Road demons
...none of these are perfect. I think I've even taken better driving shots before, but this should still be instructive.
To prepare for the shot I strapped in the tripod in the back seat (see the pictures below). I set one leg on the floor and two in the back seat. Then I used all seat beats to secure the tripod to prevent movement and shake. In total I was able to use all four seat belts in the car (the three in the back seat as well as the front passenger's belt). Using more belts helps as you secure the tripod from different angles. A trick when dealing with seat belts is to extend them all the way first (this prevents them from locking and refusing to move any more). Don't jerk them as they will lock - and you'll have to put them all the way back again and start again.
Then I mounted the widest lens I had a 17-40mm on my full-frame Canon 5D Mark II. I centered it (not very well) and aimed to maximize how much I could see out the windows. I also opened the sun-roof (and cranked up the heat as it was chilly that night).
Finally I removed the passenger headrest and reclined both seats. You want all obstructions out of the way to maximize your viewing angle. Don't recline the driver's seat so much that you can't drive, but enough so you can lean back a little and lean against the door to avoid getting in the way of the wide angle.
You also need a remote cable or wireless release to activate the camera as you can't reach it while driving (well, you can but that would be dangerous and make it all much less fun). I started out with an 8 second exposure in Tv, but quickly moved to 20 seconds as I was not getting enough action. The downside of a long exposure is that you can hit bumps in the road which shakes the camera enough to ruin your shot. I recommend shooting when there are a lot of cars (not at 11 pm when everybody is watching TV at home like I did).
The shoot above is taken east bound on I-40 going at speeds around 60-65 mph. The shot is remarkably sharp for a 30 second exposure at those speeds. If you see this in original size you can read off the time, mileage, rpms and speed.
The problem with the interstate was that I was not getting anything interesting through the sunroof. The streak at the top left is the street lighting and the weak middle streak is a road sign. So I designed to explore downtown Oklahoma City instead. This gave me more fun streaks through the sunroof (neon signs, traffic lights etc.), but the downtown streets were bumpy and I had to make many turns to get the traffic lights. As a result the shots are less crisp (to see this you have to see the images in original size).
Things to improve:
1. Try shooting when there are more cars on the interstate.
2. Try shooting at dusk for more interesting lighting.
3. Center the lens better.
4. Use M instead of TV to set the exposure. It should be easy to calibrate this when the car is not moving.
5. Try the fisheye lens instead of the regular wide angle.
6. Try to find something with lots of lights above the car. Tollbooths worked well for me before on the New Jersey Turnpike. OKC has a tollroad, but the tollbooths are duller.
7. Get a convertible. This Honda Civic has decent size windows and a sunroof, but a convertible would be awesome (assuming the camera stays in the car).
Any tips are much appreciated!
Large version on black background
EF17-40mm f/4L USM | 20,0 sec | 17 mm | f/11 | ISO 100 | Shutter priority mode | 1/3 EV
Road demons
...none of these are perfect. I think I've even taken better driving shots before, but this should still be instructive.
To prepare for the shot I strapped in the tripod in the back seat (see the pictures below). I set one leg on the floor and two in the back seat. Then I used all seat beats to secure the tripod to prevent movement and shake. In total I was able to use all four seat belts in the car (the three in the back seat as well as the front passenger's belt). Using more belts helps as you secure the tripod from different angles. A trick when dealing with seat belts is to extend them all the way first (this prevents them from locking and refusing to move any more). Don't jerk them as they will lock - and you'll have to put them all the way back again and start again.
Then I mounted the widest lens I had a 17-40mm on my full-frame Canon 5D Mark II. I centered it (not very well) and aimed to maximize how much I could see out the windows. I also opened the sun-roof (and cranked up the heat as it was chilly that night).
Finally I removed the passenger headrest and reclined both seats. You want all obstructions out of the way to maximize your viewing angle. Don't recline the driver's seat so much that you can't drive, but enough so you can lean back a little and lean against the door to avoid getting in the way of the wide angle.
You also need a remote cable or wireless release to activate the camera as you can't reach it while driving (well, you can but that would be dangerous and make it all much less fun). I started out with an 8 second exposure in Tv, but quickly moved to 20 seconds as I was not getting enough action. The downside of a long exposure is that you can hit bumps in the road which shakes the camera enough to ruin your shot. I recommend shooting when there are a lot of cars (not at 11 pm when everybody is watching TV at home like I did).
The shoot above is taken east bound on I-40 going at speeds around 60-65 mph. The shot is remarkably sharp for a 30 second exposure at those speeds. If you see this in original size you can read off the time, mileage, rpms and speed.
The problem with the interstate was that I was not getting anything interesting through the sunroof. The streak at the top left is the street lighting and the weak middle streak is a road sign. So I designed to explore downtown Oklahoma City instead. This gave me more fun streaks through the sunroof (neon signs, traffic lights etc.), but the downtown streets were bumpy and I had to make many turns to get the traffic lights. As a result the shots are less crisp (to see this you have to see the images in original size).
Things to improve:
1. Try shooting when there are more cars on the interstate.
2. Try shooting at dusk for more interesting lighting.
3. Center the lens better.
4. Use M instead of TV to set the exposure. It should be easy to calibrate this when the car is not moving.
5. Try the fisheye lens instead of the regular wide angle.
6. Try to find something with lots of lights above the car. Tollbooths worked well for me before on the New Jersey Turnpike. OKC has a tollroad, but the tollbooths are duller.
7. Get a convertible. This Honda Civic has decent size windows and a sunroof, but a convertible would be awesome (assuming the camera stays in the car).
Any tips are much appreciated!
Large version on black background
EF17-40mm f/4L USM | 20,0 sec | 17 mm | f/11 | ISO 100 | Shutter priority mode | 1/3 EV