How to photograph cars at night: car parks, light painting and long exposures

A Toyota Supra and a Honda Civic, a Nikon D750 on a tripod, and a Ryobi folding LED workbench light. That was the kit The Drive's Victoria Scott used to light-paint two cars at f/8, 15 seconds and ISO 50 (The Drive).

That setup tells you most of what you need. Night car photography is less about expensive gear and more about holding the camera still and controlling where the light lands. This piece covers the three main approaches: shooting under existing light in car parks and streets, light painting, and long exposures with traffic trails, with the real settings photographers published for each.

The gear that actually matters

A tripod comes first. Every long-exposure technique here falls apart if the camera moves, and Freddy "Tavarish" Hernandez warned in Jalopnik that cheap plastic tripods can shake in a light breeze (Jalopnik).

The camera needs a full manual mode and the ability to hold the shutter open for several seconds. Hernandez pointed out that used DSLR bodies and lenses can be found for under $150, so this isn't a hobby you need to buy into new. Higher-end point-and-shoots can work, but many have sensors or apertures too slow for low light.

You also need a way to fire the shutter without touching the camera. A remote release is ideal. The self-timer works fine: Scott used it for her light-painting shots, and Hernandez set a 2-second delay.

For light, almost anything battery-powered will do. Scott names photography lights, battery lanterns, flashlights and phone flashlights as options alongside her workbench lamp. Autoblog's guide suggests a plain flashlight for picking out specific parts of the car (Autoblog via Yahoo).

Starting settings by situation

Shoot in manual, at the lowest ISO you can get away with, and let the shutter speed do the work. That's the shared advice across every guide here. The table below collects published starting points, so you can set the camera before you get out of the car.

Treat these as a first frame, not a recipe. Scott says plainly that there's no fixed exposure rule for light painting because the camera's meter can't measure a light you haven't switched on yet. She found her settings by trial and error.

Aperture choice is about depth of field. Hernandez's advice is to pick the sharpest setting that keeps the whole car in focus, then adjust the shutter to compensate. Autoblog lands on f/8 to f/11 to keep both car and background sharp.

Car parks and street light

Existing light is the easiest place to start, and car parks are full of it. The catch is that the light is usually the wrong color and in the wrong place.

Position matters more than settings. Scott's advice is to park the car between streetlamps, a little closer to one, so the car's shape gets most of the light (The Drive). Hernandez warns the other way: a harsh lamp directly over the car causes odd reflections on the paint and throws the white balance off.

Color is the second problem. UK photographer Alan Ranger suggests about 3000K, or the Tungsten preset, for warm street lamps. For LED street lights he suggests around 6000K, and 4000 to 4500K where the light is mixed (Alan Ranger). Car parks often mix old sodium-style lamps and new LEDs on the same level, which is why everyone tells you to shoot RAW and fix it later.

If you're handheld, you'll need to push ISO. Ranger's handheld urban starting point is ISO 800 to 1600, f/2.8 to f/4 and 1/80 to 1/125 second. Scott shot handheld at 1/30 second and ISO 1600 under a streetlamp, and her reasoning is worth keeping: denoising software fixes noise more easily than it fixes blur.

Use the surroundings. Scott looks for neon-lit streets and patterned signage, like a motel sign, to give a dim frame some color. Autoblog points to puddles and wet pavement for reflections. A multi-story car park after rain gives you both.

One practical note. Many car parks are private property, so if a security guard asks you to leave, leave.

Light painting

Light painting means walking around the car with a lamp while the shutter is open, so the car is lit by a soft, moving source instead of a fixed one. It's how you get those even, studio-looking reflections in an empty lot.

Scott's method is simple. Set a shutter long enough to walk all the way around the car before it closes. Hold the light steady above the car and out of frame, and walk at an even pace. Wear dark clothing so you don't show up, and watch your step in the dark.

The low ISO and small aperture are what make it work. At f/8 and ISO 50, the background stays dark and the lamp doesn't blow out the paint.

For a cleaner result, she shoots more than one frame. For an RWB Porsche 911 she took a 10-second light-painting exposure at f/8 and a separate 3-second exposure at f/4 for the sky. In editing she stacked the lit frame over the background at about 30% opacity, aligned them, erased the light trails and sky, and saved as TIFF. For another 911 she took several passes from different positions at 5 to 6 seconds each and blended the best parts.

Hernandez used the same layering idea for a trick shot: a 14-second exposure with the hood up for 7 seconds and down for 7, which makes the hood look transparent.

The background needs to be dark for any of this. Zoner's guide notes that streetlights can overpower a light-painting effect and suggests a deserted road or forest edge (Zoner). In a car park, that means the quiet top deck or the far corner, not the lit entrance.

Long exposures, light trails and stars

A long exposure records everything that moves as a streak. Pointed at traffic, it turns headlights into lines of light. Pointed at the sky, it turns stars into arcs.

For traffic trails, Zoner suggests 5 to 20 seconds and recommends blue hour, roughly 30 to 60 minutes after sunset. Ranger goes a little longer, at 10 to 30 seconds, f/8 and ISO 200 to 400. Keep your parked car in frame and still, and the passing cars will draw lines around it.

Scott used passing traffic differently. On one 6.2-second exposure at f/4.5 she waited for an oncoming car so its headlights lit the tires and body. It's free fill light if you're patient.

Stars are their own decision. Her 220-second single exposure at f/1.8 and ISO 50 turned the stars into streaks. When she wanted points of light instead, she stacked seven 5-second exposures at ISO 400 in Lightroom, about 35 seconds in total.

Focus and sharpness

Switch to manual focus. Autofocus hunts in the dark, and Ranger recommends using Live View, zooming in about 10x on a bright point or edge, focusing, then leaving the focus alone between frames.

Then don't touch the camera. Scott's rule is to keep hands off once the shutter opens. Review shots at 100% on the screen before you move on, because a soft frame looks fine at thumbnail size.

Getting started

1. Pack a sturdy tripod, a camera with manual mode, a remote or the self-timer, and a battery LED lamp or strong flashlight.
2. Go at blue hour, 30 to 60 minutes after sunset, to a quiet car park level or empty lot with one or two lamps you can position the car against.
3. Set manual mode, RAW, manual focus, ISO 50 to 100 and f/8. Take a 10 to 15 second test frame and adjust shutter by trial and error.
4. Try one light-painting pass, walking a full lap with the light held high and out of frame, then shoot a separate frame for the sky.
5. Fix white balance at home: start near 3000K for warm lamps and near 6000K for LEDs, then blend frames if you shot more than one.

Sources

• The Drive: Picture Perfect: How to Take Amazing Light Painting Photos of Your Car
• The Drive: Picture Perfect: How to Photograph Cars at Night
• Jalopnik: Here's How To Take Awesome Pictures Of Your Car At Night
• Autoblog via Yahoo Autos: Want dramatic photos of your car? Here's how to shoot it at night
• Alan Ranger: Night Photography Settings Guide
• Zoner: Night Photography: How To Shoot Light Trails, Silhouettes, and Light Painting

Featured image: porsche night by liampiddock, CC BY 2.0. Source