Combining long exposure photography with moving lights creates a compelling streaking effect that instantly catches the viewer’s eye and draws them in. While not necessarily an easy form of photography to master, it is a popular one on Instagram and can be learned through plenty of practice. This week we’re featuring a group of Sony photographers who have captured clean light trails using their Sony Alpha gear. Take a look at their work and give their Instagram accounts a follow. Tag your Sony photo posts with #BeAlpha for your chance to be featured on AlphaUniverse.com, and follow @sonyalpha for your daily dose of creative inspiration.

Heading into a long weekend we're featuring a popular long exposure effect. See how to make richly-colored, light trail eye candy. 

Ivan Wong – @ivvnwong

Ivan Wong is a photographer and Alpha Collective member. He utilizes unique lighting and angles in his photography to create stunning images seemingly from another dimension. When it comes to capturing light trails he says, “To get rich light trails I used a long shutter speed to get the most of the trails in while having the driver drive slowly to get thicker and brighter lights. You don't need to attempt to shoot in one frame since they can all be blended together in post. I also recommend shooting a base plate with an empty skyline with the same settings after to use for cleaning up messy light leaks.” He took the image below using his Sony Alpha 7R IV and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master lens.

Andrew Eggers – @andreweggers

Andrew Eggers is another member of the Alpha Collective and light trails are definitely one of his specialties. He explains more about his technique in this Alpha Universe article and you can learn more about the gear he uses for night photography and astro in his What’s In My Bag article. For those wanting to get started making light trails, he says, “First, a tripod is a must and using a two-second delay on the shutter is also. I always focus my shot first, then switch to manual focus before snapping the photo. Those are the basics. I suggest finding a safe freeway overpass and shooting the light trails of cars at blue hour or at night obviously. Practice shooting for shots within 10-20 seconds and adjust your shots so that you underexpose just a touch.” He took this image below in Sacramento using his Sony Alpha 7 III and Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master. 

Cody Conk – @codyconk

Cody Conk is a travel photographer located in the Bay Area. His Instagram account features stunning landscape and astroscape photography taken in some of the most visually impressive natural locations in the world. The light trail image in his post below was one of his favorite shots in 2020, and he captured it with his Sony Alpha 7 III and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master, and you can learn exactly how he did it in his Behind The Shot article.  

Remo Demont – @remodemont_photography

Remo Demont is a landscape and astroscape photographer based in Switzerland. He likes the process of planning out his images and researching the location and light at different times of day. He took this shot (swipe for timelapse) of a thunderstorm rolling in from San Bernardino Pass, a mountain pass in the Swiss Alps. He captured it with his Sony Alpha 7R IV and Sony 12-24mm f/2.8 G Master lens.