Favourite Image Series – Light Trails in front of the Manchester Unity Building

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This is an interesting image for me because while it might not be an absolute favourite I do love it and that’s because I did something that not many people do.

I don’t mean taking light trails, what photographers don’t do this? However, it was the light trails in front of the Manchester Unity Building here in Melbourne that made it different. If you ask most people from here what building is most common for doing light trails they will tell you Flinders Street Station.

When I took this image they were doing up the train station so it wasn’t looking great for light trails. Plus I had a loan of a 12mm fisheye lens that I wanted to try this with. I had to think about where could I do it, which building would look great for it, and then I thought I’m going to try taking some on the opposite corner of the Manchester Unity Building. I love that building, so I thought give it a go.

This is not one shot, I’m fairly certain. I discovered years ago that you get much better light trails if you stack a heap of images and just let the light trails come through. The lights are a bit strange, some of them anyway. I do really like this and think this is one of my favourite light trail images.

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As I said it was multiple images stacked on top of one another. I can’t remember how many, but it looks like from the folder that it might have been 10. They were all taken at f8 with ISO 100. For shutter speed it looks like it varied between 2 to 5.

Doing light trails is a time consuming task. You have to stand in one place for a while and just take image after image. I do think stacking is the way to go and if anyone wants to know how to do it, let me know and I might be able to do a post on it.

So for Silent Sunday tomorrow I think I will share more photos of that fabulous building.

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46 Comments

  1. I really like this. Those light trails are great and I like the fish eye lens look. I have a cheap Samyang 8mm lens (its about 12mm on my Fuji cameras). I really like it for unusual shots and use it a lot.

    1. I have the samyany 12mm for my DSLR. Not sure I will get one for my Fujifilm. I love how weird the images can be, but it seems it is an acquired taste. Thank you Steve.

  2. I think it’s pretty fabulous, Leanne. But then I love motion shots like this. Stacking? Not a clue how to do that.

    1. Thank you Lois, I love motion shots too which is probably why I love long exposures. You do the stacking in a program like PS, but there are other ways of doing it.

  3. Well, who knew there was a Manchester in Australia? Not me! I think the two versions might have a lot in common, architecturally. That’s a great image.

    1. I’m a bit confused, you have a building like this there? I know there is a similar one in Chicago too. Thank you Margaret.

  4. This type of photography is not something I usually do. However with the stacking functions built into OM cameras I need to give it a try. Besides I have a trip scheduled for the Appalachian Mountains and I think I’m going to need this at some point.

    1. You should to see what the results are, try a bird flying or something, I don’t know. Sounds good, those mountains sound beautiful, I look forward to seeing what you post from there Ted. Thanks

    1. Thank you Anne, maybe I can rustle up a quick tutorial, though I might have done one for DPS, might have to take a look. I love that building too, is amazing.

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