How can I shoot night light trails with an iPhone 6S?
Asked 10/26/2016
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2 answers
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I want to photograph light trails from passing cars and other moving lights at night using an iPhone 6S. What settings and accessories do I need, and do I need a specific app to do this on a smartphone?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
2
In general, you need to set long exposure, likely several seconds, and set your aperture and ISO appropriately to achieve correct exposure. For long exposures you need to make sure that your camera is absolutely steady. Tripod is usually used for this purpose.
You would need an app that can control the ISO, exposure time and aperture.
Originally by user27944. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27944
9y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
To capture light trails, you need a long exposure so moving lights record as streaks. On an iPhone 6S, that usually means using a camera app that lets you control exposure time and ISO, since the stock camera may not offer the control you need.
Key points:
- Use a long shutter/exposure time, often several seconds.
- Keep ISO as low as practical to reduce noise.
- Adjust exposure so the scene isn’t over- or underexposed.
- Keep the phone completely still—use a tripod or very stable support.
Because smartphones have fixed apertures, exposure is mainly controlled with shutter time and ISO rather than aperture changes. A dedicated long-exposure app can help with this; one community answer specifically mentions a “Slow Shutter” app tutorial.
In short: mount the phone on a tripod, use a long-exposure app, choose a multi-second exposure, and experiment with ISO/exposure until the trails are bright but the rest of the scene is still properly exposed.
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