Well tonight I decided probably unwisely that I should do a spot of lightpainting in my kitchen. I actually wished I hadn't. Lightpainting can lead to a dose of OCD. I don't actually suffer from OCD in the clinical sense but I do like the damn elements to line up just so!
The Plasma Ball of OCD
I tried a slightly different lighting set up with two flashguns and an RGB LED panel behind a circuit board as the backdrop for a kinetic plasma ball. Let's just say, I'm blaming the Manfrotto tripod head. The reason for this is I swap tripods in the middle of the exposure and for some damn reason tonight as I placed the camera on the second tripod, the camera moved ever so slightly leading to misalignment which isn't that great if you're a lightpainter.
So here it is in all it's glory and it took too damn long!
Ever get the feeling someone is watching you?
In happier times before tonight's OCD nightmare, I managed to bag this lens and tripod swap image. Far more successful and another image that could go very badly awry if the elements don't line up!
Virus X
Another circuit board shot and very nearly off centre for the OCD! Here I've turned the circuit board out of parallel with the camera to make parts of the image blurry or appear as bokeh. The ball of light here is an Ikea Gamsebo multi-coloured bulb where the camera is panned across the frame to create this stripe of light:
Taking a circuit board in to the night
This was a shot where I took a circuit board on location in an abandoned building and lined up the black part of the chip so I could fill that part with light. Thanks goes here to @neilru75 for posing and the patience required while I faff around lining up the damn circuit board!
Handroid
I think I may be making lightpainting too difficult for myself. It has to be a challenge. Lining up my hand over a lightbox whilst holding on to a lens cap ready to replace it on the lens isn't the easiest thing to do. I think eventually evolution will take hold and all lightpainters will grow another pair of hands!
Virus XII
Another shot with a kinetic swipe of the camera but this time I placed a filter adapter ring over the bulb to mask off parts of the bulb to create a halo. It was a Eureka! moment when I realised the filter adapter was exactly the right size rather conveniently!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys: @fadetoblack, @stepko, @gunnarheilmann, @mafufuma, @lichtkunstfoto, @yo-hoho, @oddballgraphics,@lacelight, @martbarras & @rod.evans.visual
Follow the Hive Community Lightpainters United to be introduced into the world of light painting.
Son of a bitch- I'm glad I followed you. These are dope, and I haven't seen anything like them. The last I saw of light painting was white kids on the beach with sparklers. This stuff is much better.
Thanks @catharcissism there's a few different styles in the light painting community and mine is probably kinetic movement of the camera whether it's panning or rotating. I achieve this stuff in one exposure. I swap lenses in the dark then transfer the camera to another tripod pre-arranged to point at another element. The most I've done is three tripods and three lenses but that ain't easy!
So, lets say you're moving to the second spot, is the light source already on at that point, or do you flick it on once the camera is in place?
Likewise, how are you navigating in the dark - just feel/muscle memory?
I rehearse each part before combining them all in one. So in the first image above, I shot the plasma ball by panning the camera downward with the camera in portrait orientation holding steady on the ball for 5 seconds before moving to capture the trail of continuous light from the plasma ball. Once I've worked out aperture and focus point I then go on to rehearse the lighting on the board. Once happy with both parts, here I shot the ball first then changed lenses and tripods in the dark. Manual lenses with aperture rings are good for this stuff and it's great that you can adapt Nikon lenses to Sony FE like I do.
With the rehearsal comes the memory as you say but I do tend to wear a head torch and make sure the lens caps are on as I move around. I trip over flash stands and tripods quite a bit...
Amazing!
Thanks mate, I only do this stuff when it rains. It must have rained quite a bit haha
Very impressive pictures.
I also often had problems with different tripod heads. For some time now I have been using a 3-way geared panhead with a load capacity of 20kg and very high precision. The head only has an angle of 10° in each direction but nothing moves anymore. Search for Leofoto G2 if you are interested. There are also larger geared heads like the Arca Cube, but they can blow a big hole in your wallet.
Cheers mate, will take a look. This shot would have been abandoned if I was with someone else. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting for that long!
Totally original! So digital but not.
Thanks @sequentialvibe :-)