Painting with Light: The Basics
- Feb, 13 2011
- By admin
- Blog, Long Exposure, Photography
- No comments
Lately, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve developed a new obsession: long-exposure photography. I love it for a lot of reasons, mostly due to how many forms it can take. It’s a really fun thing to get into, and if you’re like me and own a DSLR, there’s really no reason not to. This post is mainly targeted at beginners, and helping people not make the same initial mistakes I made.
The Essentials
The basics of long-exposure photography you hopefully already have, but here they are:
- DSLR
- Tripod
- Remote Timer
- Flashlight or any light source
I’ve been using my Canon EOS Rebel T2i for my adventures in long exposures. This will definitely work for you as long as you have a DSLR, though it doesn’t have to be Canon. I love my T2i because even though it produces great images and video, it cost only $900.
The night I got pictures of this train, I almost learned a hard lesson about getting a quality tripod. Right now my tripod is pretty cheap and chinsy. I make do with it but its a miracle I get good shots with it at all. The first exposure of the train I did that night was set a bit too close to the tracks. The wind from the train knocked my T2i over and I almost died inside as I thought the sum of my tax return was about to be sucked under the tracks because of the tripod legs. Bottom line, I’m saving up for a quality tripod and you should too. Quality brands I personally trust are Manfrotto, Vinten, and Miller. The Manfrotto 501 HDV head in particular has been good to me in the past, and happens to be the one I’m saving for.
As far as remote timers go, I personally use the Opteka MC-36b. Funny story- Opteka technical support says this remote timer does not work with the T2i. They are of course wrong, and I bought it anyways as it was one of the few things Philip Bloom recommends that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. If you have something else, I’ve heard good things about the Canon TC-80N3.
Let’s Get Started
So you own all that stuff, eh? Good for you- we can begin. Let me first say that I’ll be addressing common mistakes towards the end so that you don’t repeat my stupidities.
What I love the most about this is how you get started largely depends on you. Your imagination is your limit. What you create with this can take on any form and personally I can’t wait to try stopmotion with this.
The very basics of getting started is setting your DSLR to an extremely low shutter speed. I usually set mine to BULB. If I have it set on anything higher on my T2i it tends to get a little wonky when I set it to exposures longer than 30 seconds.
Take a test photo with a short 15 second exposure. If you’ve got your f-stop set to something low, in the single digits, and an ISO over 200 the first thing you’ll notice is how blown out everything is. This is due to the shutter speed being extremely low.
Personally I think the most interesting photos utilizing long exposures are taken at night. Most often with the low shutter speed involved the camera will let in more light than your visible eye can see. Experiment with your ISO and f-stop, see what works for you! I love it when the camera lets in so much light that night almost turns to day, but your tastes may be different.
Lighting Conditions
As with any photo, lighting is the key. How much or how little you let in can give it a whole new look. Even though I am writing this, I still consider myself a beginner. Generally you can’t mess up too bad with how much light you let in, and as with all photos I highly advise shooting in RAW. Practice makes perfect, if you learn from your mistakes and keep it up there’s no way you can’t get better.
One thing to keep in mind with light and long exposures is that it isn’t necessary for it to be completely dark when doing this. Sunset and near dark are definitely ok for doing this. If you’re doing light graffiti the main thing to keep in mind is the light source you are using to make whatever you’re setting out to make MUST be bright enough to stand out in the photo. If it’s high noon and the sun is blazingly bright then obviously your flashlight isn’t going to stand out much. Make sure your light source stands out.
While we’re talking about light sources, let’s discuss what to use to “paint with light.” A lot of the time, I just use a standard flashlight. My friends and I have also had some great results with sparklers. Sparklers are great, but just as a safety warning take great care with them so you don’t burn your subject, if you are outlining their body. Have fun with this- experiment! Use different colored lights, and different types of lights. I plan on experimenting with LED’s, rope lights, and other light sources soon. As I’ve said before, your limit with this is your imagination.
What traffic lights and lights from all modes of transportation can do for your photos is amazing. Headlights and taillights in particular from cars can change night to day, as seen here. Trains are even more interesting to me when it comes to light.
Here is an example of a 45 second exposure where the exposure stops so that the lights coming off the train stop.
This one is the longest exposure I’ve ever done, coming in at 3 and a half minutes. It’s literally an entire train passing by.
Lens Choices
Nothing that holds true for choosing a lens is any different with light painting. Wide angle lenses will get you the most room to play with, and telephoto will get you the least. Higher quality lenses as usual will get you better quality pictures. My personal preference is wide angle, so I have the most room to play with. See what works best for you!
Essential Tips
- GET A GOOD TRIPOD. Bottom line, use what you have, but make getting a good tripod a priority. The last 2 photos I posted? Can you see the difference in camera shake? The vibration from the train shook my tripod quite a bit more because of a few things. The first is how long the exposure was- a lot more of a chance to have vibration from the train distort the photo. The second is how cheap my tripod is-the low weight of it meant less stability.
- Don’t rely on what others have done. I’m not against looking on the web at cool photos others have done for inspiration, but the best weapon you have in any form of long-exposure photography is your imagination, not imitating cool things that others have done.
- Experiment, experiment, experiment. Use different light sources, and get your friends involved! You can create more complex shapes and images with different colors and more than one light painter.
- Use a remote timer. You can do long exposures without it, but if you want blur-free images a remote timer is absolutely necessary.
- You have more room than you think.When trying to draw anything in light graffiti, whether it’s your name or some kind of creature, you usually have more room in the frame than you think. One of my early mistakes was not utilizing all the space I really had.
- Do it with a group of friends! In the past, I’ve done light graffiti with 2-5 friends. Having friends help you definitely ups the possibilities on what you can accomplish. You can help each other have a better idea of how much space you really have in the frame. It’s also good depending on who you invite because 5 people with ideas are usually better than 1.
I initially got my DSLR to do video, but this convergence has had other effects. I hadn’t really considered doing light graffiti or any of that when I first bought my T2i but it’s great fun! I hope you try it out for yourself. The possibilities are endless.
