Photography Tricks – Painting with Light

Painting with light is a fun (and easy) photography trick. I learned how to do it last month.

Learn how I did this after the break

Last month, I attended the first ever PhotoCamp Lansing, which was organized by some friends of mine. The concept was we spend the weekend taking pictures, learning from each other and trying out new techniques.

One such technique, was painting with light. This workshop was arranged by one of PhotoCamp’s founders, Jon (a very talented photographer, especially when it comes to portraits of hamsters).

This shot was taken with the light set to an ‘on-off blink’ setting

Jon bought each of us flashing light stick and then told us what we had to do.

• First, we had to wait for it to get dark outside. Like a Batman movie, the darker the better.

• Next, the cameras had to go on a tripod. Long exposures are needed for this trick, and hand holding your camera ain’t gonna cut it.

• Nailing the correct settings was key. Our cameras had to be in M (full manual) mode. None of the auto-modes would work here. The same went for focus, it had to be set to manual.

This was a first for some in our group, as they never really tried the M mode (and it can be intimidating). Since I had kept mine on M for a few weeks at this point (per a photo tip article I read. a great way to learn), I had no problems with the settings.

• Settings I used (but trial and error is a big part of this)

– I used my wide angle lens, set to 18mm.
– ISO: 400
– Exposure: long, at least eight seconds, or even longer if you want. One of my shots was 20 seconds long.
– F-stop: I switched between f/8 and f/10.
– Focus: Manual

This was taken with an exposure setting of eight seconds. I either walked toward or away from the camera, can’t remember.

Lastly, we set our cameras on Timer mode. I had to be able to run out in front before it went off. The timer also helped prevent camera shake.

Once the camera went off, we did our thing: waving the the lights around, trying to make shapes, writing–all that fun stuff.

This is me trying to write a H. Too bad my focus was off.

This was a great workshop (and fun!). Sadly, it was cut short due to rain (that’s the problem with shooting outside). When I try this again, I want try using different settings, like maybe a lower ISO or something.

Have you ever tried this trick?