light painting

Super Rad Light Painting by Dennis Calvert

PauloGabriel — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:50:20 +0000

It's been quite a while since I've last seen cool light paintings. After a while, it became too much of the same, and the lack of creativity made this technique fade for some time. That until now.

Dennis Calvert have just revived it. Well, at least for me. This guy really knows how to experiment, go further and innovate. Grab your leds, your fireworks and go do art. That's probably the advice he would give you, right? These are super rad indeed! For more of Dennis Calvert light painting photography, visit his page at DeviantART. He'll appreciate it very much! I hope you enjoy these. Cheers! ;)

About the author

Hello, everyone! I'm Paulo Gabriel, designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil, born in 1984. I have worked as a webdesigner since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobby for me since 1999. Here in Abduzeedo, I try to bring only the hot stuff for you... and hope that all of you enjoy my posts! For more cool stuff, you may also follow me on Twitter.

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Extreme Light Painting by Janne Parviainen

marcos333 — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 02:46:33 +0000

Some may say Light Painting is really overused nowadays and that's true, it's a really simple and impressive technique and there's a lot of photographers using it. However, I like to think that besides being really overused, someone will always try to bring this technique into a whole new level. And Janne Parviainen definetely did that.

I really don't know how he creates this light skeletons and human shapes, must be micro fibers or wires maybe. It's a big mystery, what turns his photography in something more artistic and quite unique. You can see more of his light paintings at this Flickr.

About the author

My name is Marcos Torres, I'm Graphic Artist from Porto Alegre, Brasil. You can get to know more about me by acessing my Personal Website or by following me on Twitter: @marcos333. You can also see some of my last projects at my Flickr.

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Light Painting Guide by Christopher Hibbert

abduzeedo — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:05:33 +0000

Light painting, also known as light drawing is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a light source or by moving the camera, that's the Wikipedia.org definition and in this guide/tutorial Christopher Hibbert will give us some tips on how to produce this effects with your camera.

Tools

The lenses

Of course the lens is chosen regarding the scene. Note that you don t need lenses with big aperture like 2.8 because you will need time to paint and therefore a very low shutter speed = small aperture. I started doing light painting with a 18-70mm 3.5-4.5 and I often use it at F/9, F/16.
*Keep in mind that since you may be alone while doing light painting, you shouldn’t go too far from your camera using a 200mm lens for example. You don’t want your stuff to be stolen ;)

Flash

The flash fixes people and objects on the scene so they are clearly visible even for long exposure photographs. For example, on “Light soccer”, I was flashed at the beginning of the shooting.

Torches and lights

You can use any kind of light. It really depends on the color, the thickness, the brightness you need. I did my first light painting using the flashlight of my mobile. Actually, I use the mini light of a keychain and different sizes of Maglite. It is also interesting and fun to integrate uncontrolled moving lights in the process. (Lights from cars, trains, stars… see the following examples)

Colors

To obtain colored lights, you can use colored bulbs with your torches or use filters. I use colored corks from soda bottles… they fit perfectly on my small Maglite. Easier than having many torches in your bag and also cheaper! Plus, the red cork comes with a soda which boosts you for the night ;)

Here is an example of characters colored using the cork of a soda bottle.

Other tools

Well you will need a tripod of course. Be sure to get one that supports the weight of your camera + lens and that is high enough for you.

Another great tool to reduce camera shake and blurry photographs is a remote shutter release that allows you to block the shutter opened as long as you want.

*Wear dark clothe! That will decrease the chance of you being visible on the image if you stay at the same spot while painting.

Technique

It is important to start, shooting at the scene without painting to setup the camera as best as you can in order to get a well exposed, well framed scene and a shutter speed slow enough.

All you have to think about is pointing the light to the lens. Don’t worry if you need lasers, they won’t damage your camera’s captor! If you want to integrate lights from a car for example, start the shooting when the car is about to appear on the scene. By the way, you can use lights from cars to light the scene like I did to realize the following light painting.

Subjects

Light painting is about fun and creativity. Words, calligraphy, abstract shapes, characters, objects: use your imagination to add elements to scenes, create scenes, write words, names…

Settings

White Balance

In urban scene, the light is often yellow… that is why all my first light paintings are yellow. In order to get the right white balance, you can use a compact grey chart like the one from TrueColors

Focus

It can be difficult to setup the focus in a dark place. Use one of your torches to light an area of the scene and make the camera focus on it. Once done, put the focus on manual so it won’t change while shooting.

Tip: You can play with the zoom of your lens during the shooting to get nice effects like the following one.

Slow shutter speed

Different settings have to be setup in order to get the shutter speed you need. Low ISO decreases the sensibility and the noise on long exposure photographs. The aperture changes the depth of field and a small aperture means slower shutter speed when shooting dark scenes.

The shutter speed can be as low as you want. Just be sure that the scene is well exposed.

“Sunny night” The following photograph’s exposure time is around 16minutes. There were no lights at all in the streets. The scene lightning comes from the moon.

About Christopher Hibbert

Christopher Hibbert is a freenlancer photographer from Paris, France. He is an expert in light painting with an impressive portfolio full of very creative photos using this technique. Below you can see some examples, and for more information about him visit his website at http://www.christopher-hibbert.com/

Some Works

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

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Introducing 3 Experts In Light Painting

aloa — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:11:13 +0000

When you look for light painting on Abduzeedo you find a lot of different posts from inspiration posts to tutorials. But luckily the world is full of awesome photographers. Today im presenting you three artists who deal very different with the special photographing technique.

Eric Staller

Eric Staller is an US-American artist and inventor. After studying architecture in New York, he stayed and showcased his projects in galeries & museums and is doing light sculpures & installations since then. In 1980 he created a "Lightmobile" a - with 1.659 computerised bulbs - VW Beetle. To not let the good things end he moved to Amsterdam in 1994 and invented the Conference Bike.

You can check out his website: www.EricStaller.com

Justin Martinez

Justin Martinez is a rather younger, but not less interesting artists. You may have seen some ideas before except his photography incorporates portraits with light painting.

"Most people don't believe me when I tell them that these photos were not manipulated with Photoshop or any other post-processing software what-so-ever,"

A native of Georgia, USA, Justin began taking pictures as an editorial photographer for a local newspaper, in high school and continued to develop as a photographer while co-editing the Gordon College student newspaper, where he studied English.

More recently, his creativity has focused on long exposure/light painting photography, which has gained him much acclaim. With a tool bag full of bright lights and glowing gadgets, Justin creates all the "special effects" in his pictures in real time while the photograph is being captured, using flashlights like paintbrushes.

Currently, Justin works as a parachute packer for Skydive Atlanta, and a freelance photographer in the Atlanta area taking commercial and promotional photos for various companies and artists.

You can check out his Flickr: www.Flickr.com/../JustinMartinez/

Patrick Rochon

Patrick Rochon specializes moving lights trough various media. Once started with light-painting he learned creating videos, performances and costumes of lights. What's so special about this artists? All the images are exactly what was recorded on the film at the time of the shoot. No computer effects or digital maniplation were done

You can check out his website: www.PatrickRochon.com

About the author

Aloa is the moniker of the german/greek graphic designer/filmmaker & musician Alexis Papageorgiou. Im glad to share great artistic work with the readers on Abduzeedo. Contact me on aloa@abduzeedo.com or follow my Twitter and Facebook page

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Awesome Toys Light Painting

PauloGabriel — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:52:29 +0000

I really love when someone mixes stuff I enjoy, like sweet toys and light paiting! The result for that equation is really awesome! So, here are some of these mixtures I've found recently.

Maybe it's not really new to you, but still it's worth checking these out. For further pictures, like the ones with glasses at the bottom, check out Recycle Bean's photostream at Flickr. Cheers! ;)

About the author

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Video of the Week #22

PauloGabriel — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:43:41 +0000

Some time ago we've had a few posts about stop motion. We've featured a list of stop motion inspiration and also we gaveaway some software. Not to mention those awesome light paiting pictures and videos we've posted. But what about mashing those two techniques?

That's what a girl called Kaki King made for hir "Pull Me Out Alive" music video. It's really awesome to see both techniques at the same time, it's indeed an outstanding result. Check it out:

I wonder if any of you guys have done something similar, mixing two or more techniques like that. Did anyone? Anyways, thanks Andrea Pelizzardi for the link.

About the author

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Learning Light Painting

abduzeedo — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:51:07 +0000

We have published some articles about Light Painting, and in this post we will share some basic information about this technique. We will talk about the tools, the camera settings, the light and the technique. Also, we want to say thank you very much to Christopher Hibbert, the author of this article.

Light painting, also known as light drawing is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a light source or by moving the camera. Wikipedia.org

1. The tools

Besides your camera you will need a tripod and a torch (or any other kind of light you can handle and move). Why a tripod? Because you will choose a shutter speed slow enough to do your drawing. In my case, it usually takes me 20 to 30 seconds to create the scene.

I recommend using a remote control which gives the option to lock the shutter in bulb mode. Like that, you have all the time you need to be creative! I use the Nikon MC-30 with my Nikon camera and it works well.

2. Light

All kind of lights can be used. Don't worry about your sensor, it won't be damaged if you point the torch (laser etc) directly on it while you shoot.

I use a little light also used as a key chain. It s powerful enough to draw the characters and can be turned on/off just by pressing a button.

3. Camera settings

Shutter speed: As long as you need to create the scene.
ISO: I usually put it on 100 so I can set the shutter speed on a very slow value and I don t get any noise on my photographs.
Aperture: Set it doing a test shot without drawings, focusing on an element close to what you are going to draw.
Flash: Can be used to fix a person or a moving element in the scene.
White balance: Set it doing a test shot. Street lighting is usually yellow.
Focus: Obviously on manual if there is not enough light.

4. Tips

Light is your friend, you could use moving lights from cars etc.. for exemple, I did one while a train was passing under a bridge.
Wear dark clothes if you want to lower the chance of being visible on the photograph.

Light painting is about light, creativity and fun!

Some examples

About the Author:

Christopher Hibbert

Born on the 12th of november 1983, freelance photographer since 2006, I have been working exclusively with Nikon equipment.
Concerts, private parties, weddings, sports events, books and portraits .. I do shoot all kind of events. Versatile, I adapt to the situation in order to take the best pictures.

For more information about Christopher's work visit his website at http://www.christopher-hibbert.com/

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