Shutter Speed /Still?

sparkyish · Mar 10, 2009

Okay... I really want to get a shot of a moving vehicle that looks like it has trailed off (open shutter) but I want it to be crisp and vivid when the shutter closes... How can I do this without making the final image of the vehicle itself too transparent?

I'm sorry if that does not make sense. :meh:

dcclark · Mar 10, 2009

I think I know what you want: the car should look like it has a big motion trail behind it, but the car is clearly visible (and not transparent) at the head of the trail. If that's the case, you could achieve this in low-ish light by using your camera's flash and "rear curtain" (or "second curtain" or "back curtain") flash mode, with a long exposure. This means that the shutter will be open for its full length (= motion blur), and the flash will fire just before it's going to close (= car appears at the very end of the motion trail, nice and solid).

That's one way to do it. Let us know what you did!

EOS_JD · Mar 10, 2009

If shooting a car moving, the shutter does not need to be open long. I agree with the above though.

You need a slow enough shutter to have the car in the frame at the right position when the exposure time ends (Shutter closes). So if the car is moving fast, this could still be a fast SS.

Best time to shoot these is at night and you get the trail of the lights.