Painting with light: Have a go!

McNugget801 · Jul 13, 2009

I love to paint.

Mesa Arch

Desert Orb

Fun with LED's

paraclete · Jul 13, 2009

I haven't done much light painting, but it looks interesting. I tried, but back when I last tried, it was with an automatic camera, so it didn't really work that well, haha. But I bought a nikon D50 from Adorama, and they're SUPPOSED to ship it today, so I'm looking forward to playing with it more soon, hopefully. Anyway, I like the idea of 'high lighting' certain things in a picture... It wasn't really what I thought of when I first read 'light painting,' but its an idea I really hope to play with some... In addition to the taking colored lights or something and using those.

Garbz · Sep 16, 2009

??? Huh most of these exposures are but a few seconds long. I'm sure I could run my LEDs a good 3 weeks on a half flat battery.

Dao · Sep 16, 2009

Garbz said:
??? Huh most of these exposures are but a few seconds long. I'm sure I could run my LEDs a good 3 weeks on a half flat battery.

Ignore that person, all his/her posts in this forum were the battery post.

RussJasper · Sep 16, 2009

McNugget801 said:
I love to paint.

Mesa Arch

Fun with LED's

how did you get these ribbons to show like that?!? well done. please do a write up of your technique

Buckster · Sep 16, 2009

I started experimenting with moving colored lights and multiple long exposures in 1976 with a Polaroid and Christmas lights:

Title: Electric Fence

Title: Electric Tunnel

Here's a more recent one:

Title: Enchanted Place

I set up the shot with camera @ ISO 100, on a tripod, pre-focused at a temporary marker and set to bulb, then took my place in front of the camera at my 'mark #1', where I'd pre-focused, triggered the shutter by remote, and began the making of the photo. During the 176 second exposure, I performed the making of the orb using LED's wrapped in orange gels, with small holes that allowed the LED's to peek through to capture their blue light from certain angles. When the orb was complete, I went to my pre-arranged 'mark #2' to pose with the imaginary orb, and remote triggered two 580EX II speedlights - one between the two trees on the right side of the composition to serve as a main and to help with the illusion that I'm being lit by the orb, and the other to camera left to help fill the scene and light the bark.

It's fun stuff to play with.

Kondro86 · Sep 16, 2009

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34048121@N05/sets/72157616740371340/

Theres a link to my Flickr set.

Kondro86 · Sep 16, 2009

RussJasper said:
McNugget801 said:

I love to paint.

Mesa Arch

Fun with LED's

Click to expand...

how did you get these ribbons to show like that?!? well done. please do a write up of your technique

I believe he is using light cathodes.

Flickr: Discussing homemade cathode!(tut) in Light Junkies

Theres a link to a Flickr group light junkies. And theres a good tutorial on how to make portable light cathodes.

Kondro86 · Sep 17, 2009

Here's a more recent one:

Title: Enchanted Place

cool shot!

photospherix · Sep 25, 2009

Great shots. I ended up here through an error. I was shooting a customers workshop and needed to post him into the shot. I then had a lot of shots with me and a shoplight.

LokiZ · Sep 25, 2009

hmmm, so I take it the SMT LED's I have would be the equivalent to a fine point pen or brush? LOL. Looks like fun I will have to give this a whirl. Anyone ever seen those frisbee UFO's with the LED's on them.

RyanLilly · Sep 25, 2009

Xavier Nuez

this guy does some pretty awsome stuff, using long exposure MF and walking around with speedlights.

Buckster · Sep 26, 2009

RyanLilly said:
Xavier Nuez

this guy does some pretty awsome stuff, using long exposure MF and walking around with speedlights.

Great link! Very inspiring!

teishu · Oct 14, 2009

PHILLIP MAC · Oct 19, 2009

Ok. I have been light painting for many years , the best way is to have a small flash to show the subject then light paint over it.
I have written a lesson on it , see my website tutorials, one of the great light painters was a guy called Aaron Jones he invented a fibre optic device called the hosemaster a fantastic machine for pros. with many acces.
The only problem was the price around 6000 us, when I had my first one. Broncolor also do a light brush that was in the past greatly inferior to the hosemaster.
Anyway it's difficult to explain so go to the light painting lesson on the site.
Regards
Phillip