My first try...

[jeanne]

I went out and stood on an overpass and tried to get the streaking lights. It was alot of fun...but i'm not sure how to keep the lights so crisp. I'm not sure...but i think i am having difficulties with focusing. (hope i'm not breaking any of the critique rules )




Camera Model - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
F-Stop - f/5.6
Exposure Time - 8 sec.
ISO - 400

[fletch]

Welcome. I don't think you've broken any of the critique rules!!!

At this size im not sure if you've got the focusing spot on or not. For this type of shot you could use the hyperfocal distance to ensure it is all crisp. Don't ask me to explain but I seem to remember it was on the blog a few weeks ago so you could search for it easily enough.

I think part of the blurryness could be due to a slight over exposure of the white lights though. It's very difficult to expose a shot like this correctly as the cars are moving so it will be just trail and error. However it may work out better if you try to time the shot when there are more red rear lights than white headlights so the white light is less intense.

[KodiakStar]

To have a sharper picture I would go with ISO100 and f8-11? This will probably result in a slightly longer exposure, but you could play with the time to try and get it just right.

[oldwolf]

drop your ISO to 100 and f-stop to about 10ish then put your camera on a tripod and use a remote to trigger the shutter. if you don't have a remote then set the self timer and hit the shutter button then step back and wait for the camera to finish the exposure.

reason i say use a remote or the self timer is because a lot of people, myself included, tend to move the camera just a bit when they press the shutter button some times so best to be safe than sorry.

[fletch]

I'm not sure how much a lower ISO would help with a sharper picture. It would reduce noise but I can't see any in this picture anyway. That's asuming the overall exposure stayed the same.

To get rid of the blown out section in the oncoming lights you would need to reduce the exposure, either by adjusting one or more elements of the exposure triangle (Apperture, shutter speed or ISO) or change the ammount of light in the scene (less cars). My view is that just by adjusting the exposure you would still blow out the lights as they are so much brighter than the rest of the scene. By reducing the ammount of lights the effect would be less distracting to the rest of the scene.

[jeanne]

Thank you for all the comments!!! I've learned so much in the past week just reading thru this forum....that i think i can do this much better next try. Now that i think back....i think i might have taken this picture in Aperture Priority mode lol....i remember not knowing how to adjust the shutter speed to where i wanted it. I'm not positive, but i think that might be what i did wrong.

Thanks again for your help...will try this again