Long exposure light trails (group project – challenge no.2)

For the second project challenge in the photography group we tried out some long exposure light trails. For this I thought traffic lights would be perfect. We went to the centre of town on a night when it was absolutely freezing, and proceeded to take photos of the traffic whizzing past under an overpass, next to the train station. Disappointingly, not a lot of traffic passed under us at this time, even though it was rush hour, or just after. After like 45 minutes I could no longer feel my toes so we went for dinner instead!  Perhaps doing this during an evening in springtime or summertime would have been kinder on my feet and hands, but the things you do… 😉 I would not say that I produced some of my better photos during this challenge, but it was actually fun. Mostly because it was years since I did it last time.

During evening photography it is always best to use as low an ISO setting as possible, I used 100 ISO on these photos, and mostly do during low-light conditions. This is so I can avoid bringing in too much noise. I hate noise.

Canon EOS 5D mkII + EF 24-105  at: 24mm, 6 sec, f/14, ISO 100

Canon EOS 5D mkII + EF 24-105 at: 105mm, 30 sec, f/18, ISO 100

The second image was taken with a much longer shutter speed, which resulted in more lights from moving traffic, but also blown out highlights in the stationary traffics lights.

Next project challenge is Still Life photography!