How to paint with Lights

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Lena (PA, USA) asked : I am trying to do light painting but I don’t know how to do it exactly. I have seen others doing it. Can you please let me know what are the settings to be done on my camera for light painting?

I want to start with what is light painting for those who are wondering what does light painting means. Simply, light painting (also known as light drawing or light graffiti) is a photographic technique usually done in the dark place by moving a hand-held light source or by moving camera body with the long exposure settings. It is called light painting because you are actually paining over the solid surface or on the air using the hand-held light source. I have included one photograph to inspire you.

Before you start light painting, these things are recommended to have with you.

1. Tripod (to avoid camera shake).
2. Remote shutter release cable or wireless remote control for smooth operation.
3. Light source (usually a torch light).

Once you have all the setup, now you can adjust your camera settings for the shooting. Whenever you go out to shoot night photographs or fireworks, usually you need long exposure settings to get light effects. Light painting generally requires even more longer exposure (30sec to 60sec or more). You have to do lots of experiment before you get the best result. You could try using Shutter Priority Mode which allows the camera to set aperture required for proper exposure but most of the DSLRs support to have 30sec exposure in this mode. In this case if you need longer exposure, you will actually want to put the camera into Manual Mode by turning the mode dial to Manual (M) mode which allows you to set shutter speed to BULB mode so that you can set long exposure (until your camera runs out of battery). OK! now you get the idea. Now lets get straight to the camera settings step by step.

1. Set your camera mode into Manual Mode.
2. Set your shutter speed into 30 sec or BULB mode (if you feel like you need extra long exposure).
3. Adjust your aperture relative to shutter speed for proper exposure (This part is tricky to get it right. You have to keep experimenting different value until you get nice shot).
4. Keep your ISO low to support long exposure and reduce possible noise.

Now after everything is properly setup, mount your camera on the tripod and click the shutter release button. Once your shutter is open, you can start painting with light whatever you want to paint until the shutter is closed. But you have to be careful while moving lights. The place where you slow down light moving speed, you will get brighter effect but you don’t want to stop lights in the same position for a long time otherwise you will get overexposed image. And one more thing to remember; if you set shutter speed into BULB mode, you have to manually click shutter release button once again to close the shutter. Once you close the shutter, you will get the image that you painted using torch light or just say light source.

Image Credit : rafoto
Exposure : 70 sec    Aperture : f/2.8    Focal Length : 17mm    ISO : 200

Now once you get the idea, you can keep experimenting to get the best result.

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