Trailing Lights

A cool and basic effect that you often see in night photos is the effect of the trailing lights. This is a simple trick that has everything to do with shutter speed and long exposure. You basically need to set your camera on a firm surface (or ideally use a tripod). If you don't have a firm surface, you better have rock steady hands otherwise expect to get some extra unwanted blur a.k.a. lack of focus. Make sure that the flash is not on. Put your camera in TV (Shutter) mode. Set your shutter speed to a longer setting. And take a photo of a busy street in a city or a ferris wheel. The longer you leave the shutter open, the longer the sensor is exposed to the movement of the lights. Open it for too long though and you will get a pretty messy picture.

You can get some pretty spectacular photos with long exposures at night, so experiment with moving lights in different settings and see what you come up with. This is in Vienna when watching a flame throwing street performer at Stephens Square and got this result:

Thanks to http://eosrebels.com