Why do car headlights and streetlights turn into large blobs instead of thin light trails?
Asked 3/15/2012
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2 answers
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I’m trying to photograph traffic light trails with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8, but the oncoming headlights and some streetlights appear as large glowing blobs instead of clean thin lines. My settings were f/8 (the smallest aperture available), 6 seconds, and ISO 100. Is there a way to reduce the excessive light and get cleaner trails?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
4
The blobs result from the bright areas being extremely overexposed. So, quite simply, you need less light coming in. The ways to do that are:
shorter shutter speed (keeping ISO & aperture the same...I'm assuming you're operating in manual mode and can control those). You probably don't want to do that in this case, because it will decrease the "trail" effect.
smaller aperture (keeping shutter & ISO the same). But as you've said you cannot go any more on that.
lower ISO (keeping aperture & shutter the same). I don't know the specifics of this camera but guessing 100 is the lowest? So probably that's out.
use a neutral-density (ND) filter (all other variables the same). Given the above points, I think this is the only way you're going to improve things in this image. If your lens does not accept filters, you could probably rig up something using one of the larger square/rectangular ND filters and some rubber bands or some such. A Polarizing filter might help some; not so much because of the polarizing effect but because they also generally decrease the amount of light coming in...that is the main issue in this case.
As another poster mentioned, you could possibly change your angle to the cars so that they're not coming directly into your camera, but that obviously changes your composition so that may not be a realistic option depending on what you have in mind.
Originally by user8297. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user8297
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The main cause is overexposure of very bright lights. When headlights or streetlights are too bright for the exposure, they “bloom” into large blobs instead of staying as thin trails.
With your settings, you’ve already used the smallest aperture and lowest ISO, so your main options are:
- reduce the exposure by using a darker shooting location
- avoid direct oncoming headlights if possible
- use a neutral-density (ND) filter to cut the light while keeping a long shutter speed
- shorten the shutter speed, though that will also shorten the trails
A small amount of spreading can also come from diffraction and sensor blooming, especially around very bright point light sources, so some glow is normal. But if the blobs are large, exposure is the bigger issue.
So for cleaner light trails, the best fix is usually less light overall: shoot in a darker scene, change your angle, or add an ND filter so you can keep a long exposure without blowing out the brightest lights.
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