Drawing With Light

Pattern 1

Setup for taking the spirograph pictures

In photography you will often hear the terms "drawing with light" or "light painting" and this usually means one of two things.  The first thing some people think of when they hear the phrase "light painting" is the technique where you shoot a dark (usually night) scene and illuminate sections of the scene with a flashlight by sweeping the beam across the object.  This can give some very powerful results and I hope to cover that technique in a future blog.  For this blog I'm demonstrating what would be better described as drawing with light but is also referred to as painting with light, so you can see how the use of these terms can be confusing.

Pattern 2

Drawing with light involves long exposures in the dark with a beam of light (I used a small maglight) pointed at the camera and moving to produce a shape.  All my shots this week were done by hanging the light from the ceiling with a length of string and allowing it to swing like a pendulum over the camera.  The camera was setup directly below the flashlight and set for between 10 and 30 second exposures.  I found through experimentation that the longer exposures worked better because it allowed the light to sweep for a longer time and made a more complete figure.

Pattern 3

After taking several shots I brought the images into photoshop to make sure the black was deep black and the light trail was fully exposed.  I added a gradient adjustment layer with a blending style of multiply to apply the rainbow color to the otherwise white pattern.  Colorizing the pattern in this manner makes for a much more interesting image than the simple white pattern drawn by the swinging flashlight.

Pattern 4

Picking a favorite was not as easy as I thought it would be and is likely a matter of personal taste.  Consider this week's top pick a rather random selection from the others posted here.  I like them all and found the exercise in making them fun and relaxing (lying on the floor looking up at a swinging spot of light can be mesmerizing).  Feel free to leave a comment telling me which is your favorite.
For some really interesting pictures of light patterns check out this recent posting.

Pattern 5

Pattern 6