Light Trails on a Highway

[Kyle]

this is my first attempt at getting car light trails. Do you like the composition? How about the exposure?

And if you feel like it I thought it would be interesting if you wrote a couple sentences saying what you like, and another couple sentences pretending to be a harsh critic. I can take it.



Camera: Canon Rebel T1i
F number: 3.5
focal length: 18mm (28.8 equivalent)
Shutter: 22 s

[sourav]

The moon is distracting me, rest the colours and composition are pretty good.
I would have loved to see a foreground subject.......something like a man standing, or your own car, thats stable
Cheers

[Krusty79]

The exposure is nice, but I agree with sourav about the moon and a foreground object or human element. What about a hitchhiker on the side of the road or something like that? I think you have captured the light trails fine, but the shot does not tell me a story or evoke any emotion.

[SwissJon]

I won't pretend anything, I'll just tell you what I think..

I think you left the shutter open too long.. It's difficult to tell that these are light trails instead of neon lights stretching accross the screen.
There appars to be camera movement. I think maybe you were too close to the road?
The moon has been pointed out already.
As has the lack of forground interest. If there had been movement in the lights (as in change of direction or separation, then they would be the foreground interest.

Ahh.. But light trails are difficult. I think you might have had better luck if you'd taken this from higher up, separating the light trails instead of bunching them up. You could see where the indicator lights ended and so on. That would also have made the background more visible, which is the interest in this particular photo. Next time try a higher perspective on a busy corner.

Remember, Light trail photos follow the same rules as other photographic styles.. You need the interest, the rule of 1/3rds and all the other rules.. Just because it's a spe******ed style doesn't mean you can forget everything..

Give it another try.. Done right, it's extremely rewarding.. Persistence is the key here.

Sorry if I'm overly harsh.

[Kyle]

Thats fine, I always want to be improving. Thanks for the feedback.