Traffic Chaos

Traffic Chaos is a preset built for the city after dark. For the moment when standstill traffic turns into light trails, streetlights glow orange against a deep blue sky and the street feels like a painting in motion. The preset amplifies that atmosphere without pushing it too far. The result is warm, a little raw, but never over-edited.

Technically, Traffic Chaos pulls the shadows toward deep blue and cools the midtones slightly, while keeping the highlights warm. That combination creates the classic orange-blue tension you recognise from night photography in the city. The contrast is firm but not harsh. Details in dark areas stay visible, light trails gain depth and glow. Colour saturation is selectively increased: warm tones pull forward, cool tones hold their ground.

The preset works best with long-exposure shots of busy intersections, city streets and motorways. Think headlights drawing streaks across wet asphalt, neon signs reflecting in puddles, or a stationary tram surrounded by moving light. Night portraits with artificial light sources in the background can also work well, especially when there are contrasting light temperatures in the frame.

You reach for Traffic Chaos when you want to hold onto the energy of the city at night and add just a little more drama than the camera captures on its own. Not for clean, bright street photography in daylight. For the chaotic, glowing version of the city you only see after dark. The preset is a starting point, not a finished result. Every photo needs small adjustments from there.

A practical tip: set your shutter speed to at least 2 seconds when traffic is light, longer on quieter streets. The more light movement in the frame, the more the preset has to work with. Start with the exposure correction at zero before making any changes, so the colour balance of the preset stays intact as your baseline.