How to Create Light Streak Portraits with Shutter Drag (Step-by-Step Guide)

If you’ve seen and wondered about portraits with light streaks in them before, wonder no more. Today, you’re going to learn how to create that effect in your own photos. Whether inside a studio or outdoors, you can create unique photos using this technique. It requires a camera capable of manual slow shutter speeds (shutter drag), at least one constant light source, and an off camera flash. If you have these, you’re ready to take some light streak portraits or shutter drag portraits.

Most portrait photographers use flash to freeze a subject and call it done. This technique does the opposite: it uses that same flash to freeze your subject while deliberately letting everything else move. The result is a sharp portrait surrounded by streaks of color that look like they required complex post-processing but were created entirely in-camera.

This post assumes that you’re already familiar with basics of exposure triangle in photography, especially shutter speed. If you’re not, you should read those guides first.

TL;DR

• Light streak portraits combine a slow shutter speed, an off-camera flash, and a constant colored light source to create creative motion effects.
• Plan your wardrobe, colors, and lighting before the shoot for the best results.
• Use your flash to freeze the subject while the constant light creates the streaks.
• Experiment with camera movement, shutter speed, and different types of motion to produce unique effects.
• Think about composition before pressing the shutter, since the direction of your movement affects the final image.
• Shoot in RAW and use post-processing to refine colors, exposure, and skin tones.
• Don’t expect perfect results immediately. Shutter drag portraits require experimentation, and small changes can dramatically alter the final image.

What Are Light Streak Portraits?

This is real portrait shoot I did last year. We’re going to use it as an example. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any behind the scenes photos or videos. But I’ll walk you through everything from pre-production and planning to post-production and editing.

These are the types of photos you can get using shutter drag in portrait photography. And the colored light part is what I mean by light streaks.

The technique itself is surprisingly simple. During a long exposure, the flash freezes your subject while the constant light continues recording as either the camera or the light moves. The result is a sharp portrait surrounded by dynamic streaks of color.

The technique works because flash duration is extremely short -typically 1/1000s or faster- which freezes your subject regardless of how slow your shutter speed is. The constant RGB light, however, continues recording throughout the entire exposure. When you move the camera or the light during that exposure, the constant light draws streaks across the frame while your subject remains sharp.

What You’ll Need

Essential gear:

• Camera
• Off camera flash + trigger
• Constant light (RGB or with colored gels)

Nice to have gear:

• Tripod
• Large modifiers
• Extra lights
• Sliders
• Paper or fabric background (simple design)

What I used for these examples:

• Sony A7IV
• Sigma 24-70 f2.8
• Godox AD600pro
• Godox T1 trigger for sony
• Viltrox K60
• Godox UB-165D Umbrella
• Vanguard tripod
• Godox light stand
• Kupo c-stand with boom arm (CT-40MK)
• Fabric grey background

Step 1: Plan the Shoot

Create a Mood Board

To get better results, you should plan ahead. Create a mood-board and share it with your model. Communicate the mood and the feeling you want to create in the final images. Ask for their ideas and suggestions as well.

If you’re not familiar with this process, you should also check out this guide on how to do test shoots.

Choose the Wardrobe and Accessories

One of the most important things at this stage, is planning the wardrobe. If you want the best possible results, I’d recommend going with shiny bright clothes. In the examples you see in this tutorial, my model is wearing reflective silver.

The same goes for accessories. I chose big bright pearl necklace and shiny sticky face gems.

Color of the clothes is also important. I chose silver with almost no other dominant color so I could work with any color of light I want. Silver, white and grey are best for colored lighting. Try to avoid black.

Choosing any specific color for the clothes, will limit your options in lighting stages. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t after experimenting a bit.

If you need more help with this, check out this guide on what to wear for a portrait photography session (and what to avoid).

Pick Your Location and Background

Based on your mood-board and wardrobe, choose a location. Give priority to environments where you’ll have control and can work in peace.

I’d prefer a nice simple grey background over anything else. Because grey will kind of absorb your colors and make for nicer photos. In studio, fabric or paper dark grey works amazing.

Step 2: Build the Lighting Setup

Position the Flash

Choose your background and where your model is going to be. Setup your flash at one side, at around 45 degrees, and higher than where the model’s face is going to be.

Use a big modifier to get soft light. Like a big soft box, or in my case, a big umbrella. (My favorite modifier for soft portraits is a 165cm deep shoot-through umbrella, which was used in taking the example photos.)

Ask the model or someone else to stand in -you can also use a tripod and stand in yourself- then take a few test shots. You should go for a slightly underexposed photo at this stage.

I intentionally start with a slightly underexposed base image because it leaves room for the colored light streaks to stand out without overwhelming the portrait. If the flash exposure is already very bright, the streaks often become much less noticeable, or the whole image gets overexposed.

Add the Constant Light

After getting the base exposure right, you’ll setup your colored constant light on the opposite side of your flash. Approximately the same angle, but a bit lower.

RGB stick lights work great for this purpose. (I used a tube light for the examples you see here.) And if you’re using a cob light, I’d suggest modifying it with a large strip box, with at least 60cm length for sitting portraits. LED panels can work too, but they wouldn’t be my first choice.

As you can see in the example, I was kind of limited in my framing because of the size of my RGB light. The height of your constant light should be as long as you can make it.

Balance the Exposure

Turn your constant light on and take more test shots. Don’t worry about the shutter drag yet. Just try to get the exposure right. You’ll adjust shutter speed and compensate with ISO or aperture later. (That’s why I said you need to have solid grasp on the exposure triangle at the beginning.)

After getting the right exposure, you’re ready for the fun part.

If you’re new with lighting, you should read these posts first:

Basics of Lighting for Photography and Video: A Beginner’s Guide

5 Lighting Mistakes Beginner Photographers Make

Step 3: Camera Settings and Exposure

The shape and quality of the light streaks will depend on your shutter speed and speed of motion. I’ll give you the exact settings I used for these photos. But it’s not an exact science. You’ll need some trial and error to get it right for yourself.

As you can see, I’ve found that shutter speeds between one and two seconds work best for this particular setup.

Because my RGB light was about 60cm in length, I went with a tighter composition and 70mm focal length. You don’t need to copy this.

In studio and with flash, I usually use tight apertures between f/8 and f/11. I’ve found that they give me the sharpness and the depth of field that I like. If you work outside studio, with less powerful light sources, or just prefer shallower depth of field, adjust accordingly.

Note: for different focal lengths, different types of portraits (full body, ¾, half body, etc.), and different size lights, you’ll have to change the shutter speed to match the kind of motion blur you want.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about in this section, check these posts out:

Everything You Need to Know About Aperture

Everything You Need to Know About ISO

How Focal Length Changes Composition and Perspective (+Free Visualizer Tool)

Step 4: Create the Light Streaks

Move the Camera or the Light

There are two ways of making light streaks with slow shutter speed. In one, you move the light source. In the other, you move your camera. Flash is going to freeze your subject. So no worries about that. And either way can work.

I personally prefer the second way. But you should experiment with moving the constant light source during the exposure as well. Experimentation is the only way to find what you like and what you don’t. And that’s the beginning of the route to build your own personal style.

Having the camera on a light tripod can help with this.

Experiment With Motion

Here are a few things you can do with your camera to create motion:

• Pan (horizontal movement)
• Tilt (vertical movement)
• Twisting your camera
• Circular motion
• Zooming (if you’re using a zoom lens)
• Different combinations of things mentioned above

Don’t treat these movements as separate techniques. They’re building blocks. You can pan while slightly twisting the camera, pause halfway through the exposure before continuing the movement, or combine a zoom with a gentle tilt. Small changes in timing often have a much bigger impact than large changes in camera settings.

Mix, match, try every crazy idea. You’ll eventually find what you’re looking for. And remember, the brighter the thing in your frame, the brighter the streaks it makes. So you can use things like earrings to your advantage.

As you can see, different motions and pausing in different places, will create completely different results.

A note about safety:

If you’re moving quickly with a camera or swinging lights, make sure the shooting area is clear to avoid damaging equipment or injuring your model.

If you need help with posing, check out this guide on how to pose for photos. (or ask your model to do so.)

Step 5: Compose the Image

Think About Movement Before Pressing the Shutter

There’s something interesting about composing these types of photos. Because you’re creating the light streaks -and you can be intentional in doing so- you’re practically building the scene. And that means you get to pick and choose which rules of composition you want to use and which ones you want to ignore.

Use Light as a Compositional Element

You can create leading lines with light, you can create negative space, you can create balance, you can do anything! But you should have a few ideas ready to go. Like, if you’re taking a vertical frame and using your camera to create motion, the direction of that movement matters for your initial framing of the subject.

If you’re going to move your camera to the right for example, you’d want to put your subject on the right side of frame at the beginning of exposure, when the flash is going to hit them.

You’ll get the hang of it, with some trial and error.

If you’re not familiar with the rules of composition in photography, you should see that guide next. This guide on color composition can also help.

Step 6: Edit the Photos

I use Adobe Photoshop, Skylum Luminar Neo and Skylum Aperty to edit my portraits at the moment. But these steps can be done in pretty much any editing software.

The most important thing: shoot in RAW to give yourself the best chance to get the image to where you want. If you don’t know what that is, go read this guide on raw format in photography and video first.

Basic Adjustments

I usually do a round of basic adjustments to bring the image to an acceptable place (or at least close to it). These will include changing the exposure, shadow and highlight settings, white and black points, texture, clarity, dehaze, sharpness and noise reduction.

Also, don’t be afraid to crop at this stage. Because camera movement is part of the composition, it’s common for the framing to end up slightly off. Cropping after the fact lets you refine the composition without affecting the light streak effect.

If you don’t have much experience editing photos, just go through the available settings in your RAW processor (this can be Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, Luminar Neo, Capture One, DxO PhotoLab, Affinity, etc.) and play with them.

For reference, this is a straight out of camera raw: first without changing any settings, then after doing some basic edits.

Color

Now tinker with contrast, white balance, curves, color mixers, calibration and color grading tools + saturation and vibrance.

This is the same photo after doing those.

If you’re not familiar with white balance, you should check this guide on white balance in photography and video. Getting in right when shooting, will make your life easier in the post-production stage, especially when batch editing a session’s worth of light streak portraits with shutter drag.

Other guides that can help:

How to Edit Photos: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Photo Editing Guide

How to Create a Consistent Editing Style

Retouch

If you’re careful with lighting and exposure when taking the photos, you won’t have much to do when editing this type of portraits, especially in retouching department.

But if you feel the need, retouch the skin with healing and patching tools. The newer ones have become reliable for making small local changes.

For the retouching stage I use Skylum Aperty, which handles skin retouching with a level of speed and precision that’s hard to match. For light streak portraits specifically, the masking tools let you retouch skin without affecting the colored light areas, which is useful when the streaks overlap with the subject’s face or neck.

If you want to learn more about editing or get into details, you should also read this guide on the basics of raw photo editing.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Like most creative photography techniques, shutter drag portraits require some experimentation. If your first attempts don’t look the way you imagined, don’t get discouraged. Here are the most common problems and how to fix them.

My Subject Looks Blurry

Your flash should be responsible for freezing your subject. If your subject is blurry, your ambient light is probably contributing too much to the exposure.

Try one or more of the following:

• Increase flash power
• Reduce the brightness of your constant light
• Close your aperture slightly
• Lower your ISO
• Ask your model to stay as still as possible until the exposure is complete

Remember that while the flash freezes the subject for a brief moment, any movement before or after the flash fires can still be recorded by the slow shutter.

I Can’t See the Light Streaks

If the streaks are barely visible, your constant light isn’t contributing enough to the exposure.

Try:

• A brighter RGB light
• A longer shutter speed
• Moving the camera or light source more quickly
• Increasing ISO slightly if you can’t make the light any brighter

The Light Streaks Are Too Strong

Sometimes the opposite happens. The streaks overpower the portrait and distract from your subject.

To reduce their intensity:

• Shorten your shutter speed
• Lower the brightness of the constant light
• Move the camera more slowly
• Reduce the distance your camera travels during the exposure

The goal is usually for the light streaks to complement the portrait rather than become the only thing people notice. But in some instance, you may actually want the streaks to be stronger. So think about what you want first.

The Flash Looks Too Harsh

Hard shadows usually mean your flash source is too small or positioned poorly.

Try:

• A larger modifier
• Moving the modifier closer to your subject
• Lowering flash power
• Adjusting the flash angle until the shadows become softer

My Colors Look Muddy

Some colors don’t mix well.

If your colors look dull:

• Use fewer colors
• Keep your white balance consistent
• Avoid clothing colors that fight your lighting
• Separate your subject from the background whenever possible

Simple color combinations often produce cleaner, more striking results than trying to use every RGB color at once.

The Background Is Too Bright

Ambient light can easily compete with your flash.

To darken the background:

• Lower ISO.
• Close the aperture.
• Increase flash power to compensate.
• Shoot later in the evening or in a darker environment.

This creates more contrast between your subject and the light streaks.

Nothing Looks Interesting

This is usually a creative problem rather than a technical one.

Before changing your settings, experiment with:

• Different movement directions
• Different colors
• New wardrobe choices
• Different camera angles
• New compositions

Sometimes a small change in camera movement creates a completely different image.

Don’t judge the technique after a few frames. Unlike traditional portrait photography, shutter drag usually requires experimentation. It’s common to shoot dozens of images before finding the movement, timing, and lighting combination that creates the effect you’re after.

You can use the information provided here as a suitable starting point. But without trial and error, you can’t create the best possible images that you’ll actually like and use.

When Should You Use This Technique?

Whenever you have a flash and a colored constant light source available, and want to do something fun and different. I usually prefer somewhat controlled environments for doing this, but you can do it absolutely anywhere. If you just have a flash and no RGB lights, colored lights in the streets can give you something to work with, for example.

When Not to Use It

• With first-time clients who just want their portraits taken, and haven’t asked for this type of work specifically.
• When you just want to capture a moment with no distractions.
• When you’re trying to showcase a product that needs to be clearly in focus.
• When you don’t have enough time.

You get the idea.

Variations to Try in the Future

1. Black and White / Monochrome

Easiest thing that you can try -just by a different edit- is the same images in black and white. Since the base of these photos were RGB light, this may sound strange. But the shapes you create with light, can lend themselves to excellent black and white photos as well.

It’s not hard or time-consuming. Just try to turn some of your photos into black and white and tweak your settings a bit. You’ll be surprised by how different your light streak portraits will look.

2. Outdoor Street Version

You can substitute the RGB light with neon lights, tail-lights of the cars, and other colored lights on the street. You’ll still need a flash if you want to freeze the subject and have them sharp in the final image.

The compositions and the final looks will be a bit different, but everything else is pretty much the same technically.

3. More Lights, More Colors

Once you get the hang of the basics, you can start adding more lights. This way, you can have multiple colors in your light streaks. Not every combination of colors will work nicely together.

To choose you colors better, you should learn more about color theory.

Suggested positions for the other constant RGB lights: behind the subject and to the side, the same side as the flash and in front of the subject, the same side of the first RGB light and having them at different angles in front of you subject.

As always, test everything out and choose for yourself.

Last Words

Light streak and shutter drag photos can be a lot of fun. Portrait photographers don’t use this technique very often. So you can stand out by utilizing it from time to time.

Light streak portraits work best as a creative accent rather than a replacement for your normal portrait style. Once you understand the technique, experiment with different colors, movements, and lighting setups to develop a look that feels uniquely yours.

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