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This company sells tools that you could make yourself - the how to videos are excellent

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Light Painting Photography Tutorials. How to Use Light Painting Tools and the Light Painting Brushes System. Light Painting Tools. Light Painting Brushes.

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Light painting is a fun, creative and relatively inexpensive photographic activity that allows you to add something personal and unique to your photos, as well as help you learn more about your camera's settings.

What is light painting and how is it captured?

Light painting is a photographic technique that involves the movement of light whilst the cameras shutter is open. In order to capture the moving light source you will need to set your camera to a long exposure, this can be anything from 10 seconds to several minutes depending on how much light you want to expose. Light painting is best done in the dark and somewhere fairly secluded so that you can keep in control of your image and the light you want exposed to the sensor.

Equipment needed

A sturdy tripod or solid surface: If you're using a long exposure then you will need to keep the camera still to avoid any blur, so a tripod is a must.

A that allows you to set your shutter speed. Not all light painting activities require a lengthy exposure, anything from 10-20 seconds will be enough to get you started.

Light painting tools: Glow stick, torch, matches, sparklers, a flashgun (to light up your scene), your phone, etc.

Wireless remote(recommended): A remote enables you to release the shutter and keep it open for as long as the camera will allow without having to hold down the button yourself. Remember to set your camera to "Bulb" so that you have full control over the exposure.

A flashgun: This isn't essential and something I didn't need to use myself but if you have one it can be used to light up or freeze a particular object or scene before starting your light painting.

The good thing about painting with light is there are no rules and experimenting with the different set-ups is all part of the fun. Of course, if you're using a digital camera you can instantly review your shots and tweak your settings if your images are coming out over or under exposed. If you're new to light-painting, here are a few basic guidelines to get you going:

Camera settings

Aperture: You can use anything from a large aperture (small f-number) at f/4 to a small aperture (large f-number) at f/22. As long as you stop down enough so that your point of interest is in focus and sharp then that is all that matters.

Shutter speed: The shutter speed depends on your location, the type of effect you are going for and how much light is around you - taking into consideration any ambient light too. If you're in a dark room experimenting with an object then 10-15 seconds is usually fine to start with.

ISO: Use the lowest ISO setting possible to avoid grain (noise) creeping into your shot.

Focusing: Set the lens to manual focus and focus by twisting the focus ring at the end of your lens. Because you will be shooting in the dark if you set the camera to autofocus it will struggle to focus and the camera will try to refocus each time you press the shutter button.

Setting up and taking the photo

1. Position your camera or object to where you want it - try experimenting with a variety of perspectives

2. Attach your camera to your tripod and set it to the right height

3. Manual focus on the subject whilst the lights in your house are switched on. Alternatively, if you're shooting outside then you can use your torch instead

4. Once the focus has been set, adjust the shutter speed and turn off the lights

5. Release the shutter, either by using a remote or by manually pressing the shutter button

6. Once the shutter has been released (listen out for the click sound) quickly get into position and then turn on your light source (EG. torch, glowsticks) and begin painting

TIP: It is best to get into position before you expose your light source, otherwise you will capture a trail of light leading up to your object

Different types of light painting

There are many different ways to paint with light. Here are few of the different techniques and tools we've tried...

Light-painting objects indoors

I started with using an object inside my house as this allowed me to have full control over my environment and the light source. As it was Halloween, I used a pumpkin to practice on but you can use something that requires less work such as a chair, guitar, lamp, or even a family member.

In order to create this magical potion type effect I grabbed a few glow sticks and swirled them around inside the glass and continued to do so as I lifted them out of the vase to get a gradual, smooth effect. Afterwards I used a maglite torch to add the bright swirls.

To show that the vase was resting on something and not floating in mid air I shone the torch towards the bottom of the vase for a few seconds before experimenting with the glow sticks.

Using steel wire wool

Alex Bennett in our e-commerce team did some light painting of his own using wire wool, a bull clip and a some rope. He lit the wire wool, attached a bull clip to it and then swung it around using some string to create a spider, firework explosion effect.

Please note: this outdoor light painting technique should only be attempted by responsible adults and with full safety precautions in place (including but not limited to: protecting yourself by wearing gloves, safety goggles and long sleeves, as well as keeping a fire extinguisher to hand).

Creating your own scene

Before drawing any type of scene it helps knowing what you want to create first before releasing the shutter. For this shot I lit up the sofa first by shining the torch on it for a few seconds and then I nipped behind the sofa to draw my scene.
Alex Bennett talks us through his shot below:

This shot was taken just after midnight under a black cloudy sky, the 86 second exposure was just enough to capture the church in the glow from a nearby street lamp but not burn out the glow from the lamp in the far right. It only took about 15 seconds to walk a steady pace along the wall with the light, but as the light stick was much brighter than the surroundings I needed to use f/22 so the overall lighting was more evenly balanced.

Drawing around your car using sparklers

Long exposures at night

Using your natural surroundings is a great way to experiment with light painting without you yourself having to actually move or do anything. Instead of moving the light source yourself, look around and try using the available light. For instance, in this scene I have managed to paint with light using the London Eye and buildings nearby.

The light you see punching through the trees are the outside lights of a local pub. By using a long exposure, Alex was able to create a spooky effect with lots of shadows.

Light trails

The trails of light you see in the photo below are created by the moving traffic. The cars are dark enough and moving at just the right amount of speed so that they're not physically present in the shot, but so you are able to capture their headlights and side lights when they pass by. To get the perfect shot it is all about timing, you may find that it takes a couple of attempts before getting a shot you are 100% happy with. Photographing light trails is really simple to do, the hardest part is finding an eye grabbing location, a unique perspective and enough cars passing by to create a big enough effect. To create the shot below I used a fairly small aperture (f/11) to ensure there was a large depth of field so that my background was in focus. Remember to turn off your flash as this might distract the drivers.

Fair Rides

By twisting the lens barrel (zooming in and out) whilst the shutter is open you can create some wacky effects where it looks as though the light is shooting towards you.

Although you might think the bulbs are lit, they're not, it's simply been made to look that way by shining the torch on them.

Free-form shooting

Below is an image of some Christmas lights fixed around the banister in my hall way. For this next technique you don't need a tripod, nor do you need to move the light source. Set the shutter speed between 10- 15 seconds and then whilst the shutter is open move the camera in all directions, the result is a streaky, light trail effect.

Walking up stairs with an LED light stick

Light painting is a fascinating technique and a fun way to get the whole family involved without having to step into the cold. There are so many things you can do with light painting - the light source is your brush and the world is your canvas :) If you've given light painting a go before or plan on doing so then we would like to see your creations. Please share any tips and techniques of your own in the comments below and add your images to our Google+, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr pages.

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Painting with light and long exposures | Wex Photo Video

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Light painting is a fun, creative and relatively inexpensive photographic activity that allows you to add something personal and unique to your photos, as well as help you learn more about your camera's settings. Light painting is a photographic technique that involves the movement of light whilst the cameras shutter is open.

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Light artist Eric Staller could be called the father of light drawing or light graffiti in its present day form. Staller was born in 1947 in New York. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan and graduated with a bachelors degree in 1971. Towards the end of his time at UOM Eric started to create sculpture and pieces of performance art. From 1976 to 1980 Staller roamed the dark streets of New York City creating light painting photographs. Eric's Light Drawing series could be the very first Light Art Performance Photographs ever created. It could be argued that Man Ray's "Space Writing" series were the first light art performance pieces but there is no doubt that Staller's images such as Light Tubes, Happy Street, and Technicolor Torsos all envoke elements of performance art. In the late 1970's staller set up his camera, open the shutter, and moved throughout the frame creating some amazing light painting photographs. Eric's Light Drawings series is one of the most influential series on light painters today. Please visit Eric's website at www.ericstaller.com.

Recently I got the chance to talk with light drawing pioneer Eric Staller. I had always thought that some of Eric's early work could be categorized as the first ever LAPP (Light Art Performance Photography) images, I still think I'm right but Eric doesn't like to be categorized...↓↓↓↓↓ He was doing domes WAY WAY WAY before you.↓↓↓

LPP ∇ It is wonderful to get the chance to pick your brain a bit to see what you were thinking when you created some of your first light drawing images that have inspired a countless number of light painting photographers!

What was your first light drawing image, and can you tell me a little bit about your process and the experience?

ES ∇ 'Walker Street' was the first image that I printed. It was a 1-minute 'sparkler drawing' I did in front of my loft in lower Manhattan. Each sparkler lasted about a minute, so that was the amount of time I had to make the drawing. I would lock the camera shutter open, light the sparkler and quickly walk down the street, holding the sparkler at curb level, to complete the composition before the sparkler went out. I felt a strong sense of exhilaration, like running the 100-meter dash with a flaming torch! Getting the film back from the lab was even more exhilarating: it was magic, my presence was invisible! There was just this trail of liquid fire. Suddenly I was drunk with the possibilities. I proceeded to outline everything for my photos: cars, trucks, streets, and monuments.

The energy was packed into one-minute performances. I worked through the night and although I was alone and even lonely, my romance for the city was sweet indeed.

LPP ∇ What inspired you to create some of your first light drawings?

ES ∇ I had been doing slide shows, timer -activated installations of slide projections onto gallery walls, or screens suspending in space. They were moving paintings, musically inspired and consisted of a few hundred images that were seen dissolving into one another on the screen. This was many years before computerized multi-media and I remember how disturbing it was when my NY gallery called me to say that one of my slide projectors had jammed! I resolved to compact my choreography into still images, that I printed 30" x 40". These have since been exhibited worldwide, although at the time most people didn't know what to make of them.

LPP ∇ Funny you say that, presently when a light painter shows their work people usually think that the image is has been digitally altered. You had exhibited your light painting work worldwide but people at the time didn't know what to think of it, can you expand on that a little bit. What were some of the reactions then and how do people react differently to it now?

ES ∇ I was represented by an art gallery in NY and when I did this series I thought I would be better represented by a photography gallery. Directors of photo galleries didn't think what I was doing was photography!! It was thought to be a gimmick, a trick. Now (smart) people know I was ahead of my time!

Digital is way easier! For each of my photographic ideas I would be on location most of a night, and shoot a roll of 36 exposures. To get one winner, or no winner at all. I had to get the roll processed to see if one of these 'takes' measured up to what I saw in my mind's eye.

LPP ∇ Was there a moment when it all clicked or was this series more of a work of trial and error?

ES ∇ I have had many 'inspired accidents' in my career but mostly I have a scientific approach to taking my work intellectually further with each artwork.

LPP ∇ What is your favorite light drawing you have ever created?

ES ∇ My next artwork is my favorite!

LPP ∇ Did you work alone or was someone there helping you to create some of your images?

ES ∇ I started working alone but hired an assistant once I received my first grant. Having an assistant enabled me to take longer and more elaborate shots.

LPP ∇ I know that you must have had some interesting encounters roaming the dark streets of New York in the middle of the night with sparklers and camera gear, is there anything you would like to share? Any interesting stories that happened on one of your light drawing shoots?

ES ∇ The city at night was an enchanting place for me. The plazas, bridges, parks and monuments, empty and eerily quiet at night, were dramatic stage sets waiting to be transformed.

Late at night I drove around in a beat-up station wagon, looking for places and ideas to jump out at me. When the moment was right I set up my Nikon on a tripod and planned a choreography with light. At dawn I would go to Fulton Street to watch the fishermen come in, or to the Lower East Side for the first hot bagels of the day.

My dreams in 1977 were taking the forms of fantasy architectures of light. I invented choreographies and volumes of light. I remember being impressed by the architectural uses of the human figure in Fritz Lang's film 'Metropolis' and old Busby Berkeley films, and I began to think of the geometry of my body. By then I found that a 10-minute sparkler was available on special order. I attached one to the end of a broomstick and, using my arm as a compass, scribed arcs overhead as I walked up the middle of the street (Lightunnel).

The challenge now was to take it intellectually further with each photo; to wonder what effect this or that choreographic device would produce; and then, to be continually surprised by the result.

For Lightubes I spun the sparkler on the end of a string as I walked toward the camera; then ran back and did it again.

I mounted 5 sparklers on a broomstick and held it vertically, at arm's length for the 5-minute exposure Ribbon on Hanover Street.

It occurred to me more than once that these were performances with light. Crowds of curious garbage men, night watchmen, workaholic Wall Streeters and the homeless gathered to watch the lunatic with the blazing broomstick!

LPP ∇ Prior to creating your own images had you ever seen any of Man Ray's, Gjon Mili's, or any other light drawing work, if so what did you think of this work?

ES ∇ I had known of the Picasso/Mili drawings.

LPP ∇ You call your work "Light Drawings" but you also talk about the performances. Are you familiar with the current "Light Art Performance Photography" and if so do you feel some of your early work should fall into this category or something different?

ES ∇ What I was doing was certainly performances with various light sources but it was the image, the end result that I was interested in. I'm not very interested in being categorized.

LPP ∇ You have shifted focus a bit from your light drawing work, do you still create in this medium or were you completed in 1980?

ES ∇ I have shifted more than a bit! I evolved from the photography into computerized light sculpture. My Lightmobile in 1985 was perhaps my most profound personal breakthrough, and the beginning of my 'urban UFO' series.

Since then my work has all been performance oriented, and increasingly political. And a lot of my job is manufacturing, promoting and marketing my circular 7-person ConferenceBike. See conferencebike.com

LPP ∇ What do you think of the present state of light painting photography?

ES ∇ It is amazing that it has become this movement, and there is a lot of great energy out there. There are some beautiful images being done, but most of the work has a generic-ness to it. I don't see that anyone has taken it further than what I did more than 30 years ago.

LPP ∇ Are there any light painting artists that you follow or that ARE impressing you with the work they are producing?

ES ∇ Of all the artists on your site my favorite is LAPP-PRO.

LPP ∇ Do you think light painting has further to go? As one of the light drawing founders what do you think is the next step, or how would you as like to see it evolve?

ES ∇ The art form will certainly continue to evolve, just as more traditional art forms have continued to evolve. As with painting and sculpture, with their long traditions, the real innovations are few and far between. In fact, the easier it is to master a technique, the easier it is to fall into a mannerist sameness that most light painting/drawing falls into. Invention, originality, daring, that's what I look for in art, and I rarely see it. The artist Christo is one artist that really interests me.

LPP ∇ Do you have any desire to revisit another light drawing series?

ES ∇ I felt that I took it as far as I could and that I was becoming too good at it! The surprise was going out of it and I moved on before I started to repeat myself. I don't want to ever say never, but I am VERY doubtful that I will go back there.

LPP ∇ Thank you for taking the time to answers some questions it has been great to talking to you.

ES ∇ You can thank me by ordering my book OUT OF MY MIND at outofmymind.com!
There you will find 30 images beautifully reproduced, of these photos, that I did between 1976-80.

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Light artist Eric Staller could be called the father of light drawing or light graffiti in its present day form. Staller was born in 1947 in New York. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan and graduated with a bachelors degree in 1971.

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A Post By: Darlene Hildebrandt

I teach a night photography class and I find that many people who've never tried it imagine it to be a lot harder than it really is to get spectacular results. In this two part series I'm going to take you through step by step how I created the image above using light painting techniques that are actually quite easy.

PART ONE - THE PHOTOGRAPHY

In this article, Part One, I'm going to go through everything you need to know so that you can go out and create some images using this technique. In Part Two I'll take you through combining multiple exposures, like I've done for this shot, using Photoshop to create the final photograph. It's really not that hard and I'll do it one step at a time so you can follow along with my screen shots after each step.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS ARTICLE

Recommended equipment

Camera basics (how to set up your camera)

Finding a good subject

Getting started (set up, preparation and starting points)

Lighting, how to do light painting and some tips

Potential problems and how to avoid them

EQUIPMENT FOR NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Night photography is not that difficult but there are a few essential pieces of equipment needed to do the job right. Here is a list of mandatory and optional items:
The "Must Haves"

a DSLR, or camera with manual settings that include "Bulb"

a camera that shoots RAW format images (not mandatory but highly suggested)

a sturdy tripod that is not affected by wind

an electric cable release or remote trigger (could be called either) with a locking mechanism or timer

at least one extra battery for your camera (long exposures and cold eat up batteries quickly so you may run through two or more in a night)

a lens hood or shade for your lens

The "Really Nice to Haves" - not essential, but sure handy

a digital watch or timer (or remote that has a timer) I use my iPhone

a penlight or small flashlight (your cell phone can work in a pinch) to be able to check camera settings and find an item in the bottom of your bag OR a headlamp like the kind hikers wear, is a better option for hands free operation

a powerful flashlight like a Maglite for light painting (I use an incandescent one, LED will produce a bluer tone light)

a speedlight or portable flash unit can also be used for light painting (you don't need a fancy one, even an old Vivitar 283 or 285 will do the trick)

rain covers for your camera bag, camera, and yourself (weather can change quickly at night but you can get some great shots in bad weather if you're prepared - you dry easier than your camera, keep that in mind!)

A friend to tag along. Helpful if you're doing night photography in an urban setting. It's someone to help pass the time, but also watch that your gear doesn't grow legs and walk off while you're digging in the camera bag for something. Or someone to stand guard over the camera gear while you're off painting with light in the scene.

CAMERA SETTINGS

File format - shoot raw whenever possible lighting at night can be odd colors

White balance - I generally choose "incandescent" or "tungsten" White Balance Preset when doing light painting because I know that will balance correctly for my flashlight. I let the rest of the scene fall where it may color wise

Focus - your camera has a hard time focusing at night and will "hunt" unless you find focus and lock it for all your exposures. If your camera has back button focus capabilities I'd suggest using that, if not you can focus and then turn it to manual focus so it doesn't attempt to refocus when you hit the shutter release. You can try to focus using manual but keep in mind if your camera can't see in the dark, neither can you! So to achieve focus use your flashlight, and if you have a friend along, get them to light up the part of the object you want to focus on. Then either use your auto focus and lock it, or manually focus and then don't touch it!

Manual mode or BULB - for exposure set it to manual. That way the camera is not trying to guess the correct exposure. We'll be setting it and leaving it for the most part - just like our focus. For exposures longer than 30 seconds (30″ on your camera) you'll need to find and use your BULB setting. On many cameras it is right after 30 seconds on the shutter speed scale, one some there's a B option on your mode dial on top of your camera.

ISO - how low can you go?! This is where it gets counter intuitive because your gut may be telling you that it's dark out so you need a higher ISO, right? Well in certain situations like shooting the moon, a starry sky, or northern lights where you want a faster shutter speed - then you might need a higher ISO. But for this purpose and most of the times you are on a tripod it is always best to choose the lowest ISO possible. Noise in your image increases with changes in 3 things: higher ISO, long exposures and in blue or dark areas of your scene. We're already pushing the long exposure boundaries and night is ALL blue - so keeping the ISO low will minimize the noise best we can.

FINDING A GOOD SUBJECT

Night photography can produce some great images, but it can be a bit tricky to find a location and compose your shots in the dark. It is best to go out ahead of time and find a spot, then return to it later, about 30 minutes before you actually want to start shooting. That will give you time to find it, get set up and be ready. Here are some tips for finding a good night subject suitable for painting with light.

Old barns and abandoned cars and trucks in fields make great subjects, and often are appropriate for some painting with light. If you need to cross someone's land to get to there, make sure to get permission BEFORE you head out. Trespassing is not cool and could lead to lot of problems including getting arrested, or worse, which you certainly don't want.

If you want to shoot the moon, star trails, or do light painting you'll need to get out of the city. You may have to drive quite a while to get far enough away so that the city lights do not contaminate your shot. As you will be exposing for several minutes or longer, the city lights may show up on the horizon if you are not far enough away. (the city lights are a factor in my example in this article which gave me some limitations, and the orange fire in the sky - more on that later)

Start with a smaller subject that you can light in one exposure and work your way up to bigger ones like this firetruck or an old barn that will take a few shots and need compiling. An old bicycle is a great starter subject. Buy one at a flea market or junk yard and take your own prop wherever you want and plop it into your scene. Just remember to take it with you as you'll want it again later and littering isn't cool either.

GETTING STARTED - SETTING UP

1. Set up your camera on tripod with remote attached or set up to fire the camera

2. Turn off any image stabilization (IS or VR) on your lens

3. Turn OFF "long exposure noise reduction" unless you have a lot of patience. What it does it takes a second exposure of equal length of just black, then merges it with your shot to get rid of the noise. But if you're doing a 2 minute exposure, you have to wait another 2 minutes to review your image and be able shoot again. I don't use it, and because we're on a low ISO noise shouldn't be a big factor

4. ISO low - ideally 100 or 200

5. Aperture - start around f/5.6 - depending on your scene, then adjust from there if you want more or less depth of field. Keep in mind the smaller aperture you use, each stop you close down doubles the amount of time you need to be painting and exposing. So a 60 second exposure at f/5.6 becomes an 8 minute exposure at f/16!

6. Shutter speed - start around 60 seconds. I've done enough night photography to know that'll get you pretty close for most moonlit scenes. You may have to adjust faster (shorter exposure) or longer depending on whether it's a full moon, or there's some stray light in the scene, and how bright your flashlight is.

7. Focus using the flashlight - then lock your focus.

LIGHT PAINTING - HOW TO DO IT

Basically what you do it set your camera on Bulb, open the shutter using your locking release and walk into your scene and start lighting the objects in the camera view using your flashlight. It sounds simple but can be quite tricky to get just the right amount of light in different places, not get yourself in the image, and still get a good overall exposure. Here are a few tips or starting points, then you just need to experiment and adjust as you go.

Setting up your base exposure

Before you start "painting" take a test shot, without the flashlight, of the scene as it is with no additional light added

Review that image and make sure you have a good overall exposure of the scene, with it perhaps just a little on the dark side (histogram should be mostly inclined to the left side)

When you are happy with the exposure, adjust your settings so that you have a long enough shutter speed to easily get into the scene and light the subject with your flashlight before the shutter closes (at least 30 seconds). You may have to go to a smaller aperture to do so.

Once you know your exposure and your shutter speed is at least 30 seconds long, you can get started. If you can bring a friend along they can press the shutter release for you, so you can go in and out of the scene without returning to the camera after each shot to press it again. Or a wireless remote comes in handy here too.

Adding the flashlight - tips for light painting

To keep yourself invisible, always make sure the flashlight is aimed at the subject, and that you do not light up yourself, dark clothing helps too. Also keep moving during the whole exposure. Don't stand in one place for more than a couple seconds or you will show up as a ghost in that spot.

Don't aim the flashlight back towards the camera, unless you want what I call "light bugs". Sometimes you can use that technique on purpose to create streaks of light and outline your subject, and that can work well also. See the image of the little red wagon above for an example of light bugs. I believe I accidentally had my headlamp on while I painted and it made the light bugs - but I kind of liked it so I kept it. Happy accidents are great!

Keep the light moving the whole time so as not to create any harsh lines or bright spots. I like to make outlines of the shape of my subject or parts of it. Discover what works for you.

For a more defined and abstract look to your light painting you must come in a REALLY close to the subject! By that I mean about 1-2 feet away from the subject. YES you are going to get right into the scene. But if you keep moving, and keep your light moving you will not show up in the photo. (see the b/w of the old shack above for an example of this look and technique). Also make sure your flashlight beam is focused to a small area - that's why I like the Maglites, they focus down to a small spot.

For a broader more even light keep the flashlight beam wide and stand back from the subject a bit (4-8 feet) and light it from the side to create a nice cross light and texture on the subject. (see the color image of the old wooden shack below for an example of this affect)

REVIEW YOUR IMAGE AND DO IT ALL AGAIN

Back in the days of film, painting with light was much harder. There was no way to determine if any of the exposures were correct or not. To paint a whole scene you had to get it right in one frame or exposure. Now with digital we have the benefit of testing and seeing what we're doing and compensating on the next shot. You can even paint a scene in stages, or sections, and build them all into one image later in Photoshop. I'll cover how to do that in Part Two.
The things you want to look for in your first image are:

How did you do with your flashlight painting? If it was too bright in one area and not bright enough in another, just be conscious of how much time you spend on one spot and adjust accordingly.

If it is overall too dark or light, you may need to adjust your exposure time or your aperture.

If the flashlight isn't showing up well enough you might need a longer exposure time (just go from 30 seconds to 60 and try again) to allow you to paint slower and cover more areas better.

If you want the light more even, back up and use a wider beam.

If you want it more focused and like outlines, get closer.

Did you get any light bugs you didn't want? (turn off your headlamp!)

Did you get a ghost of yourself or a body part?

Generally look for any problems or areas you want to correct. Take note and do it again, and again, and again - until you're happy with it.

MAKING A MULTIPLE IMAGE COMPOSITE - SHOOTING FOR IT

Now that you're ready to progress to a larger subject we'll look at how to shoot multiple images of the same subject, so that you can merge them together in Photoshop later. The ONLY thing you're going to do different than what you just did in the lessons above - is paint the subject in sections. That's it!

For the firetruck image I actually shot about 30 different exposures. I didn't end up using them all but I wanted to make sure I had my based covered and had options. That's the beauty of putting them together later - you do NOT have to get it perfect in one shot! Let's take a look at a few of my images from that shoot.

You get the idea right? Cover it well, then just to be sure, do it again. I think we were there (my husband was the button pusher, I ran the flashlight) about an hour an a half just doing this one shot. It was such a unique subject, and we had full permission to be there and be photographing it at night that I wanted to take full advantage of it. That it was a beautiful night and this stuff is just so much fun for me that once I get started, I lose all track of time.

Wrapping up

Well I was a bit long winded on this tutorial, I hope you are still with me. I wanted to make sure you had all the details you need to go out and try this yourself. I fully expect you to do so and be ready with some images for Part Two when we are going to take our multiple shots and combine them to get something that looks like this in the end.
Action plan steps

1. get the right gear

2. find a good subject, get permission if need be

3. set up your camera using the starting settings

4. take your base exposure test shot

5. add your flashlight and light painting

6. review and continue

CHECK OUT PART 2 OF THIS SERIES HERE

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Light Painting Part One - the Photography

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I teach a night photography class and I find that many people who've never tried it imagine it to be a lot harder than it really is to get spectacular results. In this two part series I'm going to take you through step by step how I created the image above using light painting techniques ...

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Light painting has been a basic technique in my photography ever since I learned how to really play with it. I started by just doing the usual of writing names and doing swirls but then I learned how to use it for my professional work.

Light painting has some trial and error, but that doesn't mean you have to guess everything that you do. There are also some rules and technical things that make it easier for you to do it rather than just guessing everything. In this article I'll explain the basic technique and tips and dos and don'ts of light painting

The basic things you will need is a camera that has manual exposure because you will be shooting with a long shutter speed, a tripod to keep the camera stable, an optional wireless or shutter release cable, and any flashlight you have.

The Setup

Normally when doing light painting, you want to put your camera on a tripod.

I usually shoot in a pitch black room when light painting (I'll explain why below), so I pre-focus on my subject first while the light is on and switch my camera to manual focus so that I can click the shutter while all the lights are off and stop the camera from trying to focus.

The first thing you have to make sure if you want to have a clean light painted image is that no ambient light or artificial light is on. It's better when you're shooting in a pitch black area because the ambient light might expose your hand or your flashlight.

Another thing to remember when light painting is: only light your subject and make sure no light from you flashlight is hitting you or you will also get exposed in the shot.

How To Paint Your Subject

The simplest way to explain this is: if you point the light towards your subject it acts like a flash and exposes the subject.

How to create light streaks or drawings

If you point your light towards the camera then you can create light streaks or drawings.

Combining both lighting the subject and creating light streaks at the back:

How to control your exposure

As I said before, light painting is trial and error. You need to see your first shot before you can adjust for the exposure.

I normally start with a low ISO of 100, f/8, 10-20 seconds shutter speed.

As you can see in this shot my subject is overexposed.

You can do two or three things for this.

1. Time the light hitting the subject: The Longer the light is pointing at your subject or pointing at the camera in one position the more exposed or brighter it gets. So you can paint faster and just keep the same settings(iso,shutter and aperture) as before and you can see that you get less exposure. Longer/slower you paint - More exposure Faster you paint - less exposure

2. Increase your flashlight's power if possible. Increasing or decreasing your flashlights power can also change the exposure your subject gets.

3. Changing your camera settings. Do the same time or amount of time you paint but change your iso or aperture to get more exposure or less exposure to your subject. Higher ISO/ Opening of f/stop - More Exposure Lower ISO/ Closing down of f/stop - Less Exposure

Below is an example of a better exposed subject.

I wanted to show you the effect on how long you paint your subject. I painted the upper part of the camera about 5 seconds and painted the bottom part about 10 seconds. You can see that the lower part is overexposed.

You can also make your limit your light source and just paint on the parts where you want.

It's that simple actually. If you know how to control the light you paint with, then you can create anything you want. You just have to be aware of how long you paint your subject or how long you point the light towards your camera.

Here are some examples and step by step procedure for you to fully understand how to light paint:

I bought some new shoes and before wearing them I wanted to take photos of it first. I used one of my tiles as the base of my subject. (Here's my article on how I use tiles for my product photos.)

To have more control over my light, I made a DIY snoot out of cinefoil and placed it in front of my flashlight.

The first thing I wanted was to create a hard shadow coming from the back of the subject. So before doing the whole shot I tried doing this first.

After I tried painting only the front of the shoes to see what it will look like.

For the final result I combined both techniques in one exposure. It took me less than 10 shots to get the result that I wanted. Light painting gets easier after you've done it several times.

For my next shot I used a granite tile for the base of my subject and placed a boom stand with wire on top of the subject. I was still using the same flashlight with a DIY snoot, but for the background light in the final photo I got a blue plastic and placed it in front of my flashlight.

The first thing I did was play around with only lighting the shoes.

I now combined two techniques of lighting the shoes and drawing light streaks at the background.

For the final results, after lighting the subject in front, I got the blue plastic and used it to draw light streaks at the back of the subject.

For the final photo I just edited out the wire and did a bit of levels adjustment.

Another result from this set without the light streaks.

Trying out the I-Light Led light from a local store for the set below.

Normally for this I would light my subject separately using a flash to stop there movement but I tried just light painting them using only one led light.

I placed a gel on the top part of the Led stick to get colors on the light streaks.

The final photos:

There are endless things you can do with light painting and I've even used it for my professional work. It's just about learning the basic on how to do it to get you started!
Thanks to Sarah Palisada, Israel Palisada, Angelika Adrias, Angelou Adrias and Kevin Lanon for modeling. Also a big thanks to Vizen Marketing Philippines for letting me use the I-Light.

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A Basic Guide to Light Painting Photography

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Light painting has been a basic technique in my photography ever since I learned how to really play with it. I started by just doing the usual of writing names and doing swirls but then I learned how to use it for my professional work.

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Photography comes from the Greek words phos ("light"), and graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or graphí, together they mean "drawing with light". Light Painting Photography can be broken down into 3 general categories. The first is Light Drawing this is where the light source can be seen by the camera, during a long exposure the artist uses this light source to draw or create a design within the frame. The second category is Kinetic Light Painting, for this light painting technique the lights in the scene generally remain stationary while the camera itself is moved about during a long exposure to create color and design within the frame. The third category is Light Painting, this is where the artist uses handheld light sources to selectively illuminate parts of a scene during a long exposure photograph. The history below identifies many of the pioneers of Light Painting Photography. If you know of someone who should be included on the list and is not, please send us an email.

Étienne-Jules Marey and Georges Demeny: Light Painting 1889

Étienne-Jules Marey and Georges Demeny first met when Demeny enrolled in a physiology course being taught by Marey. The soon became close associates. Together they established a programme of research which was to lead to the creation of the 'Station Physiologique', which opened in 1882 in the Bois de Boulogne. Marey and Demeny developed several photographic techniques to study the movements of everything from humans to horses.

In 1889 Demeny attached incandescent bulbs to the joints of an assistant and created the first known light painting photograph "Pathological Walk From in Front".

Frank Gilbreth: Light Painting Photography, 1914

In the year 1914 Frank Gilbreth, along with his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth, used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. The Gilbreth's did not create these light painting photographs as an artistic endeavor; they instead were studying what they called "work simplification". The Gilbreth's were working on developing ways to increase employee output and simplify their jobs. You can view the original Gilbreth films HERE.

Man Ray: Light Painting Photography, 1935

The first artist to explore the technique of light painting was Man Ray. Man Ray was best known for his avant-garde photography. He worked in several different media, and thought of himself as a painter above all else. Man Ray's contribution to light painting photography came in his series "Space Writing". In 1935 Man Ray set up a camera to produce a self-portrait. He opened the shutter of his camera and used a small penlight to create a series of swirls and lines in the air. Random circles and swirls are all these photographs were thought to be until in 2009, a photographer by the name of Ellen Carey, held a mirror up to the work and discovered the seemingly random light drawing was actually Man Ray's signature.

Gjon Mili: Light Painting Photography, 1930-1940's

Next on the list of light painters is Gjon Mili. Gjon Mili was born in Albania and came to the United States in 1923. Gjon was trained as an engineer and was a self-taught photographer. In the mid 1930's Mili, working with Harold Eugene Edgerton from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), pioneered photoflash photography. Gjon used stroboscopic light to capture the motion of everything from dancers to jugglers in a single exposure. His photoflash techniques are still very much used today in light painting photography. Mili used this technique to study the motion of dancers, musicians, and figure skaters.

Mili's creation of photoflash photography work was just his first gift to the light painting world. In the 1940's Gjon attached small lights to the boots of ice skaters he then opened the shutter of his camera and created what would be the inspiration for some of the most famous light painting images ever created.

In 1949, while on assignment for Life Magazine, Gjon Mili was sent to photograph Pablo Picasso at his home in the South of France. While there Mili showed Picasso some of his light painting photographs of the figure skaters. Pablo was immediately inspired, Picasso took a penlight and began to draw in the air. Mili set up his camera and captured the images. This brief meeting yielded what would become known as Pablo Picasso's Light Drawings. Of all of these Drawing the most famous is known as "Picasso Draws a Centaur".

Picasso Draws a Centaur

Everything is Illuminated

Henri Matisse: Light Painting Photography 1949

This is the only known image of Henri Matisse creating a light painting, Like Picasso, Henri Matisse was also introduced to the light drawing art form by Gjon Mili.

Barbara Morgan: Light Painting Photography, 1940

Barbara Brooks Johnson was born on July 8, 1900, in the USA. She graduated from UCLA in 1923 where she studied figurative drawing and painting. In 1925 Barbara married Willard D. Morgan, a writer that illustrated his own articles with his photographs. Barbara began to assist Willard with his photography shoots, however she continued to paint only seeing photography as a way to document, not an artistic medium. In 1935 with two small children she was searching for a way to be a mother and an artist. While photographing a Sudan fertility icon and an Ivory Coast totemic mask, Barbara discovered that she could make these ritual sculptures seem either menacing or benign, simply by control of lighting. This was her gateway into seeing photography as an artistic medium. She then learned how to process in the darkroom and began photographing dancers. In 1940 in her continuing quest to do more with photography, Morgan "began to feel the pervasive, vibratory character of light energy as a partner of the physical and spiritual energy of the dance, and as the prime mover of the photographic process. "Suddenly, I decided to pay my respects to light, and create a rhythmical light design for the book tailpiece." She created gestural light drawings with an open shuttered camera in her darkened studio.

Jack Delano: Light Painting Photography, 1943

In 1943 Jack Delano a photographer for the Farm Security Administration used a slow shutter light painting technique to capture to motion of railroad workers and railroad cars while snapping photographs of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad.

Andreas Feininger: Light Painting Photography, 1949

In February 1949 another Life Magazine photographer created some light painting photographs. In 1939 photographer, Andreas Feininger, immigrated to the United States. In 1943 he joined the staff of Life Magazine and in 1949 Andreas was on assignment in Anacostia, Maryland, Feininger set his camera up on a tripod, opened the shutter and produced light painting photographs of helicopters taking off and landing.

David Potts: Kinetic Light Painting

Kinetic Light Painting also known as Camera Painting is the process of moving the camera itself to create a design within the frame during a long exposure photograph, the lights in the scene generally stay stationary (although they don't have to). David Potts was widely recognized for his black and white documentary style photography when he began creating his colorful works. David said "Very simple. I wanted to explore what the available colour films would do." These works slightly predate the elegant colourist compositions of legendary fellow LIFE photographers such as Ernst Haas. In his 1953 image Potts transforms the familiar London landmark into a swirling mandala of colour. "I had a Linhof 5×4 view camera I had bought from Max Dupain with a [film] back that rotated 360 degrees. I simply wanted to see what using the camera's movements - turning the film around - would do [to Piccadilly Circus] during a long exposure." (source)

George Mathieu: 1957

George Mathieu is a French painter who gained an International reputation in the 1950's as a Abstract Expressionist. In 1957 George was in Tokyo Japan and used light painting to create this cover shot for a Japanese magazine.

David Lebe: Light Drawings, 1976

In 1969 photographer David Lebe began experimenting with pinhole cameras. It was this experimentation that lead to his revelation that a photograph didn't have to just capture an instant in time but that it could capture a whole event. In 1976 David was looking for an escape from his small cluttered Philadelphia apartment, so he turned out the lights. In the dark David was able to image the larger spaces he wished for. He opened the shutter of his camera and began work on the first of his light drawing series. These first images were self portraits where David used small pin lights to outline his own body.

Eric Staller: Light Painting Photography, 1976

Eric Staller could be called the father of light graffiti or light drawing in its present day form. Staller was born in 1947 in New York. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1971. Towards the end of his time at UOM Eric started to create sculpture and pieces of performance art. From 1976 to 1980 Staller roamed the dark streets of New York City creating light painting photographs.

Eric's "Light Drawings" series could be the very first Light Art Performance Photographs ever created. It could be argued that Man Ray's "Space Writing" series were the first light art performance pieces but there is no doubt that Staller's images such as Light Tubes, Happy Street, and Technicolor Torsos all evoke elements of performance art. Eric's "Light Drawings" series is one of the most influential series on light painters today.

Dean Chamberlain: Light Painting Photography, 1977

Dean Chamberlain is the father of light painting photography in its present day form. He is the first artist to dedicate his entire body of work to the light painting art form. Dean was taking classes at Rochester Institute of Technology when he made his discover of light painting in the spring of 1977 when he created his first ever light painting "Polyethylene Bags on Chaise Lounge"

Dean was in his third year of college, he was experimenting and struggling to find his calling. Dean says he felt like his classmates were "blowing him out of the water" with their work. That was until Dean developed one special role of film. The instant that Dean saw his first light painting image he knew he had found what he was looking for. From that moment on Dean has only made light painting images. He may be the first person that actually called what he was doing "Light Painting".

Susan Hillbrand: Light Painting Photography, 1977

Susan Hillbrand began light painting in 1977. She was in a photo class at California State University, Northridge (where she graduated with a BFA in 2-D Art) when her instructor Jerry McMillian assigned the task of creating an unusual self portrait. Susan was throwing around some ideas when her husband suggested "you should try outlining your body with light" that statement sparked the idea of Susan's first "Penlight" and what would become a lifelong passion.

Jacques Pugin: Light Painting Photography, 1979

Landscape photographer Jacques Pugin was born in Bulle, Switzerland and moved to Zurich to become a photographer in 1972. In 1979 he began work on his light painting series "Graffiti greffés". Jacques continued working on his light paintings until 1982. "Graffiti greffés" was broadly exhibited and published on an international level. Pugin's light painting work was so well received he was awarded the Federal Grant of Applied Arts for three consecutive years.

Jozef Sedlák: Light Painting Photography, 1980

Photographer Jozef Sedlák was born in 1958 in Bratislava, Slovakia. Sedlák began his light painting work in 1980 with his series "Kurz sebapoznania". Kurz sebapoznania translated into english means "Rate-Self Knowledge". He is one of a group of artist working with staged photography who, in the 1980's, represented Slovakia on the international scene.

Vicki DaSilva: Light Painting Photography, 1980

Vicki DaSilva started creating her Light Painting Photographs in 1980 while she was attending college. Her work was heavily influenced by Joan Jonas and Richard Serra; artists that she worked with in her early years. Vicki has the honor of holding several light painting titles. She is the first female light painting artist and the first light painter to create "Text Light Graffiti". In 1986 Vicki was on a light painting trip to Paris where she met her husband Antonio DaSilva. Antonio was an electrician and she was searching for a way to use fluorescent bulbs in her work, they began light painting together in 1988. This was also the year (1988) when Vicki began attaching the fluorescent lights to a pulley track system. She is known for her light graffiti work as well as her elaborate installation based light paintings. Vicki also creates handheld traces and designs that she calls "Light Graffiti". Vicki lives in Pennsylvania and continues to create light painting photographs.

Mike Mandel: Light Painting Photography, 1980

Directly inspired by the Chronocyclegraphs of the Gilbreth's and molded by his fathers efforts to "Make Good Time" Mike Mandel set out on a 10 year journey starting in 1980 creating efficiency studies or everyday life. Mike's images "were made as a satire, examining daily life tasks that didn't need to be analyzed for efficiency's sake". Click here to read the LPP interview with Mike Mandel.

Kamil Varga: Light Painting Photography, 1983

Kamil Varga calls his light painting photography " Luminographie" and he describes it as "drawing with light on photosensitive material". He began light painting or "Luminographie" in 1983 when he created one of his first image "Paths of Light".

Kamil has created a large amount of work spanning several decades. His Light Painting images are focused on the human form. Kamil says this of his choice of mediums "Luminografie is great that you do not need a studio, you can practice quietly at home. Just a room where there is complete darkness."

John Hesketh: Light Painting Photography, 1985

In 1985 Artist John Hesketh took his camera into his back yard and began work on his first light painting series "Homelife". The subject matter of this series were objects in his everyday home life. John says this about the series " Before I was working with this work I was interested in how black and white records of red, green and blue made a full color image. While an image was separated I would draw paint scratch each black and white record before reassembling them on color film using the RGB filters. Making colors using a black crayon or paint was intense, educational, but very time consuming, 3 to 6 months an image. I also felt graphic instead of photographic. One night I took the camera and filters that I had been using to reassemble my drawings onto film, outside into my backyard and pointed it at this statue and cactus. The next day I saw this film and the road ahead." John uses color filters in his work where he will separate one color from entering into the camera while he is light painting. Hesketh lives in Anaheim California and continues to explore his light painting process with his latest light painting series "Los Angeles".

Tokihiro Sato: Light Painting Photography, 1988

Tokihiro Sato was born in 1957 in Sakata, Yamagata Japan. His Light Painting series Photo-Respiration is his most well known work. Photo-Respiration consists of two subsets, Breathing Light and Breathing Shadows. Sato shoots with an 8×10 camera and his exposures can last up to three hours. He was trained as a sculpture but found that photography better suited his desires. Tokihiro received his Masters degree from Tokyo National University. His light painting photographs are held throughout the world in public and private museums including the Guggenheim in New York and Museum of Modern Art in Saitama, Japan. He is currently a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts and continues to work on his light painting imagery.

This is an evolving timeline of the history of light painting photography. If you know of any other artist that should be included in this light painting timeline please contact us. For a list of the artist currently pushing the limits of light painting photography please review the featured artist section of the site here.

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Photography comes from the Greek words phos ("light"), and graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or graphí, together they mean "drawing with light". Light Painting Photography can be broken down into 3 general categories. The first is Light Drawing this is where the light source can be seen by the camera, during a long exposure the artist uses this light source to draw or create a design within the frame.

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By Michelle Park.

Pablo Picasso is most celebrated for his vibrant and timeless paintings that brought about a multitude of radical art movements during his time. However, Picasso was not merely a painter, but an artist of many trades. His genius hands are endowed with the power to turn any object within his grasp into a bewitching, artistic tool.

In this collaborative photo project with "lighting innovator" Gjon Mili, Picasso painted not only with paint, but also with a strobe light. It all started when Life Magazine sent Mili to visit Picasso in Southern France in 1949, to show the artist a series of photographs of skaters prancing about in the nighttime. It only took fifteen minutes for Picasso to get into his creative groove-within five poses, he "[projected] 30 drawings of centaurs, bulls, Greek profiles, and his signature."

These series of exquisite, linear photographs are known as "light drawings," as the photograph bluntly suggests. Using a set-up of two cameras (for side and frontal views), Mili played around with long exposure shots to enact Picasso's dramatic movements in space and time. Through photography, Mili captured these instantaneous drawings, which would have otherwise dissipated into the darkness within seconds, without any residual mark.

"Picasso draws centaur in the air" (above) may be the most popular and distributed image, readily available on the web for viewing. The remainder of these images is less familiar to us, because a lot of them were never published in the actual magazine. Take some sit-back time to appreciate the under-recognized gems of this phenomenal artist duo.

(@Daily Mail)

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Light Drawings By Pablo Picasso and Gjon Mili

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By Michelle Park. Pablo Picasso is most celebrated for his vibrant and timeless paintings that brought about a multitude of radical art movements during his time. However, Picasso was not merely a painter, but an artist of many trades. His genius hands are endowed with the power to turn any object within his grasp into a bewitching, artistic tool.

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It wasn't any one thing that brought the project back to life when I resumed the series in 2004. I had been planning to shoot more angels for several years, but then film and processing were becoming less and less available in the industry.

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Michael Bosanko. Photographer - Light Artist

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light graffiti, light painting, light drawing, michael bosanko, michaelbosanko, night photography, light painting, torch painting, photography, events, creative, wales, cardiff

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From light writing to extreme exposures, light graffiti, also known as light painting, takes what you think you know about graffiti and turns it on its head. This ephemeral approach to art and expression uses the movement of light to create incredible images and is created on the streets, in nature, and in studios by artists whose creative impulses transcend traditional media. Unlike projection bombing, light graffiti is sometimes produced as performance art, and sometimes just to capture it with photography and video, but either way it makes for some incredible viewing. These ten artists producing light graffiti and light painting represent some of the most amazing talent in a growing (and increasingly strange) field of art. See more in our collection of 100+ Works of Creative and Geeky Art and Graffiti.
Michael Bosanko
Michael Bosanko is a photographer who's taken on light painting in a series called "We Come in Peace", in which figures made of light seem to interact with their surroundings in a way that's comical, fun and highly engaging. The series features giant spiders crawling down a highway, "alien" rocks gathering around a central "spaceship", a light figure skateboarding on a ramp and another hitchhiking on the side of a road.
Patrick Rochon
Patrick Rochon creates stunning images by moving light through various media and capturing the movement with photography and video. Patrick's light painting is unique even among a field of very innovative artists, using lasers to illuminate his subjects in ways that create an eerie, otherwordly feel in the finished portraits. Patrick has also taken light painting to a whole new level by building costumes of lights and performing light painting on a giant screen to create a unique visual experience.
LICHTFAKTOR
The German group Lichtfaktor has produced some of the best-known light graffiti, transforming everyday objects like trash cans, phone booths and street signs into live creatures that wave their arms around and seem to spring forth from the street. Comprised of Marcel Panne, David L'pschen and Tim Fehske, Lichtfaktor combines talents like graphic design, video mixing and photography to craft series of images and videos for companies like Absolut Vodka, Audi, Sprint and Playstation.
Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke
German duo Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke create stark imagery that brings a ghostly quality to the beauty of nature, turning striking natural settings into backdrops for glowing organic forms made of moving light. Their subtle use of light painting in deserts, canyons, forests and snow-covered fjords makes the illuminated forms seem to blend in with their backgrounds in a way that brings to mind alien landscapes on some far away planet.
Eric Staller
Eric Staller 's light drawings, created between 1976 and 1980 in New York City, give the viewer a whole new look at the Big Apple. These examples of light graffiti were created using a long exposure with a variety of light sources, sometimes in the form of 3-dimensional lit installations. His photographs seem to give the light itself a life of its own, as it travels through the city creating whimsical shapes down its streets and walkways.
Ryan Warnberg and Michelle McSwain (MRI)
Queens, NY light painters Ryan Warnberg and Michelle McSwain are collectively known as MRI, a group that creates light paintings for hire. MRI's fun brand of light painting can be commissioned for parties, ad campaigns and special events, and they bring all of their own equipment. MRI creates "kaleidoscopic" images that invoke old portraits of religious figures, but with a decidedly modern twist.
Sola
Sola is a UK photographer whose experiments with the flow, form and movement of light are captured in two series, "Embro" and "Solid Trace". Embro, defined by the artist as "Echoes of the organic world translated into a synthetic language", seems to explore how light captured in a photograph can seem just as organic as anything else around us. "Solid Trace", which the artist calls "An exploration of movement and form in contrastingly stark environments" portrays vibrant swirls of colored light on urban backdrops.
Alan Jaras
Alan Jaras creates his stunning images by passing streams of light through molded and textured plastic, for a "refracted" effect that is unlike any other light painter's work. Colored dyes are added to the plastic shape, and the shape is placed in front of the camera in lieu of a lens to be directly captured on 35mm film for an incredibly unique and organic result.
Dean Chamberlain
Dean Chamberlain takes portraiture to new heights with his pioneering light painting technique, which he developed in 1977. Renowned for his " Psychedelic Pioneers " series among other work, Chamberlain creates these images using extremely long exposures in sessions that can last as long as five hours. He uses a flashlight and colored gels to illuminate each individual element in a composition.
Toby Keller
Toby Keller of Burn Blue Photography in Design has created a series of light painting images in which the free-flowing forms of light seem to have no rhyme or reason - and they don't have to. Keller takes what would already be beautiful nature photography and makes it seem to crackle with kinetic energy as ribbons of glowing light swirl around groups of rocks by the sea. For more great light art from skilled graffiti artists check out CultCase and DarkRoastedBlend

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Exposure: 10 Amazing Light Graffiti Artists & Photographers

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From light writing to extreme exposures, light graffiti, also known as light painting, takes what you think you know about graffiti and turns it on its head. This ephemeral approach to art and expression uses the movement of light to create incredible images and is created on the streets, in nature, and in studios by artists whose creative impulses transcend traditional media.

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Janne Parviainen - Light Art Photography and Painting

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Janne Parviainen - Light Art Photography and Painting

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Light art photographs and paintings of Finnish artist Janne Parviainen. Janne Parviainen is one of the most well known light painting artists.

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The work of the blind photographer, Sonia Soberats, is simply mind-blowing. The New York Times Lens blog did a recent profile of the 77-year-old in which she explains how she only began photography classes in 2001, a decade after she lost her sight.

She works in a pitch-black studio using a method known as 'light painting', feeling out the shape of her muses with her hands before asking her assistance to open the shutter. 'Using various light sources, including flashlights and Christmas lights, she darts about the frame like Tinkerbell, illuminating details within the image', NYT Lens writes. 'The shutter remains open anywhere from two minutes to an hour'.

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Photos by blind photographer Sonia Soberats

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The work of the blind photographer, Sonia Soberats, is simply mind-blowing. The New York Times Lens blog did a recent profile of the 77-year-old in which she explains how she only began photography classes in 2001, a decade after she lost her sight.