Mixed Lighting

By: Stirling Kim Moss

Mixed Lighting

I have always enjoyed night time photography as the mixing of different light sources results
in a kaleidoscope of colors and light trails. Also, the contrast between light and dark areas
creates a vibrant, and engaging scene. Capturing light trails with long exposures with their
twisting shapes and lines leads the viewer's eye throughout the image. I experimented with
the camera settings and varied the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed settings in order to
achieve the pictures that I was looking for. I learnt that with a low ISO setting like 100, I
was able to extend the length of the shutter speed to 30 seconds. A small aperture also
allowed me to extend the duration of the shutter opening. At first, even with long 30 second
exposures I was still unable to capture enough red, white and other streaks of light.
Therefore, I decided to apply a cool feature of Adobe Photoshop called Stack Mode. I then
proceeded to take 2 or more 30 second exposures of my subject without moving the
camera’s position. Later, on photoshop I was able to stack all of these photos on top of
each other and got a photo with a ton more light trails which greatly improved the image.

At the RABBA intersection I was able to capture light sources from different heights which added depth to the photo. I found that the timing was extremely important - I tried opening the shutter around 10 seconds before the stop lights turned green, in order to capture a slight glimpse of the stopped cars and to catch both the green and red lights simultaneously.

In my second photo, while driving along Lakeshore Avenue, the Port Credit lighthouse really caught my eye and I knew that I had to somehow incorporate it into a light trail photo.

In the final picture, I thought it would be a cool idea to capture the curves and bends of
some light trails underneath a bridge. I had a lucky final shot when an ambulance came
racing by down the road along with several cars in both directions. The flashing ambulance
gave added depth and interest to the scene.

In all 3 of these photos, I was able to capture mercury and halogen lights in the vehicle's
lights, neon lights in the RABBA sign and other store signs, sodium-vapour bulbs in the
traffic lights, and many more.