Moving cityscape

[tomrobinson06]

I'm an amateur photographer and i want to create an image like this one:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2ij5ls6&s=5
in my own town. i was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on what settings to use etc.
Thanks

[yelvertoft]

Tom,

This appears to be an animated gif image. I've never done anything like this but I'm guessing you'll need a whole stack of still images in a time lapse sequence that you will need to animate together. For each of the still images to appear "static" as your example, you'd need to use a fairly high shutter speed to freeze the motion. You'll have to use a tripod to get a fixed position to take your images from. You'll have to take a sequence at fairly closed spaced intervals (maybe 5-10 seconds apart), then join them together in the animated sequence.

[andy153]

Hi Tom, welcome to WPF, enjoy the forum, I agree with Duncan about how to take the pictures, then its easy to put them together with something like Powerplay or Picture2movie software.

[tomrobinson06]

thanks.
what do you think about exposure settings? or just keep that on auto?

[andy153]

I'd keep it on auto settings for the first try - see what you get.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by tomrobinson06

thanks.
what do you think about exposure settings? or just keep that on auto?

If you keep it on auto, you'll find the camera selecting some very slow shutter speeds (assuming you want night time shots like the example you posted). The slow shutter speed will give you very blurred images as the subject movement will not have been "frozen" to give you the stop frame effect you desire. Set the shutter speed to about 1/30th to freeze the movement of pedestrians, you'll still get some blur off cars though. You'll have to bump up the ISO, to something quite seriously high to achieve this. You'll also have to take your scene on a very brightly lit part of Blackpool, but that shouldn't be too difficult, not as difficult as some other towns.

Duncan

[miketoll]

The beauty of digital is that you can take a trial single shot and have a look at it on the spot then adjust exposure as necessary before going for the final sequence. Don't forget to play safe and take some one with you so he can keep an eye out for trouble as you might be so engrossed in the photography that you could well be taken by surprise by opportunist muggers. Horrible to have to say that but it is true.