A Day In The Life

Lights: My First Attempt At Light Trails

I've always been a huge fan of light trail photography and fascinated by photographs that have been produced. However, I've always wondered how such enchanting lines are created. Therefore, I did alot of research into the subject and went out one evening to give it a go of my own!

One of the most important parts of capturing the light is making sure to use a tripod. A tripod is a necessity as you will be shooting with long shutter speeds, which will make shooting handheld pretty much impossible.

To take these images, I took them on a flyover, over the A38 in Plymouth. I wanted to use creative perspectives within my work, I thought that by looking down on the subject it will create an unusual angle and by being high up, I was able to capture the curves within the light.

When starting out, I had to do alot of experimenting in order to find the correct settings I needed to use. I found myself using shutter speeds between ten and twenty seconds, which gives the car time to travel through the frame and my aperture was on about f/8. I made sure when i was taking photographs I had my ISO on the lowest possible setting, as I wanted as little noise as possible within my photographs.

If I was to shoot again, I would use a lens hood, which blocks lens flare from ambient lights. I would also invest in some wireless remote controls, as the odd photograph came out blurred and this would help to solve this problem.