Inspiration: Painting with Light
Light painting (otherwise known as light graffiti or light writing) is a photographic technique that involves slow shutter speeds, darkness and a little bit of practice and experimentation. And it’s not just some newfangled thing all the cool kids are doing. Check out this image of Picasso giving it a go back in 1949.
Want to try it?
If you’ve got the urge to scratch that creative itch or to try something new this week, why not set yourself a challenge? All you need is a camera, a tripod, a light source (flashlights, LED lights, matches and glowsticks all do the trick) and a dark location. These resources might also come in handy:
We’d love to see what you come up with so feel free to post your brand new creations in the comments below. For further inspiration, check out some of these talented light painting bubblers:
Holding Smoke by EricD
all the pieces by melidiaz
Hearts by Chris Richards
Haunted House by bensound
And if you want to see more, head over to the Painting with Light Group ...
Jan Piller
These are awesome!!
RiSH :
This is great … please add this to Ultimate Resources Group.
gabryshak
oh my~ are you serious~!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that shot of picasso!!!
this is one of my top ten things i’ve been dying to try!! i’ve missed two field trips coordinated with others and i was crying i was so disappointed ~ if only to have all the time and all the money in the world so all i can do is practice my love of heART!!!
here’s one of my favs on-line ....done by an up-and-coming 18 year old with LOADS of talent i have students & colleagues that do fabulous work, but no links to share…
what great fun! i favorited this so i can come back and see more! (and hopefull share!) ♥t
nodakami
This is fascinating. Any directions to good tutorials ?
Joanne Bradley
Really cool!
LisaR
Been wanting to try this for a while thanks for the extra tips and reminder to do so! Love the photos created too, they are awesome :)
Jane Keats
I did this one a couple of mnths ago, that’s me with a sparkler in a drain;
Chanel2
I didn’t realize there was all this about it. I had a play around Christmas time, it was accidental how it happened, but it was great fun. Thanks for this.
davesphotograp...
this effect is so cool i had a go HERE and then i made a led torch which i could change the led in which then gave me these great effect HERE HERE and HERE just have to find a nice night to do more
Cheri Perry
These are awesome. I’ve got to try it now. :)
ozlat
Light Graffiti is FUN :)
paturner
just amazing!
I would love to try something like that!!
Damien Woods
Matt Penfold
Here are a couple of good ones by Danielle Knight
Wendy Slee
these are brilliant! thank you so much!!!!
RandyLMonteith
I love these type of images.
About 25 years ago when I got my first SLR.
I used to suspend Flashlights from the ceiling and then lock the shutter open and spin the flashlight and I would catch the spiraling traces on film all kinds of variations can be done on this idea.
I also used to trace my brother holding his hands out like a gun and traced his outline with the shutter open.
I have had one idea in my head using paiting with light for years now and have still not tried it. Now that I have a great camera I am going to experiment with it.
Great work from all the artists above!!!
Randy
David Sundstrom
This is a shot of mine from a few years ago now, I used a few torches and a nikon sb800 …
Jo O'Brien
Paul Louis Villani and I had a play with light trails one night…
square
tdub303 does some amazing stuff with light painting. really unique and all done in camera. i recommend you check him out.
nkbellani
ptelling
very cool love doing this stuff its just mad crazy fun and you never know what you will come up with! looks so eerie, spooky and cheerful too! beautiful
Duncan Waldron
World-renowned astrophotographer David Malin was doing an all-night exposure of the Anglo Australian Telescope dome one night, recording loooong star trails around the dome. All went well until he had the film processed, and found that some miscreant with a torch had done a spot of writing during the night, leaving a very mucky word in the frame…
Michael Bermi...
This was done by me ages ago-
tdub303
tdub303
some of my work
Pilgrim
This is just fantastic. I need to think about how I could make it happen. Will read the tutorials.
retepk
Fantastic stuff. Most impressive. I don’t have an SLR camera. There was a short film screened recently here in Australia that was a collage of moving images created using this, or similar, technique. I didn’t catch the name of the film. It was a Japanese production and was an excellent. If anybody saw it on SOS about 2/3 weeks ago.
I’ve experimented trying it with a compact camera. But I’ve only achieved one that looks anything like the desired effect and it wasn’t deliberate on that occasion.
Cheers.
Geni29
Ohh I am going to have to give this a try. Ive expieremented a little with torches but until now had never realised the capabilities that can be applied. Thank you for the inspiration…. I needed it right now. Thank you Thank you Thank you…. :)
80Y2C2
http://www.redbubble.com/people/80y2c2/art/3922485-2-light-guitar
This was done while I was bored one night playing with the camera.