Blur effects
Ever notice the linear lights on the road created by car headlights in photographs shot at night? The easiest way to create this effect is to use a very slow shutter speed. If you want, you can deliberately move the camera during the exposure for varied effects. You can use this blurring light technique to captivate some great compositions. For example, shoot a Giant wheel (Ferris wheel) from a tripod with a very slow shutter speed, and you will get all the stationary portions of the scene in sharp quality with some brilliant light effects on the moving parts.

Shooting Fireworks
This can be especially tricky, since most people make the mistake of using longer exposures to capture fireworks when in reality it works the opposite way. Capturing fireworks with long exposure will mostly end up generating artifacts on the picture due to bursts of fast moving lights. Use low exposure settings and a tripod when shooting fireworks.
These are just guidelines, not absolute rules. You should try playing with your digital camera settings to get different results. Experimenting is what will help you in the long run, and with a digital camera, it won’t cost you a thing!

Tags: blur, exposure, night, night photography

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Photography Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.