Light Trails?

[taylorwilsdon]

Has anyone here tried shooting light trails? I tried for the first time tonight and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips.

What adjustments do you make in Camera Raw? I used Tungsten white balance, jacked the Vibrancy up a little and played with the contrast on the 2nd one.

I tried shooting at 20 and 30 seconds, f/22 with ISO 200.

Here's a couple ones.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2282/2245901048_788c7c3656.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2376/2245120525_412034fef9.jpg

[eddx]

The settings I use is... Bulb shutter (so I can control the shutter time, usually 10-60 seconds). f/22. ISO 100. No flash (obviously). I used a wired shutter remote and have the camera on a tripod. White balance wise I have it set at Auto as always and shoot RAW so this can be altered and I retain all the details when I start developing the files in Lightroom and finish off in Photoshop.

Look for interesting backgrounds, city centre's are were its at and try and go with a friend for safety. Here are some of my favorite light trail photos...

http://edsphotoblog.com/wp-content/photos/800px/st_peters_square_nighttime_manchester.jpg (http://www.edwud.com/2007/11/16/st-peters-square-metrolink-at-night/)

http://www.edwud.com/photos/china_town_light_trails_manchester.jpg (http://www.edwud.com/2008/01/13/china-town-light-trails-manchester/)

Keep trying and the post processing is where you can really make your light trails amazing, always shoot them in RAW and play with saturation and white balance in the comfort of your chair rather than out in the cold of night.