Light painting involves taking a long exposure and creating a painting in space using different light sources. I wanted to try it after noticing a ball of light photo (link below) on instagram. Of course, there is specialized equipment for light painting. As I don't want to invest in this project for now, I simply used flashlights and my usual photography equipment, Z7 camera and a Nikon 24-70S lens.
The light painting is done in a single take within a dark environment. There are no photo montage or graphic additions. Speaking of the dark environment, let's say that the city of Gatineau is not the best but I was able to do it. Here is how it is possible.
First, we fixed the flashlight on a wrope in order to be able of rotating the lamp in perfect circles.
Second, I attached my camera to the tripod and installed the remote control. Alexandre, my partner in crime, placed himself at the desired location and I made my focus in automatic before placing it in manual mode. Then I selected the Bulb exposure time on my device. This mode allows me to take a photo as long as I want.
After that, we turned off all the lights and we had fun drawing on the air with the flashlights. Once the camera was engaged, Alexandre made the flashlight turn and turned simultaneously on itself at the same time, when done he quickly hid the light. At this point, I was going to draw the wheels of the carriage.
Okay, I'm not very good at drawing. In my defense, you must draw or write backwards. My daughter Marilou point out to me that the wheels of my coach were upside down. You can also see how bright it seems to be outside. It is because the environment is not dark enough, mainly because of the lamp post behind the camera.
I redid the light painting on January 31 in the evening to the great despair of my boyfriend. This time, I sat in the garage with the sparkling cup of sparkling wine before he could even taste it. Rather than using a flashlight, I used sparkling, the birthday cake type, and I move it around the cups. I am happy with the result.
One thing is sure, during winter it gets dark early in Quebec, so I will have plenty of time to work on my brush!
Here a couple of excellent light painting artist ;
https://www.instagram.com/plum.light/