Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Painting with Light.

Light painting is one of the interesting subjects in photography. There is virtually no limit to what you can achieve with this technique. Remember the famous Sprint ad with people playing around in the park with lighted props? It does not consist of just illuminating your subject but goes beyond that. From just enhancing your composition to giving it a more creative look, various results can be achieved. And with the new Xsi, this was just the thing that I decided to try out.

All we need is a camera which is capable of taking shots using really long exposures, a tripod, a dark room and a flash light or a led torch. The sharper the focus of the flash light/torch, the more precise the results can be. The longer the exposure mode, the more you can get done on the shot. So here is what I did. Switched off the lights, set the exposure mode to 32, and clicked. Once the shutter is open, illuminate or paint the objects. I decided to use liquor bottles as they were a far better subject that anything opaque. The tip here is to not keep the flash light at one location for too long or the picture is burned. Hence plan ahead and keep on moving. Once the shutter closes, the shot is done and the lights can be switched on. I just had a single flash light here but if you have colored gel rings, then you can achieve a more colorful effect by changing the color of the flashlight intermittently. Below are few of the shots taken using this technique.



















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