to make the leap and step into manual mode. Shutter priority mode will not guarantee the right exposure in dark conditions, and is usually limited to 30secs, which might not be enough, depending on the aperture being used.
'Las Toscas Orange Streak' by Ondre Nowakowski, exposure unknown
6. Experiment with long shutter speeds
Technically, there’s no right or wrong shutter speed.
Begin with an exposure of 5secs and work your way up in increments of five. The higher your shutter speed, the more likely you are to achieve the desired long streaks of light – anything lower than 5secs may lead to broken light trails. What you’re looking for are long, consistent streams of light. Many light trail photographers tend to stick to the tried-and-tested 30sec shutter speeds, so you may find yourself producing quite long exposures.
The thing to remember is that as the duration of your shutter speed increases, the lighter your image will become. So to keep the exposure where you want it, you can close down the aperture, or lower the ISO if possible.
'Charing Cross' by John Pow, Nikon D810, 16-35mm, 25secs at f/11, ISO 64
7. Shoot in Bulb Mode for exposures longer that 30secs
There may be occasions when a thirty-second exposure isn’t quite enough to achieve the trails you’re looking for. In these circumstances, you can set your camera to Bulb mode.
Making sure your camera is set to Manual, keep turning the shutter dial until you reach 30secs. Then turn again until your camera display says Bulb.
With this option set, you can keep your shutter pressed for as long as you want – minutes rather than seconds, if you so desire. Your shutter will now remain open for as long as you’re keeping the shutter button pressed down. This is why it’s vital to carry a shutter release or wireless remote, otherwise, your hand will be on the camera for an extended period of time and, particularly in cold conditions, will cause your camera to shake.
'Trollstigen' by Christoph Schaarschmidt, Canon EOS 7D, 11-16mm, 30secs at f/8, ISO 100
8. Close down your aperture
You’ll want as much of your image to be in focus as possible, particularly in urban areas that feature strong foregrounds and backgrounds. Close your aperture down to around f/8 or f/16.
'Tram Sandwich' by David Queenan, Fujifilm X-E2, 10-24mm, 15secs at f/22, ISO 200
9.
Set your ISO low
As you’ll be working with long shutter speeds, you can set your camera to as low as ISO 100 or 200. This will mean the blacks of your image are free and clean of noise. However, many newer DSLRs are notable for their ability to handle high noise-free ISOs so perhaps put your camera to the test before going on location.
'Live at the Apollo' by Chris Evans, Canon EOS 70D, 10-22mm, 30secs at f/20, ISO 100
10. Learn to use your histogram
If you’re working in a town or city, your image will likely include various competing light sources. This carries the risk of some areas of your image becoming burned out. This will cause a lot of distraction for the viewer.
Make sure you check your camera’s histogram. If there is a spike of information predominately towards the right-side, then your image will be light; pushed towards the left, the image will be dark. Truthfully, there’s no ideal histogram display – it’s just a matter of making sure the tones are not right up against the left or right edge and are definitely not clipped.
If this happens, simply adjust your aperture or exposure compensation.
source: http://support-th.canon-asia.com
11. Use manual focus
As you’re working at night, your camera’s autofocus may struggle to adapt to the low-light conditions. You’ll need to set your lens to manual focus. Rather than attempting to focus through the viewfinder, use Live View, zoom into the image and then focus on the point where your traffic trails will appear. This will give you a much clearer picture and allow you to focus accurately on the details of the scene.
'The Perfect Storm' by Peter Földiak, exposure unknown
12. Set your camera’s white balance to tungsten/incandescent
If you’re shooting in the city, you’ll be faced with a series of artificial lights that will throw strange colour casts onto your image. Rather than relying on auto white balance, set your camera to the tungsten or incandescent setting.
'S-Curve' by Verity Milligan, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 24mm, 67secs at f/11, ISO 100
Shooting raw will give you much more control if you need to fix any white balance or exposure issues.
It will also make it a lot easier if you need to recover any details lost in any underexposed areas.
'The Photographer' by Nawfal Jirjees, Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24-70mm, 6secs at f/10, ISO 200
How to photograph light trails with an Android mobile phone
Do you want to achieve the effect of light trails in your photos? Gone are the days when good photos required an expensive and heavy SLR camera. With the advent of better sensors for mobile cameras, we can take professional photos with a few tweaks.
Now you can take photos worthy of the best photographer, even with amazing effects, simply from your Android mobile phone. These striking effects can be Liz's touches, among other things, let's see how to catch them. nine0003
Index
- 1 How to photograph traces of light with your Android
- 1.1 What is a photo with a light following
- 1.
2 Steps to photograph traces of lights
What is a photo with Sveta traces
This is This is . those photographs in which we can see the trail left by light in motion. For example, in the image that accompanies this post, we can see the lights of the cars driving down the road as if they were a painting, which has a spectacular effect. nine0003To be able to take them with your smartphone, the only thing you need is a manual mode so you can set up your camera so that you can take these types of photos without any problems.
Another requirement for this type of photo to be perfect is to have smartphone tripod, as the slightest movement of our pulse can cause the final photo to be blurry. If we do not have a tripod, we will need a flat and stable surface on which to place the phone. nine0003 Subscribe to our Youtube channel Once we know that we have the necessary equipment, we will need to set the smartphone so that the shutter remains open long enough for the light from the cars to register as a line. The first step we need to complete is to put the camera in manual mode. We must keep in mind that if we leave it on automatic, then the focus will go to the area where there is more light, so the end result will be very different from what we want. It's also important to remember that these photos only look good at night, so we'll have to wait until sunset to take them. nine0003 The next step is to set slow shutter speed . To ensure that the speed is ideal for a perfect result, we recommend that you estimate how long it will take the vehicles you want to photograph to pass in front of you. This way you can choose the ideal speed for your shot. Finally, you will need to set up the ISO. While there are those who recommend setting it to the minimum, ideally we should set it a little higher, around 400, for the result to be perfect. If you know of any other cool trick to take photos with your Android, we invite you to tell us about it in the comments section. The content of the article complies with our principles of editorial ethics. To report a bug, click here. One of the first things I wanted to photograph when I was a teenager and just starting to get into photography was light trails. I saw similar pictures in one of the magazines and really wanted to get the same ones. And still, light trails are a favorite for photographers. They also allow you to experiment more and move from automatic camera settings to manual ones, photographing in low light conditions and with long exposures. nine0003 If you've been captivated by light plume shots, here are some tips to help you get interesting results. Equipment. There is no specific type of photo equipment for shooting light trails, but, nevertheless, there are some requirements for the camera. The camera should be able to shoot with manual settings, or in shutter priority mode. You will also need a tripod (or any other way to make the camera absolutely still) because you will be photographing at a slow shutter speed, which is almost impossible to do by hand. nine0003 A lens hood (it will help to avoid unnecessary glare), a remote shutter release, a cable, and most importantly, patience and warm clothes in case of a chilly night will be optional, but desirable. Basic principles. One of the most important things in shooting light trails is the right spot to shoot, and that's where you need to start. Next, you need to install the camera, ensuring its immobility, set a high shutter speed and take pictures at the moment the car is moving along the highway, forming a light trail with the headlights. Experiments. Of course, the list of tips for shooting light trails is endless, but the most important thing is that you have to experiment. Moreover, digital photography does not make experiments expensive, you can take pictures again and again, deleting the unsuccessful ones. Getting ready to shoot. Settings. Snapshot time. There is no right or wrong moment to take a picture. You can press the shutter before the car enters the frame or when it is already leaving the frame. Again, you need to experiment. nine0003 Using the Bulb Mode - Most cameras now have a so-called " bulb " mode that allows you to keep the shutter open for as long as you wish. When using this mode, it is good to have an auto shutter control to avoid the slightest movement of the camera.
Thus, the end result will be one of those that people like to show to friends. Steps to photograph the trail of lights
Once your smartphone's camera is set up, all you have to do is wait for a car, train or plane to pass, shoot and enjoy the result. nine0003
How to photograph light trails. Photography Lesson
nine0003
Go low or take pictures from top to bottom, in which case the shots will be taken at an unusual angle, which will make them more interesting.
But for myself, I noticed that I use a shutter speed between 10 and 20 seconds and an average aperture value starting from F8. But again, you should experiment. nine0014 
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