Painting with lights and traffic shots

[cpwstu]

OK guys and gals, I'm still wet behind the ears at all this but decided to do some of the age old over the motorway shots to see what kind of effects I could get.
Let me know what you think (oh and sorry about the fence in the way I picked the wrong bridge I think)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4302611034_b072448a05_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4301855513_1019d377f7_b.jpg
so what do you think?
what do i need to do to improve this?
details
on tripod
canon 500d
18-55mm lens
sRGB
Shutter 32 sec
F/36.4
Focal Lenght 46mm
iso 100
ex comp -2 step

[cpwstu]

and my first go at light painting

here goes

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4302618458_c858b48cc0_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/4301879371_94f0b1baba_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4301885541_9bfc1242f1_b.jpg


all fairly much as above

F/4.0
18mm (fully wound out)
iso 160
last one was 30 sec the other 2 were at 15 sec exposure

your thoughts on what i could do to make these more exciting
although it is good fun either way

thanks in advance

StuArt

[FMX]

If cleaned up a little, that last one is amazing. What kind of light did you use to get the tread-like red light?

I was about to ask how in the heck you got so high to take pics of the highway and then you said bridge and I almost kicked myself in the head LOL.

[tmcman]

Ditto on wanting to know what produced the "bicycle tread" red light trails.
Thanks for sharing.

[Gr8outdrsmn]

Is that a multi-led flashlight for the red in the last one?

[Edhi]

Nice :D
I didn't realise how difficult light painting was until I tried it. I wanted to outline my car with an LED torch but have the actual car show through slightly ... tried and tried and I was waaaaaay off.

[cpwstu]

Well your right there, it does look lovely and it is quite hard to get it set up just right

and well done Gr8outdrsmn it is the multi-led flashlight, although we didn't have it on flash that was more luck than judgement... and it does look good on this 21 inch screen. Although I can see what FMX is talking about they could do with a little cleaning up although I don't have a clue how to even start that yet. will have to do a bit of a photoshop course at some point.

I have posted these in a few places including facebook and lots of people seem to like the last one.

And Edhi, I might have a go at that shot with the car see if I can work it out it's almost like you need to transpose 2 shots together... it's a shame you cant do a 30 sec exposure split into 20 sec and 10 sec with a space in between to light the subject... hmmm let me think on that...

StuArt

[CafeRacer808]

Nice :D
I didn't realise how difficult light painting was until I tried it. I wanted to outline my car with an LED torch but have the actual car show through slightly ... tried and tried and I was waaaaaay off.

I'm assuming you haven't tried this yet because you didn't mention it in your OP, but you'll be able to achieve this effect by firing your flash on second curtain. You'll of course have to play with the amount of flash to use depending on how much light you ultimately want to throw on the car.

[professorman]

Cool shots. These make me want to go out and try them now.

[Edhi]

I'm assuming you haven't tried this yet because you didn't mention it in your OP, but you'll be able to achieve this effect by firing your flash on second curtain. You'll of course have to play with the amount of flash to use depending on how much light you ultimately want to throw on the car.

Thanks for the tip :)
I actually meant I was way off with the tracing, but that is definitely something I didn't know :)

[zellthemedic]

Nothing like some good old motorway shots to get the blood (film? data?) pumping.

[TooManyHobbies]

Nice :D
I didn't realise how difficult light painting was until I tried it. I wanted to outline my car with an LED torch but have the actual car show through slightly ... tried and tried and I was waaaaaay off.

I paint with light all the time. Great for nudes and boudoir as well as many other things.

Try handholding your flash and shooting several different areas on low power as well as using a flash light. Remeber that if you subject can move, hit it only once with light to keep it crisp.

You can also drape black cloth over the lens (or use the cap, et.c) so you change lighting if using bulb and in a very dark area.

I've been combining flash, flashlights, cold cathode tubes, projectors, plasma balls, studio strobes, and some chandeliers in shots. Sorry I can't post these images here - too risque. I'm also using my phone so don't have them with me.

[Michael_B]

Where are you? I noticed the traffic is flowing opposite of the way the US does it?

[d100763]

good work on the light, the second one has noticably less lane changers which screw up shots...