Would you like to produce photos that really draw the viewers eye?, you should try a technique called painting with light. This type of photography is also sometimes referred to as “light painting”. The concept is pretty simple but it takes a little imagination, preparation and some trial and error but the final product will be some really cool images that will be sure to “WOW” the viewers. Somebody always says “how’d they do that?”
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The Concept of Painting With Light.
The concept is simple and has been around for some time. You basically take your digital cameras or any cameras that allow you to manually set the exposure time for as long as you need…set a long exposure (around 30 seconds or longer), and while the camera is exposing …you shine your light source on your subject. The end results are pretty cool. Sound interesting? Good….read on my friend.
First a quick thought though: you can use a regular film camera to for this type of photography but it is recommended that you use digital cameras when painting with light. I’ll explain below.
Necessities For Painting With Light
1. A Solid Tripod – The “painting with light” technique is one that requires a very steady camera since the exposure times are exaggerated. You’re putting your time, effort and creativity into what could possibly some of your best photography work…you don’t want it ruined by camera shake!
2. A Good Camera - As mentioned above, you can perform the “painting with light” technique with really any camera that allows you a manual control over your exposure times. It is recommended however that you use digital cameras if possible. The reason is, when your done shooting you can instantly check your results. This way you can immediately get on with any re-shooting that you need to do instead of having to go through the time and trouble of developing your images before you can figure out whether or not you actually accomplished your goal.
3. A Dark Area - This is another essential when painting with light. If you’re going to be shooting at home then any dark room or closet will work just fine. You just have to be sure to eliminate any ambient light sources. As much as possible anyway. By this I mean close all of the curtains so there’s no light coming in from the street. Turn off or cover any digital face panels of appliances or stereo equipment and other things like that. Roll up towels and put them at the bottoms of the doors in the room if you have to.
Painting with light outdoors can be an interesting endeavor. A little ambient light can help to produce some surreal visual effects. Shooting in this type of setting can, if done properly, can leave your silhouette in the image producing a ghostly effect when doing an environmental graffiti shot. If you are going to be shooting outdoors, just make sure you’re not to close to store lights, street lights or anywhere that a car’s headlamps can ruin your shot with too much light.
4. A Light Source – For this aspect of “painting with light” you can be very creative with. You can use basically anything as a light source. You can use a regular flashlight, which works great for “painting” your subject, or you can use a lamp of any kind, sparklers, laser pointers, glow sticks or even colored LED lights. The thing to remember here is that… the finer your point of light is, the finer your light trail will be.
Painting With Light Indoors and Out
A nice example of painting with light
Now with all of that covered I think you’re ready to try painting with light.
To achieve an image similar to the one at the right, you’ll need to be indoors with near zero light. Make sure your camera is mounted steadily where it’s sure not to move. Set a relatively long exposure time, something around 30 seconds or more is good and stop the aperture down as much as necessary.
When you’re sure everything is in the right position and you have your lights (paint brushes) in hand, turn the lights off and make the click to start your exposure. Now begin to move your lights around the subjects. The folks here may even have shined the colored LED’s on the subject’s faces a bit from just off camera to get that coloring effect on their faces a little more pronounced. Voila!
These guys did a great job of illuminating the side of this vehicle. Excellent!
OK, now that we’ve worked indoors with live subjects let’s take our creativity and experimentation outdoors for another kind of effect. We’re going to use the same concept except we’re going to incorporate a little ambient light to deliver some added character to our final image. The image to the right demonstrates this perfectly.
Here, the artist obviously used a white light source only and did a fantastic job of shining the light over just this one side of the vehicle without “spilling” the illumination over the other surfaces of the vehicle.
Tips for Painting With Light
Remember, you’re working with relatively long exposure times so if you’re using live subjects as in the first example above, they must make their best effort to remain still in order to prevent the evidence of motion in their images.
If there is any ambient light in your setting and you need to pass in the camera’s field of view, your “ghost” will show up in the photo. You’ll also need to keep in mind that even if its pitch black in your setting you CANNOT come between the light source and the camera. If for example you are holding a glow stick up in the air on a string and you begin to let it move in circles around your arm, there will be a break in some of the light streaks. This is caused by the glow stick passing behind your arm.
The speed of your light movement is a factor in the intensity in which your “paint” will show up in your image. If you are working with light sources like LEDs and you hold the light still, it will “burn” the image and if you move it too fast it will show up but it will have less intensity in the image.
Make several exposures and experiment with your chosen shot. This will lead to your achieving the best images. Like I said in the beginning of the post, it’s an easy concept but does require a little trial and error sometimes to get it just the way you want it.
These are the basics, so the next time you are planning to do some shooting try this technique and you’ll be sure to get some fantastic photos. You’ll probably get a “WOW!, how’d you do that?” and you can tell them “I was painting with light!”
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