night, any lights in the scene that are stationary
become streaks of lights. The key is to follow the
subject while the shutter is open and match its
movement. This works best with subjects that are
moving across the frame. Start with the subject in
focus and track the movement; then press the
shutter release button and keep moving at the
subject’s speed. This can take multiple tries to get
right, but that’s half the fun. The taxi in Figure
8-7 was moving across the frame from left to right,
but what really makes this image work is that the
background is nice and bright and blurred.Move the camera
When photographing the lights of moving traffic,
the camera generally stays stationary and the
lights move; however, you can also do it the other
way, with the lights stationary and the camera
moving. This works best if you have a subject
that you can follow with the camera.
This technique is commonly known as panning,
where, with the shutter open, you follow along
with the subject and keep the subject in focus
while the background blurs. When you do this at
ABOUT THIS PHOTO Traffic on Interstate 5 streams to and from downtown San Diego. The camera was set on a tripod right up against a safety
fence and the live view function was used because I could not get my eye close enough to the viewfinder. Taken at 10 seconds, f/14, and ISO 100.
8-6