I went out the other night with a small group of friends armed with some coloured gels, a flash gun, my camera and my tripod. A few days before, I’d found (or more like re-discovered) a place nearby to where I live which is abandoned and derelict – a perfect place for some urban night photography. Below are my favorites from the evening…
One of numerous beds in this large barn. I wonder how it got there? Has it ever been slept on?
Further around a house we found, what once was, the kitchen. A "moving" place, shall we say…
Three of my friends set themselves up around the barn and, in sequence,
released the flash-guns and torches to illuminate this place. It comes to life with light.erg
This random peice of wood made for a great object to cast shadows from.
hate it no, love it well yes it is very nice let last one with the yellow light is very nice.
well im not very good at blasting away with typing but i rly like ur work
zac
Hi Zac, thanks very much for your comment. Nice to hear
Hey I love the colors and the old barn makes the pictures. May I ask where you got the colored gels?
I got the gels from my girlfriend who is doing a course in scenic art. Luckily she grabbed some supplies from the techies who use gels for the lighting in the shows.
hey i know how you did this but tell me your exact process anyway. no matter what i do i can’t get it to work.
im a techie so i got gels and two flashes, but i think my camera wont let me do it.
The process goes something like this – basically set-up the camera on the tripod and set the exposure to be either BULB (if your camera can do that) or to about 20 seconds. Set the aperture to about f4, or there abouts, depending on how bright you flash your flash gun. Begin the exposure on the camera then run in front of it, point the flash gun at a wall, or something, but while making sure the gun itself is not in the frame of the photo. Flash it with the gel in front of the gun, then move to a different place and flash again, also making sure not to get the flash gun inside the frame of the photo.
It takes a lot of trial and error, but hopefully you’ll get there. Let me know how you get on!
yeah i dont have a DSLR camera, i have a Kodak M883, a pretty good but not the best for this kind of photography. however i figured out how i can do it. i have two tripods, trhe camera, and two flashes, and a link cable. i put the camera on the tripod, put one flash on the other tripod, link the flashes, put the camera on 4 second extended exposure, put it on the self timer, and place myself and the flashes somewhere. i have to make all the flashes flash at once or it doesnt work. but i got it! i’ll post a link with some of my works in progress as son as i have them up.
Good technique, called ‘painting with light’ when i went to college, can be done with a 30 second exposure and walking round with the flash gun in your hand, set on manual for distance/ aperture, pointing it at the walls/ subject. My old tutor, Ralph Court, an ex RAF photographer, used to photograph entire aircraft in the dark. There is is how you see aircraft lined up in the dark looking like they are flood lit. They arn’t, its done with this technique. You just have to be careful not to overlap or point the flash toward the camera. If you keep moving you are unlikely to show up in the picture as only static objects get recorded (or ones you point the flash at). Nice to see people stretching out the boundries – like it
Hey,
Im attempting to make an animation out of light-painting for a university project and i was wondering if you had any tips.
thank you
Daze,
I am currently photographing at night using light as well…however, in a different way. Why are you choosing to take photos of these objects in the way you are? Why are you drawn to them?
Thanks
Just found your website, you have some brilliant light painting going on there! The choice of colors is excellent. Do you find it beter to fire the flash several times on a lower power rather than firing once on high power?