How to shoot traffic at night?

I was always fascinated to see night photographs of traffic esp. those long white and red streaks of light, the sense of motion is captured greatly at night. I have shuffled through enough of those Nat Geo magazines to find some night photographs and whenever I found one I was never disappointed.

After said all that I wanted some good memoirs of night life for myself..through my lens
Some points to consider while shooting traffic at night esp if you want those everlasting white/yellow/red streaks of lights and those glittering street lamps..

What would you need:


1. Setting your ISO

If you are a Digital SLR user then set your ISO to 100/200. I prefer these ISO levels as there is minimal grain and good color saturation. If you are shooting with a film/slide then also make sure you have loaded the camera with a ISO 100/200 film. I suggest Fuji crystal for film users and Fuji Velvia 100/100F for slide users.

2. Aperture and Shutter Speed settings

a. Bring down the aperture to anything above 18 (personally I like 22) this is to maximize the depth-of-field and also to control the light etching on the film/sensor using customer shutter speeds. With these settings if exposed for a long enough time all the street lights will start to glitter like stars and this also avoids those bright blobs in your picture if you were shooting traffic heading towards the direction of the frame with their head lights on

b. Change to MF (Manual Focus). Now compose your picture. It is better if you include a still /stationary object in your frame like a lamp post, sign post, parked vehicle etc., and focus on that. This gives the feeling of motion better.

c. Set your shutter speeds to anything above 15“ (secs) (personally I like the BULB setting). Why 15sec? Actually, you can use any shutter speeds settings you like depending on how you want your final picture. If you observe the traffic closley you’ll have a fair idea about how much time does a vehicle takes to cross your picture frame, starting from the top and ending at the bottom or starting from left and ending to the right or vice-versa. Interesting frames can be composed at traffic junctions. Once you have the idea of time then set your shutter speeds accordingly. If you set it to “BULB” then you have much finer control over the exposure you can expose the traffic passing from one end and still wait for more incoming traffic. While using BULB settings I highly recommend a shutter release or remote control to release the shutter as even the slightest shake the spoil the whole picture. Once you have composed your frame and focussed take of your eye from the eyepiece and let the shutter release do the work for you.

Now once your ISO, aperture and shutter speed settings are done release your shutter using the shutter release. Take a deep breath before releasing the shutter to avoid any camera shake. After you are satisified that enough traffic has passed by then release the shutter back to normal. During the whole process you can completley forget the cameras readings.

DO NOT compensate for exposure by taking the camera readings into consideration. You can experiment with different combinations of aperture and shutter speed settings. Interesting shots can be taken by experimenting with different white balance settings. Also do try taking some shots in Black & White and am sure you will be pleased.

Here are some of the pictures I have taken during the last two years.

Traffic, Bangkok
Traffic, Bangkok