Very noob flash question

[PSIKevin]

So I am planning on getting a camera soon, (Canon Rebel T4i) and I recently watched some videos of light painting, particularly this one
How to do Light Painting - YouTube

I was wondering, do you need an external flash to do something like that? Or can you use the built-in flash of the camera in any way shape or form. Just wondering because I'm on a bit of a budget as I'm just a student, and I can't really afford to get a flash along side the camera.

 

[snowbear]

The camera stays in the same spot and the flash/light moves, so the built-in flash won't work that well. You could try a bright flashlight.

 

[PSIKevin]

Hmm, okay, but would it work at all? Like can I have my shutter speed be say 20 seconds, and my flash will go off at the beginning/when I want it to?

 

[pgriz]

You could arrange for a violent electrical storm to provide the lighting effects but those usually come with side-effects (rain, wind) that screw up intended manifestation. Not to mention, that depending on the middle-man used, you may forfeit your soul.

 

[Tiller]

You could arrange for a violent electrical storm to provide the lighting effects but those usually come with side-effects (rain, wind) that screw up intended manifestation. Not to mention, that depending on the middle-man used, you may forfeit your soul.

Psh, for a storm? Maybe YOUR soul. MY soul should at least get a tornado!

 

[hirejn]

Battery-powered spotlights work. Look for 1 million to 2 million candlepower.

 

[snowbear]

I misunderstood how you wanted to use the flash. If you just want to use the flash to light the subject while they paint, then the built-in should be fine.

Yes, the flash can fire during a 20-second exposure. You can set it to fire at the beginning or the end of the exposure. It will be explained in the manual.

 

[Dao]

A external flash that you can flash the subject manually will make the job easier. If you have a regular point and shoot camera that has a build-in flash, maybe you can use it instead of a external flash. Basically after you finish painting, have some one take a photo with that point and shoot with build-in flash.

 

[TCampbell]

It looked like they were using a glow-stick for the light -- no flash (I didn't watch the whole video).

When it's extremely dark you can leave the shutter open as long as you need. You might want to get a simple remote shutter release (wired) with a 'lock' switch. You can open the shutter and lock it, then get to work painting. When you're done, just come back to the camera and close the shutter.

Note that's if there's no ambient light whatsoever (in a dark room) or if the ambient light is _extremely_ weak (outside at night, away from city lights, and there's no moon.)

If you have a flashlight with a soft beam you can selectively light up background objects -- use the beam light a soft-brush.

You can capture objects in a frozen position with a burst of flash. The flash does _not_ need to be attached to the camera nor even fired by the camera. When I did this (30+ years ago on film) we would dress in all black so that our bodies were _very_ hard to expose on the film... this allowed us to walk in front of the camera with an open shutter without us appearing in the shot. If we had a subject (say a person) who we _wanted_ to appear in the image, we just needed to position, then stand back a few feet and, using a speedlite flash, just manually trigger it. We could then reposition and do it again... we could light a whole scene with just one flash.

Anyway... this is the sort of thing where you should let your imagination play and have fun. Many -- probably most -- wont turn out initially (fortunately you're not paying for the film and you get instant feedback on what's working... when I did it, we had to buy the film. We did do this in B&W so we did our own processing -- then at least we weren't printing the bad ones.) But you'll get better at it with practice.