Long Exposure Question

[deadtoaster2]

I know there have been many questions about long exposures. I am familiar with the just of how they work and stuff like that but in most of my attempts its very hard to get a good shot without too much light pollution.

So my question is how are photos like this taken?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/deadtoaster/Las_Vegas_at_night.jpg
Obviously its a simi-long exposure with a giant aperture but it cant be much longer than about a second (notice how long the headlights go on the cars) so even with a huge aperture how would enough light be let in to get a good shot without having very large headlight trails?

Thanks

 

[Zatodragon]

There is a good mix of things that go into a good night shot. One thing I do to help cut down light polution is to shoot at a higher f/stop. Something like F/8. But i'm thinking that's not going to have as big of an impact as just getting the right exposure down. It looks like the picture you have, the person was shooting something pretty wide open however.

After that, I usually notch my camera into manual mode and just start with a ballpark exposure, then hone it in from there. Some people will meter off a big building to help get a good exposure.

One last thing is just the place and time. Around here, it's hazy most times so it's hard to get a true black night sky.

That's about it for me. I don't dable too much with night shots. Just keep experimenting with your exposure settings! Good Luck!

 

[Garbz]

Um that is NOT a long exposure. The exposure in this case looks less than 1 second. Look at the car lights. They cars have moved less than 1-2m in that exposure and they don't appear to be stuck in traffic.

Also there is no foreground detail in that picture, meaning even though everything in that picture is in focus it could probably still be achieved even at the lowest aperture focus at infinity.

 

[Torus34]

When in doubt, bracket.

 

[Mike_E]

Are you sure this hasn't just had the saturation bumped?

 

[D-50]

The main strip in Vegas is a bright place much brighter than most any city street therefore your not going to need a huge exposure timeif you have a wide open aperature. If you used a 50mm 1.4 prime you might be able to get this shot in under a second. Thats my guess

 

[deadtoaster2]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think i may have to invest in a lens with a faster aperture.