Photo Project: Painting with light

One of the best things about having an SLR camera is the absolute flexibility it gives in getting creative with your shots. Sure, the more advance prosumer cameras on the market today are almost equalling the slr camera in terms of functionality and even quality, but still, with the added bonus of changing lenses to suit your photographic needs, the slr still can't be beat.

Just now, I embarked on another of my photography projects. This time, it has to do with painting with light. The term "painting with light" basically means leaving the shutter open for long periods and then, using some light source, make patterns or shapes that are eventually captured on the camera sensor.

I must admit, this is my first serious attempt at this, and let's just say it is going to be something that I may well be coming back to time and again. The possibilities are just endless, only being limited by your creativity - or perhaps your artistic ability.

What's needed for this shot: Shutter release (though not essential if your exposures are less than 30s as you can use your camera's timer to release the shutter), a torchlight, and a flash.

Here's how I did it:

1. I framed the shot with the lights on, and focused.
2. Dial in the camera settings: 30s at f/19.
3. I pictured in my mind's eye what I planned to draw and switched off the lights.
4. Give some time for your eyes to adjust to the darkness (mine was almost complete darkness), and then trip the shutter.
5. Start drawing, switching off your torch at the end of every completed shape.
6. Fire your flash.

And after all that, you should get something like this:

ISO100, f/19, 30s, flash fired with test button

Enjoy experimenting!

Inspiration

Yes, I know...

I've neglected this blog for almost half a year now. But, there's good reason (two good reasons, actually!) now to update it:

Number 1

I've been thinking about changing the whole look of this blog so that it looks more, er, 'presentable'. I found the previous template a bit too plain, and I find this new one much more appealing to my taste. But, as you can see with all the empty links around the page, I'm still in the midst of resurrecting this whole site. So, bear with me.

Number 2

I've recently acquired a couple of those ebay flash triggers and I've begun experimenting a bit more with flash photography. I've been reading up quite a bit on this and a good resource is the website Strobist. There are tons of information on that website and the best thing is that they're all for free. Head on there if you haven't already done so, and you might just learn more than a thing or two about lighting.

Using some of the knowledge gained, I actually did a self portrait yesterday with a two-light set up and I must say I was quite pleased with the results. However, I'm not posting it up here cos the picture's a bit too embarrassing for the whole world to see. I wasn't exactly dressed up properly for the whole experiment.

Number 3

From the said Strobist website, I got to know about another photographer, Dustin Diaz, and I'm inspired. He's currently doing a 365 project and so far, all his photos look just great. And in case you want to replicate his technique, he's got all the information you're going to need to set up just like he did - complete with diagrams!

So, here's to a new beginning for this blog, and a rush of new wonderful ideas and photography.

Shooting data: 0.5s, f/22, ISO100