Light Streak Photography

Light streaks can be pretty cool to photograph, getting cars going at night with a long exposure you can get a photo like this:

This photo was taken using a Nikon D3300 with a 35mm lens at f/1.8 with an 8 second exposure at ISO 100. One thing that may be useful is a neutral density filter, due to the amount of light in this area I needed an ND filter at 10:15pm in order to take this photo. I could have stopped down the aperture as well to deal with the brightness however I was directly below a light so it would have needed to drop down a-lot.

Because you are taking a long exposure you’re going to need a tripod, find a good location either on the side of road or on a bridge, the number one thing is to make sure you’re safe, don’t put yourself into a dangerous situation for the shot. Set your camera to Manual Mode, set your ISO to it’s lowest setting, and the aperture wide open, and then set your exposure to a couple of seconds. Then adjust as necessary to get the image you want, if it’s too bright, you may need to either have a shorter exposure, close down the aperture more, or use an ND filter. If it’s too dark, increase the exposure time or remove an ND filter if you’re using one. In order to minimize the shake, you should either set the camera to a countdown after you click the shutter, or better have a remote to control it, either of these will help you get the bet possible picture.

If you get some nice light streak photos I’d be interested in seeing them.