PROJECT 2
Traffic light trails
Dan Mold captures the passing of time with long exposures at night
Dan Mold
One of the best things about a mirrorless or DSLR camera is the manual and semiautomatic modes they have, which make it possible to get creative with your shutter speed and aperture.
In this project we’ll be showing you how to use your Canon camera’s Manual mode so that you can extend the shutter speed, which is the length of time that you expose the camera’s sensor to light. A long exposure, usually several seconds, allows you to record the motion of any moving part within a frame, such as action sports, or the lights of moving traffic at night. By locking off the camera on a tripod we can keep the landscape sharp, but turn the traffic into long, eye-catching vibrant streaky trails.