Light Trails take a bit of imagination to conceptualize and shoot. While not vital, it helps to be able to plot out how you want your image to appear to understand the camera settings for this type of photography.

Here’s the deal; light comes in to your camera and hits your sensor. As mentioned previously, your sensor’s pixels and little scales measuring the amount of light ‘weighing’ on them (‘striking’ them is another way to think of it and is more accurate). The more light that hits the sensor, the higher the scale reads. Most pixels have a scale from 0-255. 0 is black. 255 is all filled up with that particular pixel’s color (red, green, blue…if you need a diagram, check out the post on ISO).

All fine and well. What happens to create a light trail is light from a source moves across the scene in front of the camera and is emitting light (or reflecting it, but lets stick with an actual light sources here, like a lightbulb, or the glowing eyes of the Yeti which actually emit light, look it up). As it moves from left to right, let’s say, it essentially ‘paints’ the pixels in its path with something brighter than what was behind it. Often these shots are taken at night, so the background is really dark, maybe a 20 on that 0-255 scale. Now this bright light comes along and pushes the pixel ‘sensors’ up to 240 or even maxes them out to 255.

The pixels can’t go back down the scale and thus they show the bright 240 reading even though the light source has moved on to the pixels next to them. Confused?  I kinda am, so let’s look at a pretty picture.

In this Fourth Of July shot I had the kids stand completely still. I then took a lit sparkler and traced it around them. It’s one of the few times I could get my daughter to remain still, so I I tried it many times to get the above image. Because the sparkler (emitting light all over the place) was brighter than background, and the shutter was open for 30 seconds, I was able to trace and have that movement recorded on the sensor.

Another pretty picture.

Now over to Nepal with its mountains and chances to see stars. The exact same thing is happening here, believe it or not. Well, kinda. On a simple scale I am holding the camera still on planet Earth and it is rotating. The stars are (perceptively, but not actually) holding still. So when the camera moves and the light source holds still, the light appears to move. Which is cool! In this case, the shutter was left open for 445 seconds.

There are two basic ways to go about recording light trails, be they Earth bound or in the heavens.

Method 1 – Long Exposure

This is the method in the first image. I left the shutter open for 30 seconds in Shutter Priority mode. If you have a cable release or remote control for your camera, you can hold the shutter open even longer (or just hold down the shutter release when in Bulb mode, which might require switching to Manual mode). The long exposure method has its limits and challenges.

First of all, your subject needs to not move ideally, otherwise it will appear blurred while the light trail is painted. I’m talking here about the subject, not the light that is doing the trailing. Having kids stand still for 30 seconds is about the limits of this challenge according to the laws of physics. Even a relatively slow shutter speed can create light trails. Take a look at this .8 second long exposure of the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier in California.

.8 seconds might not be long on the back of a bull, but it is long enough to give just enough movement to the lights on the wheel. In this case, it was pretty easy to get the pier to not move (barring earthquakes).

Get a tripod. Or, if no tripod is handy (as in the picture above) use anything that you can that won’t move. In this case I set my backpack down on the sand, positioned the camera on the back of it and used a timed shot to help ensure I wasn’t moving the camera, burring the pier.

Another example. This shot is 20 seconds long and is taken in downtown Langley, Washington.

Method 2 – Stacking Multiple Images

The other main method is to stack multiple, shorter shutter length images into one final image. This takes a special program or Photoshop skills. I downloaded a simple program that costs $17 call Image Stacker. And it does just that. The method used to create light trails is called “Brightest”. Opps! Let me take a step back.

So step one would be to take the images. You would setup your camera on a sturdy surface or tripod. Something non-moving (which begs the question of why I attempted this demo in California). Using either your finger to keep pressing the shutter lease, or a handy product called an intervalometer, you take a series of images, one after the other, as close together as you can. This can lead to hundreds of images, or maybe just a dozen if you like.

In the computer, you would then throw these images (in JPEG or TIFF format) at Image Stacker, choosing the ‘Brightest’ option. The program then looks at the same pixel in each image and only uses the brightest one. It does this for how many ever millions of pixels you have. If you are shooting at a mainly black sky, for instance, it will see black in all of those pixels except for when a start moves across. Then it will just show that bight spot.

In this way you get trails, which may have spaces in them depending on the time between shots and how fast the objects are moving. By way of example, let me show you a test I did this week.

I shot 150 frames of the view from Santa Monica towards LAX airport to the south. Each frame was .8 seconds long and a shot was taken each second. The frames were then assembled the images using Lightroom and this cool plugin. The video it spit out looked like…

If I take those same images and stack them, I receive the image below:

Kinda cool. If I had taken one second exposures, the spaces in between lines would be gone.

I hope those two methods of creating light trails start you thinking about what you can create. Don’t look to the stars for all your inspiration, grab any type of light and see what you can create!

Next Up: How I Edited It

31+ Days To Better Photography is a series written by professional photographer Peter West Carey on The Carey Adventures.Com. The series is designed to unravel the mysteries of photography so you can take better pictures. Subscribe here to receive all the updates and bonus material. Your comments are always welcome.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Title: Sunset Up Close

Location: Santa Monica, California, USA

Description: Up close and personal, the sun breaks through higher clouds before dipping into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. This sequence is made up of over 600 individual images shot at the rate of one every second. The images were then adjusted in Lightroom and cropped to this format. In the future I will be compiling these individual time-lapse videos into a longer story, but for now, enjoy some other action on my Vimeo page.

Video Copyright Peter West Carey

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Title: Fire And Water (And A Very Small Boat)

Location: Santa Monica, California, USA

Description: This is a crop of a zoomed image. It is part of a time-lapse sequence which follows the sun as it emerges from the clouds above until it sinks into the ocean. You can see that full video by clicking on this post and scrolling to the video at the bottom. It is all of 27 seconds but it is pretty neat to watch.

Show with a Canon 7D and Canon 28-300mm L lens and settings of ISO 100, 300mm, f/10, 1/1000th of a second and then further cropped for this framing.

Photograph Creative Commons Copyright Peter West Carey

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

1. Stay In The Airport

Ha! Are you kidding me? Have you been to LAX? Every little area is kept separate from every other little area. They have about a thousand security check points and no connection between them. Or so it seems. I could stay in the terminal for 21 hours and stare at this.

That’s right, Starbucks. They have plenty of those. I have no fear of running out of pumpkin walnut bread or $3 bottles of water. By the way, I was making for that small exit sign. And credit to Alaska Airlines for getting me a seat on a different flight the next day before I made it out of the airport. Getting stuck in Seattle would not be so bad because it is a nice airport. But LAX? No thank you.

2. Exchange Some Money

I thought of doing this in the airport. After all, other countries’ money is so much cooler than the USA greenback. Check out some examples here.

3. Watch The Bicycle Cop Give Out Parking Tickets

I actually did this, which is why it makes it on the list.  I also got to watch him threaten someone who pulled up with no one else in the car, to the point of pulling out his pad and acting like he was writing.

4. Sit In Traffic

It’s an LA past-time and I would not want to miss out on this spectacle. Unless I have the chance to miss out on this spectacle.

5. Look For Mastodon Jaw Bones

While on a press trip last summer in Snowmass, Colorado I had the geekylicious experience of handling a 100,000 year old mastodon jaw bone within hours of it being unearthed nearby. It looked like this and was awesome (read more over at Vagabond3’s site) .

So you can imagine my surprise when I saw THIS sitting by the curb at LAX.

But alas, one kick of my boot confirmed it was NOT a mastodon jawbone accidently left in the street for me to discover. Just a chunk of rubber which hopefully did not just fall off of a plane. Sigh.

6. Get Sunburnt

Waiting for a ride away from the airport, the sun was hot. And beating. Beating hot. At least 75F in the sun. Hot enough to burn my sorry Seattle-white skin. I fear it.

7. Steal An Electric Vehicle

Believe me, I thought of it. And a ladder too? Hell yeah.

8. Stop By A Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf

Evidently this place is something of an institution down here. I also ate at In-N-Out Burger just to cover my bases.

9. Go To The Beach

Seriously. It’s California and it’s winter, which means you might want to wear a jacket, but you’ll still see plenty of people in shorts and flip flops. While Seattle freezes under a sheet of ice, the beach sounds like a great idea.

10. Shoot A Bitchin’ Time-lapse Film Of The Sun Setting

11. BONUS THINGS TO DO!

My friend Melanie of the fabled website Travels With Two has a whole passel of other ideas both in the LAX airport and nearby, if you still need ideas that don’t involve theft.

There you have it. Never be bored in LA during a flight cancelation ever again, if you print out this post and keep it with you (LAX has no free wifi, so kill some trees and print everything out that you want to read). There are at least 10 things to do in this city and I plan to do them all. Except the sunburnt one.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Title: The Moon And The Glow

Location: Palos Verdes, California, USA

Description: Just after sunset, as the color bled from the sky, the moon started its shift as the brightest light in the sky. But for a while, there was balance.

Shot with a Canon 7D and Canon 28-300mm L lens and settings of ISO 100, 65mm, f/6.3, 1/60th of a second

Photography Creative Commons Copyright Peter West Carey

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

When I recently visited Los Angeles I was happy that I could actually see Orion in the night sky for two reasons: #1 It was winter and I live near Seattle, so seeing stars in winter doesn’t happen that often and #2 LA is a massive sprawl of lights, lights and more lights.

Then I found the Griffith Observatory, perched to the North of town on what surely would be a hillside covered with houses if it were not a LA municipal park. This lack of houses makes it a great site for star gazing. While the city still does its best to block the star light, the observatory itself is worth the visit. But just in case you needed convincing of the wonderful panoramas from the decks of the observatory, this image should suffice:

On a clear night, this is what awaits you. And a walk up the hill to the observatory. And a lot of people because this is a popular site, even in on a Thursday night in January. When I arrived (15 minutes from closing, so I was able to gain an upfront parking spot instead of the parking in the overflow lots lower on the hill) the grounds were buzzing with couple and even a few kids. A few volunteers had set up smaller (but by no means small) telescopes in front of the observatory and were checking out Venus or the moon while allowing visitors to have a look.

The place had a nice, festive atmosphere. And the park closes at 10pm, which is when people will herd you to the exits and down the hill. And the observatory is FREE! Well, except a small fee for some of the programs held in a number of halls on the grounds. Free parking and free entry within the LA city limits? It’s all true. And if you have children who are even remotely interested in what’s above us in the night sky, there are a ton of exhibits explaining how telescopes work and other mysteries of the Universe.

Need some solid info for planning your evening at the observatory? 

• Plan to arrive early, even before sunset, to give yourself enough time to explore the grounds and exhibits. It’s a great spot for a picnic dinner.
• Tickets for events and shows are first come, first served.
• Parking will likely be down the hill for you, but you can drive to the top and drop off anyone who doesn’t want the uphill walk.
• The park closes at 10pm.
• The observatory is closed on Mondays and most Tuesdays.
• The official site can be found here.
• You can visit during the day time as the observatory has a solar telescope as well.
• Public star parties are held during new moons each month. More info on the schedule can be found here.
• Need help in finding your way to the observatory? It’s actually quite easy. Here’s info to  get you started.
• The observatory really does beg multiple visits at various times as there are outdoor exhibits that explain the path of the sun and moon and planets.

I plan on visiting the observatory again on another visit to LA because there is more to take in. Plus, they close the 12” telescope about 30 minutes before closing and I didn’t get a chance to look at the stars up close.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Title: Sunset Splash

Location: Palos Verdes, California, USA

Shot with a Canon 7D and Canon 28-300mm L lens with settings of ISO 100, 150mm, f/7.1, 1/200th of a second

Photograph Creative Commons Copyright Peter West Carey

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Title: Point Vincente Lighthouse

Location: Palos Verdes, California, USA

Description: Last night’s photo from California is Point Vicente Lighthouse. Saturation was bumped and I actually took out four lights on the ground that were distracting which, for me, is more manipulation than I normally handle.   I waited until the light turned my way and the beams were helped by the mist in the air as the temperature cooled after sunset.

Shot with Canon 7D, Canon 28-300mm L with settings: ISO 100, 10mm, f/5.6 and 1/6th of a second.

Photograph Creative Commons Copyright Peter West Carey

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Title: A View Of Los Angeles From The Griffith Observatory

Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

Description: Perched on a hill to the north of the city, the free entry Griffith Observatory is an awesome location to view the city lights. Crowded any night of the week, the park in which the observatory sits closes at 10pm so plan accordingly.

Shot with a Canon 7D, Canon 10-22mm EF lens and with the settings of ISO 100, 10mm, f/3.5, 8 seconds

Photograph Creative Commons Copyright Peter West Carey

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.