Light Painting

As the winter nights draw in and the clocks have now gone back, it’s the perfect time to get out with the camera… in the dark.
There is a creative freedom that light painting gives the photographer. You control the scene, the mood and the story.

As a technique, the basics are very easy to master. Just a simple torch can create fantastic results. The principle is to take an image of the scene in ambient light. Due to the lack of illumination a long shutter speed will be needed. From this point on, you have several ways to light the scene. Your imagination and creativity are key. You can use static lights, torches, LED panels. Or you can literally paint the scene with a torch to highlight any areas you like.

The best tip for this technique is to not just shine the torch from behind the camera. This tends to give a flat image. Instead light things from the side and keep the light beam moving to help reduce the chances of hotspots developing .Don’t try and light the whole scene in one exposure. It’s much more effective to pick out individual areas and then blend several images in Photoshop.
Once basic lighting is mastered there are loads of fun and more technical effects that can be archived.

On this adventure we returned to the hidden folly, lighting it with coloured gels for creative effect. Then to add a real punch to the image a swirl of sparks was created using steel wool.
If you like the idea of creative light painting and would like to learn more, get in touch. I plan to run a workshop on the subject in the future.