What is a light streak and how I make one.

A light streak requires a slow shutter speed and the camera needs to be sitting on a tripod. It tests every element of your skill as a photographer and I feel very smug when I’ve been successful with one.

Buses and taxis make the best light streaks. There are coloured lights on a bus that are higher up and the yellow ‘for hire’ light on a taxi bings colour into the light streak. You can see the print in the photograph above here.

To make a light streak image it doesn’t need to be dark but it does help if the ambient light is low as the shutter speed needs to be at least a second long. Let the camera work out what the corresponding aperture value needs to be. If it’s dark the aperture value won’t go off the scale. I get myself set up out of the way of cyclists and pedestrians and start looking out for buses and taxis on their own without other traffic polluting the light you want in your shot. Then I start looking ahead to see what’s coming along the road and I start shooting. A cable release to fire the shutter is an important piece of gear. You can see the picture of Albert bridge above here.

I take plenty of exposures and when I’m happy with what I’ve got I take my work back to my studio.

As I shoot mostly on film it takes a lot longer to make a final print than it does in a digital studio. I’m fine with that and most of my clients appreciate the fact that I’m a bit old school about the art of printing as well as the art of photography itself.

I hope you enjoy my galleries and when you come across an image with a long exposure, better still a light streak, I hope you know enjoy it all the more.