This week I had the opportunity to explore painting with light. My daughter has some experience with painting with light and shared some incite with me. It was so fun! Keep in mind that when looking through some of my photographs I am an amateur photographer and I am continually learning. Take note that below each picture I have my camera settings listed. You will notice that the shutter speed is set at 5 or 15, what this means is that the pictures exposure to the image was 5 or 15 seconds long.

Camera Setting: Shutter Speed 15, Aperture f8, ISO 100

What is painting with light photography?

Painting with light is a photography technique which uses a moving light source, like a flash light, phone light, or sparkler to alter an image while taking a long exposure picture. You also need to use a tri-pod to reduce blurring.

The following shot took four people:

  • One person to model
  • One to shine a light on the model
  • One to paint with light
  • One person to take the picture
Camera Settings: Shutter Speed 15, Aperture f8, ISO 100

Some Trouble Shooting

Whatever light source you choose does affect the light painting result. If your using a phone flashlight use a yellow filter, the softer light often has a better result.

Make sure you are far from any light sources as this will also affect the image results.

Below are some of my results with light painting:

This was such a fun experience!

LOVE

In this picture each person stood in one place and constantly moved their sparkler in the letter direction. Each letter had one person behind it.

Camera Settings: Shutter Speed 5, Aperture f8, ISO 100

CREEPY

This picture had an interesting result, the light affected the face image making this really creepy. My volunteers loved the result, me not so much!

Camera Settings: Shutter Speed 15, Aperture f8, ISO 100

Smiley Faces

Camera Settings: Shutter Speed 5, Aperture f8, ISO 100
Camera Settings: Shutter Speed 5, Aperture f8, ISO 100

Conclusion of My Experience of Light Painting

Light painting is so fun, and if your interested in trying it, do it! It is fun to play around with different light sources and experiment with different ideas. My next move with light painting will be using different colours of light. I would like to use a rainbow wand, I think the picture results would be awesome.

Not A Light Painting: The Full Moon

This last pic was not of a light painting pic. Because the full moon happened to be out the same day we were playing with light painting, I had to try to get a pic, this was a fun one. In this shot my camera is zoomed as far as I possibly could. I had to use a tri-pod because when your so zoomed up on an image, any movement (even breathing) can create difficulty.

Camera Settings: Shutter Speed 1/40, Aperture f8, ISO 200

Next blog topic: Long Exposure