Lights..Camera..Action

Hi there! I just wanted to share about my new found hobby..yes! it's a hobby for me..Just recently, we bought our new digital camera and I was searching the net for something fun that I can do with it. Well, that's aside from picture-taking, taking videos and editing them. And here's what I found.

LIGHT PAINTING PHOTOGRAPHY

Light painting photography can be done by anyone whose interested with making a difference with photography. I was amazed by how it was done in darkness and with quickness and creativity. "Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with hand-held light sources. Light Painting Photography can be traced back to the year 1914 when Frank Gilbreth, along with his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth, used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. Man Ray, in his 1935 series "Space Writing," was the first known art photographer to use the technique."--as defined by Wikipedia

It's really amazing how this painting works. You need a camera with a shutter timer (I'm not sure how it is called but I'm referring to the option on your camera wherein you can adjust the shutter speed). I used a Canon Powershot camera when I tried it (We never knew that Canon Powershot can do this). And a light source. I used an ordinary flashlight and a pen light. Many opted to use different colored LED lights to make it more beautiful and colorful. 

My first trial:

I managed to move the flash light up and down before the shutter clicked. Shutter speed is adjusted to 5 seconds I think.

Second trial:
I got to draw a perfect circle :)

Small Circle

After few tries:

Loops

smaller loops

loopholes

I was trying to write my name here. If you want to write letters you have to write it backwards just like how you see it when you are facing the mirror. 

nickname

Done using the flashlight. Here's some of my works using a smaller pen light. 

hearty

lovely star

perfect heart

Placing the camera nearer would make the picture clearer and bigger.

mirrored "e"

 These are my favorite ones...

flower

under my feet

human outline

supergirl

double star

Little Boy

What I can say about Light Painting Photography..

I can say that it's a bit difficult because you are going to paint in the air with the light on your hand. It is best done in dark areas so you could not see what the background is until you clicked the shutter. And of course, if you're not used in drawing and sketching you'll find it hard to draw anything that you could not see. A  lot of trials should be done at first until you master how to space your painting properly. If you want to draw something..you need to draw it wider with your hand especially if you're using a pen light. When you want to draw an outline of a subject you have to make sure that you light source always faces the camera, especially if it's not a LED light. 

You could use any light source you want just make sure that it's easy to carry around and you have wide area to do the painting. After taking pictures you could still improve it using different photo editors may it be online or Adobe Photoshop. Try this yourself!