Photographers and plants have something in common: we both need light as a means of subsistence. The plants to do photosynthesis, and you to be able to capture those incredible scenes with your camera. And for incredible photos, those made with the Lightpainting technique ... are an excellent example of them. With a camera, some lights and squeezing the imagination a little, these incredible photographs are obtained without any edition. Without Photoshop! Surely these types of photographs have caught your attention, maybe you have even wondered how they do it? Today's article you will learn everything you need to start painting with light yourself and dazzle everyone .
WHAT IS "LIGHTPAINTING" PHOTOGRAPHY?
Lightpainting photography (pronounced " layt Péintin" ) or "painting with light" is one of the most curious and striking types of photography today, despite being a technique that has been used for quite some time. It consists of drawing with light directly on the photograph, lines, shapes or whatever may occur to you, using the air as a frame and shooting at excessively slow shutter speeds. The light strokes are captured by the camera sensor and are "drawn" directly in the final photograph. To give you an idea of ??the possibilities offered by this technique.Many photographers already master this technique, not only professionals but even amateurs and amateurs. So if you want to see more photographs of this style, just perform a search on any network of photographs such as Flickr or 500px, to find thousands of examples.
HOW DO I GET A LIGHTPAINTING PHOTOGRAPH?
Painting with light is relatively simple and does not require very expensive equipment, much less. You just need a lot of practice. Once you manage to master this technique, the possibilities become endless. The general idea of ??this type of photographs is nothing more and nothing less than, as the name implies, paint with light directly on the scene. To do this you can use lights, flashlights, flashes or any other element you can think of, in order to draw the lines or illuminate the objects you want to be exposed in the final photo. As you have seen in the example photographs at the beginning of the article, despite being a simple technique, it requires some practice until it can really be mastered. And as it is a type of photography that integrates several techniques I recommend that, if you have not read them already, take a look at the following articles that will help you master it from the first moment:- Long exposures: being a type of photography where long exposures are used, if you are not very familiar with them.
- Lighting: if what you want in addition to getting some lines, shapes or drawings is to work throughout the entire scene, you probably also need a flash
- Movement: As this technique gives a lot of dynamism to the photographs, since it will be useful as a complement to this technique.
THE TEAM
As I mentioned before, a very advanced camera is not required. With any camera that has manual control and allows you to lower the exposure time to at least 10 seconds you can do it. It is an effect that you can perform perfectly using homemade items. In order to carry out this technique you will need at least:- A camera has a manual control.
- A tripod .
- A relatively dark environment, although this may vary as you master the technique.
- Flashlights, lights, flares, fireworks or any other element that serves as a light source. Creativity is your ally and the Internet too. There are thousands of ideas and alternatives going around.
- One or more collaborators, a remote shutter or set the camera in shooting delay mode to have time to "draw" the scene.
- One or more flashes .
- Camera with Bulb mode, that is, it can expose the scene for more than 30 seconds.
- A good site or landscape that allows you to give a spectacular frame to your photography.
TYPES OF EFFECTS
Here you have some of the most common effects you'll find in the vast majority of lightpainting photographs. You can try to do them yourself to practice, as you develop your own. 1) Ties or streamers: this effect consists of drawing ties in front of the camera using a light or tube or cold cathode lamp. It is important that, so that the tapes are not cut or sharpened, keep the light always shining towards the camera. 2) Silhouettes: this effect consists of drawing silhouettes in the air with light while the camera captures the entire sequence. To be able to do so, you will need a flashlight or any rather punctual light source, that is, that does not emit too much light and leave fine lines. You can draw silhouettes, contour objects, people or whatever you can think of. 3) Spheres or Orbs: to perform this spectacular effect you must get a couple of extra elements such as: a rope or the handle of a paint roller without the roller. This effect consists in attaching the lantern to the rope or to the paint roller, so that it can always be rotated in the same orbit. To do this you can glue your hand to your oblique and only turn the wrist, so that the circumference is perfect and constant. As you turn it, you must rotate, but with due care to keep the axis of rotation in the center, that is, you must rotate, but trying to keep your hand always in the same place or at the same height , to get a perfect circumference. There are many videos on YouTube of how to do it, in case you find the explanation confusing. 4) Rain of lights: the way to perform this effect is very similar to the realization of the spheres that I just mentioned, with the difference that instead of attaching a lantern to the rope or roller, you must tie steel wool. Yes, you read that sponge of steel wool you have in the kitchen. The magic begins when you set them on fire, since they are very flammable and if you spin them very fast, they begin to throw a shower of sparks that produce a spectacular effect. (Do not do it at home, do not do it if you are not an adult or do not have adults near you, and do not do so near flammable elements. Please).LIGHTPAINTING PHOTOGRAPHY ... STEP BY STEP
Now, thousands of characters after announcing it, it was time to get down to work, or almost. Here is a guide so you can start having fun with this amazing technique:- The first thing you should do is define where you are going to take your photos. Remember that the darker the landscape or place, the more impressive the effect will be.
- Mount the camera on the tripod.
- Set the ISO sensitivity to the lowest value that your camera allows. ISO 100 would not be bad.
- Set the aperture of the diaphragm to f / 8 and open or close it as the photo is too dark or too light and the spectacular effect is lost. I recommend that you start from the f / 8 value but you really have to experiment and modify it based on the result you get.
- Put the focus on manual, because if it is on automatic, the camera can, at the time of shooting, focus on a place other than the one you initially wanted. In low light conditions the teams have a harder time focusing.
- You can set the white balance according to the tone you want your picture to have, although this can be done later from the computer using a photo editing program such as Photoshop, Lightroom or provided by the manufacturer that comes on the CD of your camera.
- Remember that in order to modify the exposure times, you must use the manual mode, or the speed priority mode or "S" or "Tv" (although with speed priority you will no longer be able to control the diaphragm, so the manual mode « M »is ideal). Be sure to use very slow speeds, between 10 to 30 seconds or more as you think necessary. To determine the necessary explosure time you can measure the light of the elements you will use in the scene, or measure it by trial and error. Remember that the lower the aperture of the diaphragm and the lower ISO sensitivity, the longer the exposure time should be to compensate for the reduction in light .
- Focus where you are going to paint with the light. You can place a fixed object, or a subject (a collaborating friend) to use it only as a measurement, and once you have the focus already fixed and locked, you set it aside. The light will have to be placed right there.
- To take the photo avoid touching the camera so that it is as stable as possible, use the delay modes or a remote shutter if you have one.
- Prepare to draw with light while the camera exposes the picture. Make sure that the light elements point towards the camera to obtain the best results.
