Art Photography: Light Painting!

Light painting, also known as light graffiti is a photographic technique in which long exposures are made usually at night or in a dark room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. The earliest light paintings date back surprisingly to the 40s. One of the most famous ones being “The centaur” drawn by Pablo Picasso and photographed by Gjon Mili in 1949(As seen above). But light painting as such grew in popularity after the advent of digital cameras which gave photographers an immediate review of their work as well as enabled them to take a lot of test shots without wasting film.


EQUIPMENT

1. Any Camera which allows you to change atleast the aperture and shutter speed.
Minimum features: - control of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, timer
Recommended features: - control of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, manual focus, timer, remote/shutter release cable.

2. Light source: - You can use a variety of light sources such as LED torches, lighters, flashlights, lasers etc












3. Tripod: - You can either use a tripod or keep your camera at a preferred height on a stable platform. This is because long exposures are involved and any shake would produce distortion in the design you make. This is provided the fact that you are not moving the camera to ‘paint’ the image.



4. Remote: - You can either use a remote or a shutter release cable. This avoids any hassles of running from the camera to your position every time you click the picture. You could alternatively use the self timer setting on your camera to give you enough time to get back to your position.






TECHNIQUE
With the lights on, use the manual focus and set the focus properly. Autofocus systems might not perform well in low light. If you are outside in the night, set focus to infinity.
Set the aperture to the preferred setting. If you keep a small aperture/high F number you will get thin lines of light. If you keep a big aperture/low F number, you will get a starburst effect or a diffused light effect. Preferably keep a low F number of 4 and a high F number of 8.


For example: The blue haze/smoke effect around the guitar in this picture was made using a wider aperture.






And the thin lines in the picture to the right were made using a smaller aperture.


Set the shutter speed as required. Usually you require a shutter speed of more than a second to create a light painting. Adjust it according to the amount of time you need to make the painting.
Set the ISO to 80 or 100. This is to prevent the picture from becoming grainy during long exposures.
Light painting is preferably done in a dark room or in night with less ambient light. This is done to prevent excess light from spoiling the painting. But you could also experiment in a variety of environments.
Wear dark clothes so that you will not be caught in the picture as well. Provided you don’t want to be seen along with your painting. Sit atleast at a distance of 1 m from the camera.


THE FUNDA (The Gist)
The technique works on slow shutter speed & long exposure both of which are synonymous
When you click the shutter release button, the shutter opens & closes only according to the settings…if shutter speed is 5” it remains open for 5 seconds
During this time, the sensor inside the camera, records everything that happens in front of the lens & records it as a single picture.


THE FINAL WORD

Create what you feel like. Let it be-

Letters:



















Figures:
Traced objects:
























Or even people!


















Dream! Imagine! Go wild! You're in an art of endless possibility.



















Happy clicking!

The Guild