How to Photograph Light Trails – A Step-by-Step Guide

Have you ever seen images where the moving lights from passing vehicles appear as vivid light trails and wondered how to create them yourself? This article reveals what is involved and exactly how to do it. By the end of this article, you will have a theoretical and practical understanding of light trail photography.

Interpretation

Light trail images fall under the long exposure photography category. A long exposure is when a camera takes one image continuously for a chosen amount of time. To enable a camera to do this, the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed must be set appropriately to get the right exposure. They all play a part in controlling the exposure of images.

An important setting that makes taking a long exposure photo possible is the shutter speed. With that being said, a long exposure is when a camera leaves the shutter open for an extended amount of time to let in further light. This allows images to be shot at night and in low light conditions. Long exposures exclusively use and require the use of longer shutter speeds. This can range from 1 to 30 seconds or even for numerous minutes when using bulb mode. Taking images with such lengths of time results in creating an image that shows motion blur whereby moving objects appear blurry or obscured, while stationary objects remain sharp.

There are many ways that a long exposure can be used to create different effects. It is used as a specific technique to achieve certain results, such as turning running water in a waterfall into a smooth flowing surface or removing crowds of people walking through a busy promenade.

Additionally, when a long exposure photo is being shot at night, any moving source of light appears on the image as a trail of light. This effect is of great importance to the subject of this article as it enables the ability to create fantastic images where a vehicle’s path is shown by its light.

A light trail photo involves taking a long exposure at night when vehicles are passing the camera, which results in capturing an image showing the movement by light. Due to the camera capturing a photo that lasts several seconds, it causes every passing vehicle to create colourful light trails of the path taken. Vehicles appear as streaked moving lines that travel across the image, which looks exceptionally beautiful and enchanting. There is something special about the patterned trails that are created, which make it greatly pleasing to the eye.

Examples

Here are some examples to provide an idea of what light trail photos can look like.

The Camera Settings Making Long Exposures Possible