In car long exposure tips

BananaRepublic · Mar 8, 2017

I was trying something the other night, long exposures in car such as the in the link below. I deleted my efforts straight out as they weren't very good and I only wanted to proof of concept anyway.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ab/9b/00/ab9b00e2f1edc1740b5c2a3502997c07.jpg

Looking at this its probably a merge of 2 images but I'm looking for ways to eradicate vibrations that mess up the dash lights

For reference what I was going with was f16 iso 800 and speeds between 2 and 5 seconds

Destin · Mar 8, 2017

How did you have your camera mounted?

This is likely 2 images (or possibly many more) blended together. At the very least, one for the interior with the engine shut off and the car not moving, and one for the exterior.

Msteelio91 · Mar 8, 2017

You can do this in one shot. You'll need a very solid mount, wide lens (I've managed with 18mm), and mess with your exposure time to suit your situation.

Best case for me is full-dark, traveling around 25mph, exposure at 2 seconds, ISO set to fit interior lighting conditions.

The mount is really your biggest ally or enemy here, if it moves at all, your shot will be trash.

If you could give us an example we could probably help better...

qmr55 · Mar 8, 2017

Thats a really cool shot, now I want to try it :1247:

BananaRepublic · Mar 9, 2017

Ok pictures of my tripod and how I set up. I was only trying this out to see what problems were thrown up.

1. I deleted my actual attempts as they were poor.
2. Big drive tunnel in the car was a bit of a problem with the setup of the tripod
3. I was killing two birds and was on my way to the movies so I was going 60mph so thats probably the source of the vibration.

I know I should be driving much slower but what else can I do to get a clean shot

KmH · Mar 9, 2017

From experience, having your tripod set up that way in the car is not stable enough even at slower speeds.
You might get that to work with 20 or so lbs hanging off the weight hook, if the tripod has a weight hook.

table1349 · Mar 9, 2017

One of these works nice. After all it is only money.

DIY. Not as pretty but does the job.

Msteelio91 · Mar 10, 2017

BananaRepublic said:
Ok pictures of my tripod and how I set up. I was only trying this out to see what problems were thrown up.

1. I deleted my actual attempts as they were poor.
2. Big drive tunnel in the car was a bit of a problem with the setup of the tripod
3. I was killing two birds and was on my way to the movies so I was going 60mph so thats probably the source of the vibration.

I know I should be driving much slower but what else can I do to get a clean shot

View attachment 136287 View attachment 136288 View attachment 136289

Tripod is a waste of time for this. Look up car camera rigs, you can DIY one for abut $20 and an hour of your time that will work 100% better than any tripod on a seat.

You can make a mount like this with PVC for a decent cheap setup:

Or you can get some industrial strength suction cups (usually about $5 each) and make a rig like this and stick it on the rear window facing forward. I used a similar setup I made with a friend in a pinch in a half hour, cost about $20 in supplies from home depot and it worked incredibly well. This type of mount is the most solid since the camera will move with the car itself and not the seats. Car seats move as part of their safety and comfort systems so you'd have to use slightly shorter shutter intervals for a good result.