[Anto Modded]

Can someone help me out here. I have a 350d canon camera with a canon ef-s18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lense and i tried to do night trails. i set the camera up on the bridge overhead. its a busy enough road, no buildings around...just hedges with some road lights. i set my camera to the bulb setting and f13 which i read in a book and my photo ends up white. No it wasnt totally dark when i tried this. Could that of been my problem ? Also i tried using different iso levels to which slightly helped. One more thing, what af mode should i of used...''one shot'' ''ai focus'' or ''ai servo''. Any help would be great.

Also there is a fireworks diplay down the beach tonight which i would like to try and get the trails of the fireworks too.

Sorry for making this a long post.

[Dabhand16]

I think we need a little more info here - How long were the exposures, what was the ISO setting, and what shooting mode are you using?

[Anto Modded]

''M'' mode, exposure was 3 and i tried it from iso 100 upto 800 to see if i could alter it at all

[Dabhand16]

Thanks for the additional info. So the image is totally burnt out with no detail at all?

These are the things I'd be doing -

1 Try a shot using auto mode - night mode if you have it.
2 Try a shot at f22.
3 Try shorter exposures - 0.5 > 1 sec.
4 Change the memory card.
5 Try an ordinary shot in daylight.

It might be that you have too much light from the street lamps. Have a look at the similar shots others have in the gallery to check on their settings.

[Dabhand16]

Have a look at the EXIF in some of the shots that come up if you click on 'night' in the keyword tags cloud on the RHS of the gallery. Some shots do not have light trails, some do and some don't have EXIF, but the posters have put their settings in the posts.
In the first 7 or 8 pages there are several images with light trails.

You might want to do a search of fireworks in the search link just above the Tags cloud between home and profile to check out their EXIF, where displayed.

I would copy some here, but only the image is displayed - not the EXIF info.

[nichpr]

Were you, by any chance, pointing the camera toward oncoming traffic? The headlights will blow out any exposure setting. Try taking shots from the side or toward cars going away from you.

- Paul

[gsgary]

Could light have got in through the viewfinder ?

[Anto Modded]

Originally Posted by nichpr

Were you, by any chance, pointing the camera toward oncoming traffic? The headlights will blow out any exposure setting. Try taking shots from the side or toward cars going away from you.

- Paul

Yes i was pointing towards traffic, i did try this at around 9pm so it wasnt too dark to be honest, thanks for all the advices. I will look at other peoples settings and what conditions thay were taken in. there is a night setting but it doesnt let me adjust it. Really the only ones i have is shutter priority, aperture priority or manual, Manual is what i was using because of the bulb setting

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Anto Modded

Manual is what i was using because of the bulb setting

And it is the best way - I was only suggesting using an auto night mode so you could see if that worked, and if it did, to see what the settings were.

Hope you get it sorted, and if you do, don't forget to tell us what it was.

[Anto Modded]

I will eventually get it. And ill throw up some pics and settings i used. Just might take me a while to master cause i usally just photo rally's etc. this is all experimenting to me

[J Gordon]

Always zoom to the red light/tail light lanes. Try 1 sec rather than bulb, and then increase by per second for different results. For best results shoot at twighlight mid winter say between 4 and 5 pm, use a tripod to stabilise camera obviously, and seek out a motorway bridge, M25 is ideal at that time because traffic is slow and you get great trails. Also the A4 in London coming off the Hammersmith Flyover is superb in darkness.
Good luck