Light "Painting" Photography

So last week my little cousins and I tried Light "Painting" Photography.

The main reason I brought out the camera that night was to merely entertain the young fellows... but not only did we have fun, we ended up with some interesting photographs using light.

To paint with light (using photography) you need the following:

• A camera that has a manual setting (M) because you will need to be able to control how long the shutter stays open.
• A tripod so that the camera doesn't shake/wobble causing the streaks of light to be blurry (this also allows you to do the painting which is a lot of fun)
• A light source — we used a number of different lights. Flash lights, LED lights, even a rear light off a bicycle but you could really use anything really. 
• A remote control or self timer on your camera. This way you can definitely do the painting yourself.

I had a bonus - I had little helpers and an audience that was easy to impress.

Here is a little sample of what we created:

This was done by my 3-yr old cousin with the LED light in his right hand and the bicycle light in the left. The streak close to the lens is because he thought the photo was done before it actually was.

This is my 9-yr old cousin and to achieve this effect I had him hold the flash light under his chin for a couple seconds and then move it all around. Spooky! He looks like a sorcerer.

Now simply moving a light around without any direction/pattern/purpose can get a little boring — so we decided to try writing our names. I was the first to step up to the plate.

Below is my first attempt at painting "Diana" using light. I decided to do it in script.

It is backwards because I was facing the camera and writing my name from left to right. I didn't worry with the small detail of backward text — explaining to the audience that in post production (ie. Photoshop) I could flip the image so it reads correctly. We continued on smartly and let everyone have a go.

"Diana" in script

Script was hard. It was loopy and hard to read.

Mum had the brilliant idea of writing in capitals, writing backwards (so it translates correctly on the camera and you do not have to flip it in post production) and treating it like an Etch-A-Sketch. So she stepped up and wrote EWAN.

ET VOILA!! Fantastic!!

I couldn't let my mum literally out shine me... so I had a go and here is my result:

In Photoshop - I got rid of the background. Not sure if I prefer it to the image with EWAN on it.

It is harder than I thought but I got it done :)

Here is a Do It Yourself video that helps explains it thoroughly:

And if this really interests you go check out the history of Light "Painting" Photography: HERE