Shoot Blurs: Trails at Night

Try to use subjects like trees on the side of the road to complement and balance your picture. Photograph/M Shobi

Chandni Gajria suggest you find the perfect spot, compose your picture and let the streaks of colouful light enter your camera.

Night is a wonderful time when a city in any part of the world brightens up. Usually these lights are in the form of trails formed by vehicles on the road. Light trails are one of the most common type of blurs that each of us at some point may have tried photographing.

The Technique
To capture a perfect light trail you will have to use a slow shutterspeed. This can be as slow as 20sec or even 1sec. For this reason, it is important to have a tripod. The camera must be very steady if you want this technique to work.

When to Shoot Light Trails
While night is the best time for shooting light trails, you can attempt to capture one just before or even right after the sun sets, during twilight.

Not only will you be able to capture the light trails but you will also be able to bring in a bit of ambient light in yourphotographs.

Set Your Frame
Find a location which is spacious enough to accommodate a tripod and which will allow you to capture a variety of light trail pictures. Anaerial shot of light trails from a bridge is an interesting perspective that you could try.

This article originally appeared in the November 2012 issue of Better Photography.