How to Make Light Streaks With a DSLR
Light streaks in digital imagery are fun and easy to create with a DSLR camera, allowing you to capture traffic, fireworks and any other moving, lighted object. With a little imagination and patience, as well as a willingness to experiment, creating light streaks will quickly become part of your digital imaging repertoire. It's all about finding a good subject, choosing a creative angle and letting in enough light over a period of time to capture the illusion of streaks.
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Instructions
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Choose a subject, setting and time of day that will be conducive to capturing streaks of light. Possible subjects include traffic, fireworks, sparklers, flashlights or any other moving lights. Some effective spots for capturing traffic are on a bridge overlooking a road or highway, on a sidewalk beside a road, or from a tall building. If you're photographing fireworks, set up on a hillside or other area that gives you full view of the light show. You'll also need to decide on a time for your shoot. Darkness is often effective, since it provides maximum visibility for the moving light you want to catch. You might also try when the sun is just going down or rising, however, to get the added effect of natural light.
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Position the tripod so it's sturdy and pointed in the direction of the lights you want to photograph, then secure the camera to the tripod. The tripod is necessary when capturing light streaks, since you must keep the camera still while the aperture is wide and the shutter speed is slow. Without the tripod, your photos will be blurry.
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Set your camera to manual mode and adjust it so it has a relatively slow shutter speed, probably starting with between 10 and 20 seconds. Set your aperture so it's around f/8 for starters. You'll need to experiment with different combinations of speeds and aperture sizes to see what works in your circumstances.
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Take a few test photos and look at the results. If the photos are over-exposed -- meaning they have too much light -- make the aperture smaller by increasing the f-stop. If they're underexposed, with too little light, make the aperture larger by decreasing the f-stop. Take more photos and adjust the camera's settings until you get just the effect you want.
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Tips & Warnings
Read your camera's manual for detailed manual mode instructions.
Remember that the lower the f-stop, the larger the aperture, and vice versa.
Use the rule of thirds when framing your subject by placing it off-center instead of right in the middle of the picture.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images
