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Nov, 2014Views
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Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This is a photo of St Paul's Cathedral in central London, I took it about 5 month after buying my first camera. I always was attracted to light trails in photography, and I felt that, this was was the perfect place to give it a try!Time
Prior taking that shot, on a autumn evening, I was on the rooftop of a shopping center (One New Change) for a sunset with a view on St Paul's, I had no idea, then, I was going to take a long exposure shot. But on the way back, I just saw it, the composition was right in front of me. An intersection with quite a bit of traffic and a bus stop not too far away, I thought that was the perfect spot for a car trails shot!. It was now blue hour so they was no need to worry about nd filter, it took me a few tries to get the right exposure, the hardest was to get the right timing of the traffic flowing. But eventually, patience finally paid and I had the perfect shot.Lighting
I wanted a strong contrast between the old architecture and the modern of the city represented by the cars lights, I also liked how the dome of St Paul's was lit.Equipment
I used a nikon d5300 with the 18/55mm kit lens, a tripod and a wireless shutter remote.Inspiration
I was walking back to home and as I was looking at St Paul's and the traffic, It just came into me like a flash, the final photo appeared in my head and I knew I had to give it a shot.Editing
I had to do post-processing as I shoot raw, I didn't have too much to do though, just taking down the highlight and opening up the shadow. I boosted the clarity for more details and the saturation/vibrance for the light trails. The white balance was almost perfect, I just made it a bit more blue.I then, pushed the contrast and voila!In my camera bag
The 18/55mm kit lens is the lens I use the most, I also got a 50mm 1.8 and a 105mm 2.8 which I haven't mastered yet. I have a nd1000 and nd400 filter, important for long exposure during the day or sunset. I also have a polarizer filter, great to get rid of sun reflection. And you cannot do long exposure without a shutter release, mine is wireless.Feedback
Observe the traffic flow for a while so you can get better timing when shooting the light trail. If there is a traffic light you should shoot during the green light, otherwise cars not moving will start revealing on your image. Try different shutter speed for different look, a faster shutter speed (~2s) and you might get a 'phantom' look, a slower shutter speed and and you will only get the trails light. If like in my photo you like the starbust effect on the lamp,use a small aperture like f16. And finally I would say look at your histogram specially if you shoot raw, as the jpeg on your camera live view might look well exposed but not when you import the raw into lightroom.
