First Try at Light Painting

[fitzperry]

LOVE the ones with their names! Great work!

 

[Evad]

Awesome work Jeff!!

And as Ed stated you have raised the bar once again. I'm not sure if I can even reach or touch the bar anymore.....

 

[annnewjerz]

So tonight, inspired by Jeff's attempts---I went out and did some light painting of my own. Surprisingly, it was really easy. Out of maybe 30 total pictures, I liked about 20 and the other 10 were junk mostly because of problems trying to write letters backwards and/or someone walked through the frame while taking the shot.

Nowhere near as great as Jeff's---but here are some that Jeff took that I tried to replicate (hope ya don't mind Jeff, we needed a starting point!):

And then some others once we got the hang of things...

The evolution of man.

 

[Gdad]

Surprisingly, it was really easy.

Shhhhhh! Don't TELL everyone it was EASY!

Nowhere near as great as Jeff's---but here are some that Jeff took that I tried to replicate (hope ya don't mind Jeff, we needed a starting point!)

Seriously Ann- those look awesome! Lots of fun too- right?

 

[annnewjerz]

Shhhhhh! Don't TELL everyone it was EASY!



Seriously Ann- those look awesome! Lots of fun too- right?

REALLY fun. It kept us occupied for at least an hour, and if the mosquitos weren't out in full force---we probably would have done it much longer. Well, the mosquitos and the fact that DH and a bunch of other 20 somethings after a few too many beers that realize you could draw whatever you wanted with the flashlight was getting just a little raunchy. I figured those wouldn't be appropriate to post here though.

 

[wenrob]

Very cool Ann! I just came in from taking a million using sparklers. Didn't have much success with the flash off camera but I think it was because it took forever for DD to come back and write her name after DH lit the sparkler. (and I was winging it) Going to get them to try with a flash light. I'll post some of the better ones in the morning, too whipped tonight.

Ann, did you have the girl stand there the whole time while someone drew wings? She's pretty solid is why I'm wondering.

 

[annnewjerz]

Ann, did you have the girl stand there the whole time while someone drew wings? She's pretty solid is why I'm wondering.

Yup! She stood there while I drew the wings and stuff and then I used my flash on her after I was done. I had her stand there the whole time just so I knew where to draw the wings, and I think it worked out that she looked more "solid" because of it......maybe.....

I'm not sure why---but it looks like I used 30 second shutter speeds for every one of these. I wasn't operating the shutter, DH was---I was doing the drawing and flashing.

 

[handicap18]

Excellent work Ann! I didn't get much of a chance last night. It was WAY to crowded where we were. I definitely want to try it one of these days.

 

[YesDear]

Well monkey see monkey try. We had dinner last night at Lisa's parents. They live in the country so it was darker!

It was really fun. We used a small flash light. I was scared a normal light would be too much. Maybe not.

My only comment it is not as easy to write with a flashlight than Jeff and Ann made it look!

Ok Ann, you can pm me the ones not acceptable here!!!

 

[wenrob]

Coolness! My favorite is the last one.

We're definitely going to try flashlights next time. Sparklers were fun but hard to control, lol! I had a hard time directing DD and fending off the neighbor kids at the same time. They were all over the LCD their little feet constantly underneath the tripod...

Again, even though I wasn't a successful as I would have liked I was happy that I knew what to do.

Hard to tell but it says: Tiana.

 

[tndisneyfan]

We tried it last night with some sparklers we had. Some of them turned out really well, not as good as Gdad's though. I would like to try it with a flashlight.

 

[wenrob]

I just had an "Aha" thought. DH was lighting those little fountains and I had the camera stopped all the way down because the were so close and so bright. I never raised (lowered? I always mix em up, made the #'s smaller therefore opening bigger) the aperture again when we went to play with the sparklers. I'm thinking had I done so, DD would have been a little more "solid." Am I headed in the right direction with that thought?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I just had an "Aha" thought. DH was lighting those little fountains and I had the camera stopped all the way down because the were so close and so bright. I never raised (lowered? I always mix em up, made the #'s smaller therefore opening bigger) the aperture again when we went to play with the sparklers. I'm thinking had I done so, DD would have been a little more "solid." Am I headed in the right direction with that thought?

The solidity of something in picture depends on how much light hits it while it is there and how much light hits the background while it is not there. If you flash someone with a pretty bright flash, it will make them look solid. If you put them in front of a dark area, that will help even more.

 

[ColleenG]

Jeff and Ann, your light writing is really cool. Would you mind spelling out exactly how you did it? I understand the ones that Ann did with the guy waving his arms and "the evolution of man" You just hit the strobe a few times with the shutter open, right? I can't figure out exactly how you got the light writing. Thanks. You guys are all teaching me so much. I hope to actually have my DSLR by the end of the week and maybe by the end of the summer I will have half a clue how to do some of the cool stuff you guys do.

 

[ColleenG]

Ok, I just reread through your posts and now it makes sense. If I don't have a removable flash, could I just snap them with the flash from another camera? Now I really can't wait to get my new camera. I'm going to be driving my kids nuts! Although this is pretty cool. I might be able to rope them in to it! What do you use to cover your lens?

 

[waytoomanywebkinz]

oooh - flashing them with another camera - AWESOME idea! I was trying to figure out how to do this without a strobe flash! COOL!

 

[annnewjerz]

Jeff and Ann, your light writing is really cool. Would you mind spelling out exactly how you did it? I understand the ones that Ann did with the guy waving his arms and "the evolution of man" You just hit the strobe a few times with the shutter open, right? I can't figure out exactly how you got the light writing. Thanks. You guys are all teaching me so much. I hope to actually have my DSLR by the end of the week and maybe by the end of the summer I will have half a clue how to do some of the cool stuff you guys do.

For the ones with writing, I would set up the camera on the tripod with a 30 second shutter (would have used bulb but forgot) and then would take the flashlight and slowly (and backwards) write out the word you wanted to spell. Then, have the person you want to be in the picture run into the frame, pose and hit them with the flash. One thing I would recommend is for the writer not to wear white or anything extremely light in color if possible. I found that I showed up more than I would have liked in some of the shots I took because I had a white dress on.

HTH!
Ann

 

[AKPhotography]

Great photos....going to have to dig out the remote shutter release and give it a shot.

 

[ColleenG]

Thanks Ann! I am definately going to give this a try!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

We had the BEST time doing this tonight. My only issue is that I just had a little bitty p&s as a flash, so most of the time we could not get my daughter lit enough.

At one point a car drove by when we were doing it and the picture came out really cool b/c of the lights on the car!