Middle of the Street Photo

A while back, I saw a picture of someone standing in the middle of a NYC street at night with the cars/car lights streaking by them. While I'm sure, not the safest, looked pretty cool and was thinking of how to reproduce. Any ideas or if you could point in the right direction, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

"cars streaking by" ... you mean like a slow shutter speed? Probably a second curtain flash setting, so the flash pops right at the end of a slow shutter. The slow shutter speed causes the streak, but the popping flash properly exposes your subject.


.... not that I recommend standing in the middle of a busy NYC street taking photos


edit to add: It's possible that the photo you saw was a composite, which would have been safer:
https://digital-photography-school.com …portraits-using-a-tripod/

Thanks, Kmilo.

Also a safer version of this picture. Find a busy street and shoot a model on the sidewalk, tripod, slower shutter speed and still have the cars in the background streaking. Be sure the model can be still.

Good luck and stay safe!

Find a street with a center landscape strip, or a center lane that is blocked off. I have taken a few shots like what you are describing. It also does not take much in the way of traffic to create some light trails, so the street might have looked more busy then it really was.