stangace20 From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 4 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 1 month 1 week 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 3127 times:
I'm trying to take long exposure photos of aircraft passing over my house at night.....I'm basically trying to get the light trail effect.
The shot I'm trying to get right now, has me looking west towards a large mountain and air traffic passing over my house and going behind the mountain. I would like to get one w/ multiple aircraft to make the light trails really bright like I've seen in some photos
However while I have a remote timer and everything for my camera, I am getting generally too much light w/ any picture that was exposed for more than a minute, and the light trails aren't really very long/bright if I set the time for less than that. And of course confounding the problem is that it takes at least 2 min for the aircraft to pass over me and behind the mountain
Silver1SWA From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 4538 posts, RR: 26 Reply 1, posted (2 years 1 month 1 week 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 3113 times:
Quoting stangace20 (Thread starter): However while I have a remote timer and everything for my camera, I am getting generally too much light w/ any picture that was exposed for more than a minute, and the light trails aren't really very long/bright if I set the time for less than that. And of course confounding the problem is that it takes at least 2 min for the aircraft to pass over me and behind the mountain
Do you understand the relationship among shutter speed, aperture and ISO? If your pictures are overexposed, stop down your aperture and set the lowest ISO.
I recommend manual mode so you can control all three parameters.
[Edited 2011-04-15 21:27:41]
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.
stangace20 From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 4 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (2 years 1 month 1 week 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 3108 times:
a bit, I think the lowest ISO setting on my camera is about 100 and the highest 1400
(or those are at least the presets)
Silver1SWA From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 4538 posts, RR: 26 Reply 3, posted (2 years 1 month 1 week 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 3102 times:
It would help a lot if you would be a little more specific about what you have tried so far. What mode were you in? What settings? Knowing what your settings were and that they resulted in overexposure will help us determine the kind of environment you were shooting in.
If you don't fully understand the basics like the relationship among shutter, aperture and ISO, then this type of photography will be bit more difficult for you. It's not the same as a bright sunny day where you can have the camera do a lot of the thinking.
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.
This one, ISO2000, f7.1, for 47 seconds.
This set on flickr should help as you should be able to check the settings. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tupperware_pilot/sets/72157622868988969/
As has been already said, knowing your camera and how to use it is useful. But go and have a play. If you have a noise reduction system on your camera, "TURN IT OFF" as with my Nikon if you take a 60 second shot it take 60 seconds to process. And this is a pain. And not going to make that much difference, you can use it once you are up to speed with this type of shot.
Good luck.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 4 posts, 
From UK - England, joined Dec 2006, 657 posts, 
From Poland, joined Sep 2002, 1854 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
