CameraCrazy

Long exposures can definitely be a fun thing

Experimenting with your camera can be a lot of fun. Painting with light is a technique that has been around for a while, here is an interesting twist that creates light streaks and great looking photographs.

In my many hours of surfing the web for good photography sites, I ran across this technique that produced amazing looking photographs and I figured I would pass the technique along.

Here are the things you will need:

• Flash-light
• Aluminum Foil
• Tripod
• Remote Trigger or self timer (optional)
• Tape
• Patience

Tear off a piece of foil about 8 inches long and wrap it around your flash-light. Use the tape to secure it to the light so it won’t fall off and around the the foil where the light is escaping (other then the hole in the front). Effectively what you should end up with is a flash-light with a aluminum foil extension (see the inset pictures).

Now comes the patience aspect of the technique, what you are going to want to do is shape the front of the aluminum foil anyway you want, if you make it more flat you will end up with for light streaks in your photograph. Once you have that ready, not comes the patience, your going to want to take a long exposure, the longer the exposure the more time you have to paint, but the more likely noise. With your camera setup on a tripod and your flashlight turned in position, trigger the shutter and begin dragging the light around in the field of view of the lens. Anywhere the light goes is where you will see detail and light streaks. The patience really comes in with the timing. You have a limited amount of time to move the flash light where you want it to end up and getting smooth flowing lines of light can be difficult. If you do have problems getting smooth lines, try attaching a string to the end of the light and pull it that way.

After you got the shot you want, your likely disappointed with the color of the light. If it’s a generic flashlight, you likely have a dull tungsten color cast. If it’s an LED then likely a more cool color cast. Either way you don’t have to be stuck with the color. Simply open the photo using Photoshop or any other reputable image program and manipulate the curves to change the color of the light.

I found the best way to change the curves is to use each individual channel. If there is often more in the picture other than the light streaks then they will be changed too eg. flash light). If this happens then you could just paint away the curves adjustment for the areas you don’t like.

Once you’ve had a chance to play around with the technique, do send in your pictures or a link to it for others to see.