Photo101Rehab hosts Available Light: Zoom on Light Effects

31. July 2015

It’s again time for Available Light co-hosting @ Lucile’s Photo101Rehab. Last month, I introduced you to some basics of available light photography and invited you to play with your camera settings. This month, I’ll want to go a bit more experimental. Come to the dark side where you can play with colorful light effects.

Nikon D7000,F/32, 4sec, ISO100

Usually, when taking pictures with a tripod or holding our breath to enable a hand-held picture in the dark, we try to avoid any kind of camera shake. In this post, I’ll show you some pictures, where I used movement on purpose to create some funny light effects.

How was it done? Fairly simple, I put my camera on a tripod, set the exposure time to 4 seconds, released the shutter, counted 1-2, quickly turned the zoom ring and waited for the remaining seconds to pass. That’s the result:

Nikon D7000, F/32, 4 sec, ISO 100

I zoomed on the famous Viennese Giant Wheel in the Prater amusement park. Amusement parks or locations with plenty of colorful lights are ideal places to play around with these kind of effects.

Nikon D7000, F/25, 6sec, ISO 100

A few steps further, I took pictures of the carousel. Here, I split my 6 seconds exposure time into 3 2-seconds parts and zoomed three times. When you try it out the first time, give yourself some pictures time for practising. You need to get a feeling for how much to zoom. Additionally, the shorter the total exposure time is, the faster you need to act.

Another easy way of adding light effects, is taking pictures of streets by night. The cars passing by make everything for you. Setting up the tripod or putting the camera on some street barrier or railing close to traffic lights even makes the timing as simple as possible. Whenever the traffic lights turn green, it’s your turn to release the shutter.

Nikon D7000, F/16, 2.5sec, ISO 100

Light effects can easily add some spice to your pictures – you only need to use them. It’s like cooking, add some flavor to your pics and try out new combinations. Zoom, spin or turn your camera or phone as creative as you like.

Nikon D7000, F/25, 10sec

Photography literally means “painting with light” – thus, use your “light-pencil” for drawing on your pictures.The good thing about experimental and artistic photography is that you can always tell that it was done on purpose!

Nikon D7000, F/9, 30sec, ISO 100

If you like to join, link your post at Photo101Rehab or create a pingback and tag it with #availablelightrehab. I will add a wrap up with your entries at the end of the following topic. Next month, I’ll focus on “Cities by night”.

Here is the link to last month’s post: Available light – start playing.