These four pictures were shot way back when in May 2010. I got bored one clear, cloudless night, so I decided to take a walk down the Pike with my camera to see what I could see. While not the best examples of nighttime photography, they do show what happens when you leave the shutter open for 30 seconds or more.
All of these are shot with the camera rated at ISO 100 (the measure of how fast the camera's sensor soaks in the light - in this case, slowly), with the aperture set at f/32 (the smallest possible) and the shutter speed at 30 seconds or more. It goes without saying I was using a tripod.
I kind of like this first one for a very simple reason: The exposure was long enough for me to make it look like the traffic signals are showing red, yellow and green all at the same time.
Shot from a very low angle (some of the people walking by looked at me a little funny as I was sitting on the sidewalk), this is just a long shot looking east down the Pike. The orange lights are courtesy of a Metro Bus.
Looking west, these next two shots are similar except in the number of cars that passed by my lens. 
I really kinda like the ghosty effect of the Miata, it kind of looks like it's going to just disappear into the other car.
One of the things I love the most about shooting at night is that you can actually put a real sense of motion into a still picture. Just by cranking down the aperture and leaving the shutter open a little longer you can bring the streets to life in the dark.
7 comments:
Awesome effect!
I like that last one a lot with the ghost effect. Though I never would have seen it if you hadn't pointed it out. At least not in the smaller version.
J - thank you very much.
Liebchen - I had the luxury of an absolutely giant version to edit, so your difficulty is understandable. Also, the pictures are clickable to make them bigger.
Yaaayyy, you're back... I was missing your posts too.
Great pics, as usual! those lights with time have always amazed me.
that first one is especially striking with the long exposure. love that effect.
Yay more pictures! I love your pictures. Also love that you mentioned the people looking at you as you tried to get the low angle. The things we do for our art.
mags - God bless digital cameras. Those guys really deserved the Nobel they won. So many things we can do with digital.
MB - I was there about the time they movie at the Drafthouse let out. So there were a fair number of folks walking by. But you know me, I'm hard to fluster.
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