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St Paul's Trail

Light trail at St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Light trail at St Paul's Cathedral, London.
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SONY ILCE-7M2

settings

Aperture f/9 ISO 100 Shutter 5/1 Focal Length 140/10

location

London, GB

upload_date

Apr, 2020

Views

503

Likes

+48

Awards

Contest Finalist in Monthly Pro Photo Contest Volume11

Peer Award

+13

Outstanding Creativity

Top Choice

Absolute Masterpiece

Superb Composition

Superior Skill

Magnificent Capture

Virtuoso

Genius

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 20 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 30 rank

Top 30 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 30 rank week 2

Top 30 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

Front side of St. Pauls Cathedral, London. London is one of my homes for photography.

Time

This is one of my favourite night time images. I was walking around London at around 9pm, capturing any opportunity of a trail I could see. This image stood out to me due to the relevance of the location, the big red London phone box and St. Pauls Cathedral, a famous landmark in the capital.

Lighting

The use of bus trail lights allowed me to capture the motion in this image. All the lighting is artificial from the street lamps, car lights and the light projecting onto St. Pauls Cathedral. Using a cool White Balance added to the cold night landscape and emphasised the vehicle lights a lot more.

Equipment

This was taken using a Sony A7II, Samyang 14mm f2.8, tripod and remote shutter release. The factor that enabled me to capture this image was the use of stabilisation from the tripod and the shutter release reducing the amount of movement I had around the camera.

Inspiration

Typically I walk around the same areas of London at different times of day and parts of Year to find new and inspiring images. I was focusing on adding as much architecture and detail into the frame, as well as incorporating the use of slow shutter speed to get some movement in the image.

Editing

All my processing is completed using Adobe Lightroom using a RAW format of camera file, especially when working with night time trails as some images can result in a little overexposed or underexposed. For this image, I removed the majority of the shadows, modified the white balance to appear a little cooler than what I had set in-camera. I had also cropped the image to make the components of the image much closer together and tighter to fill the space. I also removed the distortion from the 14mm full-frame lens I was using via the "lens profile" tab.

In my camera bag

My equipment choices vary a lot depending on what I want to focus on, either macro/wildlife or night city photography (two hugely different topics - I know!). When I involve myself in city photography I keep light for long walks - Sony A7II with my Samyang 14mm f2.8, tripod and shutter release keeps me going for all my needs. However for my macro/wildlife (please check out my profile for these!), my Olympus E-M1 II, 60mm Macro Lens, FL700WR Flash coming in at just under 1KG keep me lightweight and shooting all my small creatures and animals perfectly. The most important items I always carry with me, regardless of journey or event, is spare batteries and memory cards - they are so unbelievably important! You can't make tea without a teabag?

Feedback

Find similar photographs that are similar to your vision, settings that will help you get there and any advice already available. Long exposure trails are very rewarding for the individual but the practice is a must! My advice is the more variations in the image of the same location the better - one angle, perspective or timing will stick out to be your favourite. Rather than taking ten images at the same exact spot try getting lower, higher, upside-down, add a second feature - try anything!

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St Paul's Trail

Light trail at St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow owenduda

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