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View Full Version : Painting with light: Tutorial

devbobo
Apr-22-2005, 07:29 PM
A few people said they were interested in the technique I used for my 'Painting with light' photo in Challenge 36.

What you will need...

- Torch, I used a small MagLite
- Paintbrush
- Roll of Aluminium foil

-Tripod mounted camera (of course)
- Wired remote (optional)

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/20282428-M.jpg


Firstly, you need to make a snoot out of aluminium foil to attach to the end of the MagLite, so that you are able to control of the direction and spread of the light. Mine looked something like this...

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/20282452-M.jpg

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/20282466-M.jpg

Note: I use some electrical tape, to stop light coming through the gap in the join.

To make my life a bit easier, I attached my wired remote to the paintbrush as below...

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/20282528-M.jpg

With my camera set to manual, F/8, 5 secs and focused to infinity.

I held the torch and the paintbrush together as shown below. Pressed the shutter button. Held the MagLite still for about 1 sec, and then moved it away from the paintbrush as shown.

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/20282543-M.jpg

I knew how I wanted the end result to look, but it took about 20-30 exposures until I got a result I was happy with.

The photo below is the one I decided I was happy with...

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/20283389-M-1.jpg

However, I felt the lines with too uniform, so I found another exposure and added it as an 'overlay' layer to the original. This produced a more random light stream as below...

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/20283761-M.jpg

I then used 'curves' to change the color of the light to purple, and did some other clean up work. To produce the final result...

http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/19053679-M.jpg

If anyone has any questions, don't hesistate to ask.

Cheers,

David
gus
Apr-22-2005, 07:43 PM
Very smart :thumb well done.
Shay Stephens
Apr-22-2005, 07:57 PM
Yes, that totally rocks. It looks great!

Very smart :thumb well done.
Andy
Apr-23-2005, 03:06 AM
:bow
ehughes
Apr-23-2005, 05:24 AM
That's incredible, thanks for sharing the secret...
rahmonster
Apr-25-2005, 06:05 PM
You know, I have been pondering for days how you made such a wonderful shot...Thanks for letting us in on the secret....Truly excellent:thumb:clap
PeterGar
Apr-26-2005, 04:12 PM
Very nice... thank you!
wxwax
Apr-26-2005, 04:31 PM
Love tutorials. Thanks for sharing your technique, David. :thumb

BTW, your shot's a perfect example of what you can do if you visualize what you want ahead of time. I think that effective visualization always leads to a better image.
devbobo
Apr-26-2005, 08:06 PM
Thanks everyone for your fantastic comments.

I really enjoyed this challenge, as I like trying out different things photographically...and like some others here, I was surprised at how easy it was.

BTW, wxwax thanks for moving this tut into the halls of wisdom...i feel honored :D

David
Charlie Brown
Oct-06-2005, 05:38 PM
thats an amazing technique that im so going to steal from you...seriously though man thats something i never would have thought of but will try to use in the future.



charlie
komet
Oct-06-2005, 09:49 PM
Very nice.
auraflora
Oct-07-2005, 07:00 AM
Very resourceful. I am also going to try this one out.


Thanks for sharing.

Michal
DanielB
Jan-03-2006, 01:09 PM
definitely gonna have to try this one out.:thumb thanks for the step by step:clap
Peter Dumont
Apr-09-2008, 04:21 PM
http://introversion.smugmug.com/photos/19053679-M.jpg

:bow............... Sheer Genius !.....................
quest
Sep-22-2008, 05:59 PM
that is too cool. Thanks David