Ever tried to merge the magic of photography and spirit of free hand painting? If you have you probably know all about the joy of ‘Light Painting’. Oh you haven’t done that yet? Then let me elaborate for you, ‘Light Painting’ is a photographic techniques where movement of light be it a light source such as a torch or the camera itself creates an image that looks like neon paintings on top of a photo image. You may not of realized it but you will most definitely have come across this before, the most common types of light paintings are based around a city landscape, mainly a busy road where the light streams of cars have passed by.
I too wasn’t aware of Light Painting until recently in fact I only learned about it last week but I already know that it’s something that is out of this world.I just want to start this by saying I’m one of those types who like art and think it’s amazing, but then when I give it a try… Let’s just say if I was 6 it still wouldn’t be allowed to be pinned up on the fridge. That kinda put’s it off, well okay I suck at that so I’ll do something else and forget about it. Then when I saw Light Painting the first time… I’ll be honest I stared in awe for nearly 10 minutes and I was so close to not giving it a second thought but just looking at the intensity… the passion leaking from this picture… I knew I had to give it a go… So I searched my house, looked under piles and piles of crap… and had no luck finding a camera…
But it’s so easy (so long as you have a camera…) You don’t have to have a gallery in London or a degree in photography, it’s as simple as A-B-C. Firstly you will need some basic requirements; A camera (for obvious reasons), a light source and a dark area, whether that is outside in a forest or in a dark room. By holding down the capture button, the shutter stays open longer and captures more light, by moving this light it captures the light from where it starts to where it finishes. This results in movement of the light and the awesome visuals. One thing that should be noted though is you will require a good camera, not a disposable one or the one in your phone.
What makes Light Painting even greater is that this light source can be as simple as the emergency torch for black outs or as epic as the mind shredding shock and awe of Poi or Fire Play. It can be as simplistic as a smiley face or as thrilling as the reconstruction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Doing the latter is not as impossible as it seems, the great thing about light art is you can reconstruct any visible image into this neon infused super being. By taking a model and then painting them with light, you could paint a human orange essentially! It would be awesome to see some of your creations and in turn over the next coming weeks I’ll promise to dig out a camera from somewhere and get one done!
Look’s like the spot light has gone dim and the shutter has been closed, this article has just been captured. Laters!
