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NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY – 10 Tips For Long Exposure Photography Light Trails



Long exposure night photography producing light trails is the focus for this tutorial. Ray Scott offers up 10 great tips that will show you how to take stunning light trails photos. The tips are many including what kind of aperture and shutter speed to use. What ISO settings are best. How to stabilize your camera with a tripod. Shooting more than just light trails by being aware of the background meaning taking the typical highway overpass picture is okay but why not head into the city and use the buildings and other structures to add interesting backdrops to create beautiful images. One could also create truly abstract photography art as well. This is definitely something that can be accomplished in the city as a form of street photography. Your pics will be different from your average photo making for unique images. Learn night photography camera settings and various night photography techniques with this inspiration video. It’s a top 10 tips tutorial for light trails photography which will enhance and expand your night photography and long exposure photography experience.

Whether you say it as photographing light trails, light trails photography or anything else, this fun form of photography can be for everyone.

When in studio or in the field Ray uses Canon gear. This is a choice he made years ago knowing that he was buying into a system that he could grow into. His go to camera is the Canon EOS 6D with the second camera being a Canon 5D. Lenses used are all L series f/4 except for the 50mm macro with extender. 16-35mm f/4L, 24-105mm f/4L, and 70-200mm f/4L round out the kit which is carried about with either a Lowepro Urban Reporter 250 messenger bag for city shooting or a Lowepro Sling Bag for landscape field work. While Ray does more camera handholding than before due to the image stabilization capabilities of his various lenses, he still is a believer in using his Manfrotto carbon fibre tripod. It’s light and it is sturdy.

Ray is a firm believer in exposing himself to as much photography and its history as possible. By looking at other people’s photos, he has gained a big appreciation of what this medium has to offer. Ray doesn’t think that “copying” someone else’s style is a good thing but rather feels that exposing oneself to others work can work as a teaching and inspirational tool. With this in mind, Ray has amassed a list of favorite photographers that he uses for inspiration. Some of these artistic photographers are Galen Rowell, Ansel Adams, Frans Lanting, Annie Leibovitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Freeman Patterson, William Neill and Richard Avedon.

One of the playlists on this channel is called “neighbourhood photographer” which covers tutorials shot in urban and suburban areas. It’s always a challenge to see different things of interest when you’ve been to an area many times yet this is the best way to create good images. You need to return to familiar locations many times. To do so, Ray often drives by car to an area but when he really wants to cover ground yet see things more clearly, he uses his bicycle…bike…and explores the given place.

Whether shooting landscape, macro, portrait or abstract images, Ray always tries to be aware of his surroundings to capture the best pictures possible. Part of this workflow means he is very aware of composition and uses various tips, such as the rule of thirds, as a good starting point in composing. He also likes to break rules from time to time to add new effects to his photos. Being aware of angles, shadows, shapes, lines, textures, patterns and colours goes a long way to making good pictures. He is also a big believer in “getting out there” and shooting as much as possible as it is the only way to improve and flex one’s imagination. His message is it doesn’t matter if you do your photography in the city, suburbs country, mountains or by the sea, just make sure you do it and follow your artistic passion.

Find me also on…
Facebook…https://www.facebook.com/visart66?ref=hl

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39 responses to “NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY – 10 Tips For Long Exposure Photography Light Trails”

  1. Your lessons are great, and right to the point. I have been studying photography for years, now focusing on night photography and most instructors just talk about themselves, thanks for being so direct and helpful !

  12. SIR, can u tell me how do setting in canon 650D i tried using diff setting in manual mode shutter speed:1/10; aperature:F11 iso:100 still not working this was seeting little help me but accurate

  13. Thanks for this! I was doing a time lapse on my iPhone one day and saw an opportunity to do light trails with my DSLR. I had NEVER done it before though I had read about it a little bit. Fortunately I had a second tripod so I gave it a shot. The results were pretty good for someone who never did it before! So I liked your photos and the tips of shooting on the street. I've been trying to find spots "high above" but they are a challenge in major cities (at least mine). I think a lot of overpasses have fences and barriers for safety reasons (or preventative stuff). But I liked your street photos. I'll have to give it a shot once the weather out here clears up!

  25. Hi Ray my name is Ian. Many thanks for the tutorial. I have never been a night shooter really until bonfire night this year and this has given me new inspiration, I managed to photograph the fireworks handheld at shutter speed 1/5 with some great results. Now going to try the light trails. Cheers.

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