Tried out some night shots had question

[ianbword]

So I walked around town tonight with my rebel t5. I had cheapo tripod and remote shutter control. My question is why is that tractor trailer in this pic is almost completely invisible. Is it possible to do this same type of shot with the truck more visible?

Im very new at this so go easy lol.



IMG_0038 by hankscorpiosupervillian, on Flickr

 

[TCampbell]

If the truck had been parked, it would have shown up more easily. It will easily expose the light bulbs in the image... they emit light so they show up easily. The roadway and grasses, etc. don't "emit" light but because they are not moving they will reflect light for a long duration while your shutter is open -- causing them to expose well.

And then you have the moving, but non-light-emitting object... in this case the truck. It's moving through the image but not stationary on any one pixel long enough to allow that pixel to collect very many photons of light reflecting off the subject. That makes it appear more like a ghost... somewhat transparent (you can easily see what was behind it.)

You could help a subject render much more obviously by using flash (but don't do this to vehicle on the road because it'll be very distracting to the driver.)

 

[Waldo32487]

if you used a flash onto the truck as it drove by, it would show up.
I love long exposure photography (trick photography or light painting), it's not really too complicated, just gotta be creative.

youtube some night and light photography, that should help you get an idea with what your doing.

 

[brett304]

As mentioned above, the easiest would be a flash onto the truck as it drove by. Also mentioned above is a stationary truck.... My favorite answer would be a slower moving truck which would still give you light trails and a semi-visible truck.... You would also get the background semi visible as well!