Light trail on a mountain road

Septh · 25 May 2009 at 19:55

My friend took this last night, I was driving the car, thought I'd share it

First time we'd tried it, and we're pretty chuffed with it!
Was taken at Nant y Moch reservoir in Mid Wales, and was a 30 second exposure

Comments welcome!

famas · 25 May 2009 at 19:57

love it, very cool

smogsy · 25 May 2009 at 20:01

sweet

Thorien · 25 May 2009 at 20:41

Wicked! Can you give us some more info on how you achieve this sort of shot?!

Derek W · 25 May 2009 at 20:46

Thorien said:
Wicked! Can you give us some more info on how you achieve this sort of shot?!

Essentially what hes done is reduced the aperture size so not much light is getting in (f11 according to the EXIF data) and lengthened the time the shutter is open (30seconds as mentioned so a tripod is necessary) and have a car drive by with the light it leaves remaining in the shot. Dont think theres any other way to explain it really

Septh · 25 May 2009 at 20:51

Derek W said:
Essentially what hes done is reduced the aperture size so not much light is getting in (f11 according to the EXIF data) and lengthened the time the shutter is open (30seconds as mentioned so a tripod is necessary) and have a car drive by with the light it leaves remaining in the shot. Dont think theres any other way to explain it really

Thats basically it.
We had to have the fog lights on to make it really stand out, and go as quick as I could to get the trail as long as possible in the 30 seconds

Well thats the excuse anyway lol

Yarde · 25 May 2009 at 20:52

DUDE!

thats sick, great work!

Thorien · 25 May 2009 at 21:00

Septh said:
Thats basically it.
We had to have the fog lights on to make it really stand out, and go as quick as I could to get the trail as long as possible in the 30 seconds
Well thats the excuse anyway lol

Thanks for for the info guys! You must know the road really well to get that far in 30 secs! :eek:

ps: do you reduce the aperture to get a bigger depth of field?

Septh · 25 May 2009 at 21:05

Oh and also, find a nice twisty quiet bit of road for it with a good vantage point (but make sure its got a turning around point on it!).
As you can see we were basically on a single track road that goes around a reservoir.
We did a couple other ones too, but they weren't as good, basically just one corner.
We've got a good idea for next time to do it on u-bend and stand on the centre of the bend, then you get the headlights lights coming towards you, then changing in the middle and the tail lights going away.

Firstly though we're doing some in car exposures as we drive along

mcc49 · 25 May 2009 at 21:06

Beautiful picture

. When capturing light trails, how would you go about metering for a correct exposure? Do you set the shutter speed then adjust the aperture accordingly till the meter balances out at 0ev? Where do you take the light reading from?

Septh · 25 May 2009 at 21:09

Thorien said:
Thanks for for the info guys! You must know the road really well to get that far in 30 secs!

ps: do you reduce the aperture to get a bigger depth of field?

Jamie who took the picture says:
He wanted a bit more depth of field, but it was basically to expose it correctly for the 30 seconds, as he didn't have a remote. It was a bit of guess work, we did a few runs, and started on f/22 and it was too dark, so reduced it a bit.

That was my second run at that bit of road, so I kind of knew it. Its the advantage of using a empty road, you can gun it a bit

Septh · 25 May 2009 at 21:11

mcc49 said:
Beautiful picture . When capturing light trails, how would you go about metering for a correct exposure? Do you set the shutter speed then adjust the aperture accordingly till the meter balances out at 0ev? Where do you take the light reading from?

As above, mostly guess work and trial and error

Couldn't really meter it in the pitch black

mcc49 · 25 May 2009 at 21:16

Guesstimation... I like it ;D

Eye seven · 25 May 2009 at 22:02

Very nice work - motivates me to give this a try sometime this summer.

slothmeister · 25 May 2009 at 22:15

me and blastman tried this down the road from me on a beachfront road, but it was no way near as good as this, stunning shot.

Tis fun though hooning down the road to get the light trail as long as possible.

Septh · 25 May 2009 at 22:26

slothmeister said:
me and blastman tried this down the road from me on a beachfront road, but it was no way near as good as this, stunning shot.

Tis fun though hooning down the road to get the light trail as long as possible.

hahaha yeah it is! Doesn't half burn a lot of fuel tho!
The bit of road really makes it, a good twisty one makes it a more interesting! With the lake in it as well made it even more interesting

And cheers for the great replies!

cyclopopcicle · 26 May 2009 at 07:35

great shot, but dont brake round bends, it unbalances the car, get to the speed needed for the bend, come off the brake just before you enter it, get to the apex then gun it as you leave the bend, it will make the car feel better around the bend.

Septh · 26 May 2009 at 07:56

cyclopopcicle said:
great shot, but dont brake round bends, it unbalances the car, get to the speed needed for the bend, come off the brake just before you enter it, get to the apex then gun it as you leave the bend, it will make the car feel better around the bend.

I dunno why it looks like I'm braking in the first bend. I don't think I was, as it wasn't a rolling a start, Jamie shouted go and I went as he set off the 2 second timer on his camera.
I always go on at people to brake before a corner, let off and power on at the apex.
And I was driving a Diesel focus C-max lol

Craig R · 26 May 2009 at 10:50

Love it

A.N.Other · 26 May 2009 at 11:23

cyclopopcicle said:
great shot, but dont brake round bends, it unbalances the car, get to the speed needed for the bend, come off the brake just before you enter it, get to the apex then gun it as you leave the bend, it will make the car feel better around the bend.

I think it's just changing colour as they're LED lights and you're seeing them at different angles.