Get creative - A comprehensive light painting tutorial

Get creative - A comprehensive light painting tutorial

Photography is a perfect outlet for your imagination. You can go out and take regular photos of architecture or you can try and be a little more creative and create really abstract and surreal images. If you're really looking for something fun, try light painting. Light painting is exactly what it's name says. You are painting with light. So how can you do it yourself? How does it work and what different kinds of light painting are there? The are questions I'm going to try to answer.

How does painting with light work? In order to know how light painting works we first need to explain how a camera works. If you capture an image the light sensor in your camera registers all the light that is being reflected from the different surfaces around you. If a lot of light is falling onto the sensor it won't have a problem creating an image. When there is not a lot of light falling onto the sensor however it can take quite a while for the camera to create a decent image. The exposure time of the sensor is being controlled by the shutter and the shutter speed.

But what has this to do with light painting you ask? If you use a slow shutter speed the camera takes in a lot of information. If you swing around a light in front of the camera it will create long streaks of light.

You can use a couple of techniques to create a light painting. Moving the light source is the first technique. With this style you can draw figures in the air and it will appear as long streaks in the photograph. I've done it a lot and it is incredibly fun to do. You can really create anything with this as long as you can come up with something.

Moving the camera itself is a second technique. This will create a very abstract effect because the image will probably be very blurry.

On to the fun stuff! How do you do it yourself. Before you can create a light painting you are going to need several things.

A camera, obviously, to capture the images. When it comes to cameras it's important that it allows you to manipulate the settings. It doesn't have to be an expensive DSLR but it certainly helps. If you can adjust the shutter speed then you are good to go. The shutter will probably adjust itself automatically when you are in low light conditions but sometimes it is better that you set it even longer so you have more time to do your fancy light drawing.

A tripod is a second thing. If you don't want the rest of your image to move then using a tripod is key. It allows you to use longer shutter speeds without having any motion blur.

A good light source is the third thing. This really can be anything as long as it emits light. You can use LED lights, flashlights or even your cell phone. There are a lot of different lights and different shapes or sizes can be useful for certain situations.

Now get ready for some fun!Think of something that would make a good scene. You're limited only by your imagination. Try writing graffiti on the wall ( with light of course, nothing illegal), paint faces on inanimate objects. Use a timer to photograph your scene and make sure the shutter speed is set up to it's open a good amount of time.

Now is the artistic part. The camera will register the lights a lot better because they are a lot brighter than the light coming off of the environment. It doesn't matter if you run in front of it or not. As long as you don't stand still for a long period of time you won't even be noticeable in the photograph. The light you reflect isn't really bright and if you keep moving it won't even register.

So now you know a couple of techniques that people use in order to create cool light paintings. Now it is up to you to use your imagination and create your own masterpieces.If you want to learn more check out my blog.

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