Light Trails! (Taking into account what was said)

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I listened to the advice given to me and I feel as if these are better than the ones I produced before.
The first two were taken with my 18-55mm Sony zoom lens (kit lens)
The London skyline was taken with my Tamron 70-300mm.

I hope they are an improvement!

Challenged by long shutter exposure you are, I would say. Hmmm... more practice it will take, young padowan.

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I had some fun with that, also... a few years back.

What should I do now to make them even better?
Haha awesome! How did you stop motion blur from your subjects and achieve such defined lines with the trails?

Fill flash set low power so as not to overwhelm the natural light levels.

There are TWO shutter curtains inside the camera. The first one opens the in front of the sensor and begins allowing light to flow to it. The second curtain runs along behind it, delayed by the shutter speed setting. ONE - TWO ... picture taken.

Normally, when you trip the shutter release on the camera, the flash instantly fires... and then the exposure takes place, no matter how long you have the shutter speed set to.

So, let's say you have a 1-second exposure set, what transpires? This is the NORMAL flash flow of events:
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1. You press the shutter release button
2. the camera autofocuses on the subject (unless you are in manual focus)
3. once autofocus is locked, the flash fires, as the "first" shutter curtain opens (the actual flash is about 1/600th second duration)
4. the duration of the shutter speed takes place (in this case, 1-second)
5. the "second" shutter curtain closes
6. the image is buffered and sent to the recording media

Okay, during that open shutter... all light movement was recorded AFTER THE FLASH. SO, you realize it kind of looks a little stupid and backwards, because the light trail are flowing FROM the subject... and not into it. Hmmm, that's a problem, right?

What to do: In your camera's flash control menu, there is a switch setting called "Rear Sync." or aka second curtain. It's FLOW is this:
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1. You press the shutter release button
2. the camera autofocuses on the subject (unless you are in manual focus)
3. once autofocus is locked, the "first" shutter curtain opens
4. the duration of the shutter speed takes place (in this case, 1-second)
5. as the "second" shutter curtain begins to close, the flash fires and "freezes" the subject
6. the "second" shutter curtain closes completely
7. the image is buffered and sent to the recording media

What you have is the camera recording all light movement BEFORE the flash goes off... and then the light trails terminating into the subject being flashed.

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EXIF: 28mm - f/8 - 1.3-sec - ISO-100 - Second curtain flash - Tripod w/ release

In the menu, under "Flash control" or "Flash Mode", look for the "Rear Sync." setting and try it out.

Remember, this is best done with the camera on a tripod and using an electronic release (cable or wireless), to keep the light trails straight and true. Also, time your event... to figure out, as close as possible, the duration (shutter speed) necessary to capture all of the movement involved. It will TERMINATE the action, even if you are not done, yet, because that shutter is closed after the flash takes place.

Thanks Don for that in depth explanation; I get it now! haha
The only problem I have is with my subject. It's illegal to fire flash at moving motor vehicles, especially on a motor way, someone might think they're getting three points on their license.

I'm stumped on where else to go in London where you can get a high angle vantage point and not distract motorists from the road.

Jacko, the first two pics are simply too dark, sharpness seems fine but you need some detail in the background.
At least, that's what I think.
You could have achieved that by going to f/5.6 or f/4; you can still go for a low key image.

The third pic comes down to a matter of taste, I suppose.
I'd say it was overexposed on the right. A neutral grad could fix that or two frames at different exposures merged together.
The WB is way too red and needs cooling down.

The background was a bit dull so I wanted to 'block' it out as such; it's just suburban London houses haha

I agree with you on the over exposing and the white balance. How do I change that? Can I do it in CS5 for the time being?

Okay, Peter...

I covered "Rear Sync.", you can tackle WB with PS.

Better but I think having some surrounding atmosphere in the shots, what you call suburbia would give more interest, a red or white line through the frame is cool the first time you do it but not really that interesting to look at. Peekayoh said how to do that.

Or find a different location with more street lighting so the background is naturally brighter, that way the light trails won't get brighter.

3 is the most promising but it shos a lot of camera motion blur, were you one a wobbly bridge, using a dodgy tripod or have image stabilisation on. A good stable tripod with no IS should be much clearer than that. Also suggest hold hand above lens to shelter front from that street light that's flaring it.