Light Painting
Light painting is a unique form of art that most photographers have tried at one time or another and this photographer is no exception.
You have flashlights in hand, a camera on a tripod, a remote shutter release, and while you use a long shutter exposure you freely and fluidly draw or light objects with the flashlights. This type of art can be tedious and sometimes frustrating but it is always fun to see what you have created!
Until now, there have been two forms of light painting. The first involves using flashlights as a way to paint subjects with light rather than lighting them with very harsh flashguns. Using this technique, the objects can be anything, including people. I have seen some beautiful long exposure portraits done with flashlights. I myself have used this technique more than once to create beautifully lit scenes in photographs. This technique produces a very soft light unlike the terribly harsh light we see from flashguns far too often in photography. The problem with this technique, however, is that this soft light requires long exposures and perfectly still models to avoid blurring.
The second form of light painting involves actually drawing your main object in the night air while the shutter remains open. Both of these forms of light painting require a lot of planning and a lot of creativity but are often worth the extra time and effort required. And, it is always fun to see your art in an unusual, colorful medium!
Each exposure can be a matter of a few seconds or minutes. The more elaborate your painted object, the longer time you will need to draw the object. You can use flashlights of different shapes... flashlights of different colors... flashlights with steady light... flashlights with strobing light... you can even hold multiple flashlights in each hand. Trying to paint the light quickly and accurately can be quite challenging but seeing the results are always exciting. There is no doubt that this is an unusual medium and that adds to the excitement of creating art in this way.
We've had fun with this type of art a few times while at the lake house. The great thing about the lake is that if you do this standing in the water, you can get a really nice reflection of the light in the water. Each child had their own creative ideas... each adult had their own creative ideas. After we exhausted ourselves of original ideas creating art with only one artist at a time, we started creating art using multiple artists for a single project. The options really are only limited by the team's imagination.
We had such fun with this at the lake house that we now ensure we always have different colored LED flashlights and light wands at the house! These items are now just as important as crayons and coloring books for the kids!
Today, for the first time, I saw a new twist to this type of art which is incredibly impressive and even a bit mind boggling to those of us who have attempted this type of art... Light painting video.... Video?
This artist, Darren Pearson, created an animation storyboard consisting of enough images for a video. This alone is a daunting artistic task. I've done animation work and I can tell you that it is indeed tedious! In this case, instead of creating a typical stop-motion animation using clay figures or pencil and paper, flashlights were used throughout a city... drawing one long, life-size frame at a time.
Each of these images is a long enough exposure to draw the object in a particular position... in this case, the object is a skeleton with a skateboard. Then, to keep the animation fluid, the next frame is created, again using a long exposure, just inches from the previous location. In all, this relatively short one minute video consists of 700 long exposure images shot over the course of a year... Yes, it took a YEAR to accomplish this one minute video! Just getting everything in sync to create one image is a challenge. Putting together a complete video of 700 long exposure images shot over the course of a year is nothing short of amazing!
Check out the video below... and, if you ever find yourself looking for a fun photography project for the family, I highly recommend attempting one of the simpler forms of Light Painting like we have done at the lake!
You have flashlights in hand, a camera on a tripod, a remote shutter release, and while you use a long shutter exposure you freely and fluidly draw or light objects with the flashlights. This type of art can be tedious and sometimes frustrating but it is always fun to see what you have created!
 |
| In this image, I painted the flag in light using a flashlight while it blew in the breeze... |
The second form of light painting involves actually drawing your main object in the night air while the shutter remains open. Both of these forms of light painting require a lot of planning and a lot of creativity but are often worth the extra time and effort required. And, it is always fun to see your art in an unusual, colorful medium!
 |
| Painting objects with different colored flashlights while standing in a lake... |
We've had fun with this type of art a few times while at the lake house. The great thing about the lake is that if you do this standing in the water, you can get a really nice reflection of the light in the water. Each child had their own creative ideas... each adult had their own creative ideas. After we exhausted ourselves of original ideas creating art with only one artist at a time, we started creating art using multiple artists for a single project. The options really are only limited by the team's imagination.
We had such fun with this at the lake house that we now ensure we always have different colored LED flashlights and light wands at the house! These items are now just as important as crayons and coloring books for the kids!
 |
| Painting a flag using multiple flashlights in each hand... |
This artist, Darren Pearson, created an animation storyboard consisting of enough images for a video. This alone is a daunting artistic task. I've done animation work and I can tell you that it is indeed tedious! In this case, instead of creating a typical stop-motion animation using clay figures or pencil and paper, flashlights were used throughout a city... drawing one long, life-size frame at a time.
Each of these images is a long enough exposure to draw the object in a particular position... in this case, the object is a skeleton with a skateboard. Then, to keep the animation fluid, the next frame is created, again using a long exposure, just inches from the previous location. In all, this relatively short one minute video consists of 700 long exposure images shot over the course of a year... Yes, it took a YEAR to accomplish this one minute video! Just getting everything in sync to create one image is a challenge. Putting together a complete video of 700 long exposure images shot over the course of a year is nothing short of amazing!
Check out the video below... and, if you ever find yourself looking for a fun photography project for the family, I highly recommend attempting one of the simpler forms of Light Painting like we have done at the lake!
Comments
Post a Comment