Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Day 16 "Art Every Day Month" - Painting with Light

"Light painting" is a technique I like to play with every now and then when I'm out at night with my camera, so I thought I'd have a play with the technique for today's AEDM. Basically, it just involves setting the camera at a slow enough shutter speed so that you can move the camera around while the shutter is open and "paint" with the available light. It works best if you are somewhere with some bright areas of light, like streetlamps or car headlights. For the ones below, I just took the shots from my balcony, which faces onto a courtyard. The available light came from the lit up windows of the other apartment blocks.  If you try this, do be prepared to look like a raving loon waving your camera around in the dark, but your reward will be some pretty cool abstract art.






Technical notes: These were taken on manual at ISO 640, f.3.2 with the shutter open for 3.2 seconds. I then cropped to a square format and made adjustments to the colour balance and contrast in Photoshop.

8 comments:

  1. oh wow, beautiful! i love light painting and I've definitely tried it before...we had so much fun just playing...regardless of whatever photos came out of it! definitely worth doing!

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  2. This is very clever! It inspired me to pick up my camera and try right then and there, but it doesn't work too well with just a point and shoot... (although one of the photos looked like an angel!) I've just been enjoying your other posts; I really like how you are not afraid to try lots of different things, and have the patience to see them through as well even when they don't work out necessarily as planned. I love the poppies and the tea towel! And I know the pain of the back to front paper cut ~ beautifully resolved!

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  3. How fun! I have to give this a try. Thanks for including the technical specs.

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  4. These are wonderful - what a great idea. Lately, the only camera I carry (except for special occasions) is my IPhone. It is a fabulous companion. Once in a while I will capture and accidental image - like the time I dropped it in the garden - these are often the inspirations for paintings or just digital backgrounds and textures. Its great to see how others use (and abuse :-)) their digital tools

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  5. I think this is a really cool idea. I will have to try it and see what happpens. I especially like the third image.

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  6. I love these! I entertained myself with headlight painting for hours one night on a long boring drive--I was in the passenger seat, not driving, of course ;)

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  7. What fun. You have inspired me thank you x

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