Playing Cards & Light Graffiti

[silentdark1979]

Had a go at this following a read of an article in Digital Photo magazine.
Im rather pleased with it -

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2737915555_5c5fae056a_b.jpg

[zacker]

cool... good job!

[Vetteography]

How did you get the cards to stand up? Fantastic effect, BTW.

[silentdark1979]

The cards were held in place by Blu-Tac, which I later cloned out.
Still learning all the photoshop skills, so pleased I did a good enough job to remove any traces :-)

[DavidSR]

What did you use for your light source? I'm planning on trying this later today when I get home :).

[silentdark1979]

Lights source is simply a maglight torch with the hood removed, so that the bulb is fully exposed.

Have a go - I had great fun, but deleted so many pics as I wasnt happy with the curves!

[henry_b]

nice work! looks gr8!

[andrepaul]

Very cool idea and good execution. Love it.

[DavidSR]

Lights source is simply a maglight torch with the hood removed, so that the bulb is fully exposed.


Easy enough! Thanks and great pic.!

[ggt1_02]

Wow... Very nice!

[speedracersong]

wow great shot

[BermyFunk]

gotta try this

[aduda]

I like it. Really cool. So, do you just swing the flashlight around in there with your hand?

[silentdark1979]

You got it - took a fair few attempts to get the smooth flowing lines, but got there in the end.

Glad everyone likes it.

[jsvphoto]

That looks very nice!

I messed around with a couple flashlights in my basement last weekend with my 5-year-old son. The photos are nothing to write home about from a composition standpoint, but he had great fun, and it gave me some fun ideas.

Your photo here is very nicely done. Did you use any other light sources on the cards? Or just the flashlight?

[silentdark1979]

jsvphoto

The only light source in the pic is the torch itself. You will notice that each card has at least two swirls round it - that is so I could get most of the card lit up.

Heres another using two torches (strapped together)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3046/2738757470_311082ee08_b.jpg

[DavidSR]

Another cool shot! I found an L.E.D. around my house and had some fun with it. One more question..what shutter speed did you use? I just set it on bulb mode and used my remote shutter. I don't have any type of exif viewer right now so I can't even see if your exif is intact.

Thanks!

[silentdark1979]

Both these shots were done using a 10 second exposure, set off using a remote - ISO was 100.

[DavidSR]

Thanks!

[amonline]

This is the best experimental I've seen in a long time. Very nice!

[Quarantine]

very well done. i really like it

[GregSteer]

Fantastic idea and execution - could do with a bit more light on the top of the 10 / Ace but hell - nice acheivement as it is!

[ictionalfuture]

how strange im sat reading this post with the magazine in front of me with that page open !! WIERD !!!

Well done looks almost the same as the one in the magazine ha ha !!

[DDCSD]

That is outstanding!

My only nitpick is that it would look better on a card table, or a billiards table. Some kind of a felt surface.

[Maxxum5]

Very cool! One of the most interesting images I seen so far....Nice lighting....

[silentdark1979]

Ictionalfuture - Great magazine this month. I saw the pic and as im a fan of light graffiti thought I had best give it a go.

[hsellersb]

can you share the magazine name so we could possibly look for this?
This is outstanding!

[The Fox]

Amazing.
Nick

[Lonnie]

can you share the magazine name so we could possibly look for this?
This is outstanding!

He said it was Digital Photo, which I have never heard of. I really would like to get a couple of subscriptions to some good photog mags.

Very nice work here. Everytime I see one of these kinds of shots, I remind myself that I need to spend some time playing with light and long exposures.

[rrdjserv@earthlink.net]

Very impressive!!

[jdizzle]

Nicely done with both photos. I would just crop out the rear of the photo since there is nothing to look at back there. I can't even tell you cloned out the blue tac as well. =)

[jbrown7815]

Wow this is awesome. You have skill my friend.

[iN5P1R3]

Very cool shot. It reminds me of magic...the way the cards are standing up with light swirling around them.

[EvanRocksTheCanon]

solid work love the effect

[LL01773]

As soon as I saw the title of this thread I knew exactly what to expect as I have a subscription to Digital Photo.
I was intending to give this a go myself.
I think you did a great job.


He said it was Digital Photo, which I have never heard of. I really would like to get a couple of subscriptions to some good photog mags.

Very nice work here. Everytime I see one of these kinds of shots, I remind myself that I need to spend some time playing with light and long exposures.

Digital Photo is a UK magazine, but they offer overseas subscriptions too. It's definitely worth buying. I've just renewed my subscription for another year.

Check out this link for overseas subscription details.

http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/store/displayitem.asp?sid=3257&custid=24@08@200834851@921443292&id=24502&os=Y

[Lonnie]

Digital Photo is a UK magazine, but they offer overseas subscriptions too. It's definitely worth buying. I've just renewed my subscription for another year.

Check out this link for overseas subscription details.

http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/stor...&id=24502&os=Y

Thanks for the link, but that is $131.00 USD for a yearlong subscription (13 issues). I'm not ready to spend $10 USD/issue on a magazine.

[jbrown7815]

I would like a full size for a background 1680x1050


PM me if you can do it :)

[jsvphoto]

Your thread inspired me to do a little shoot in my basement a couple weeks ago. Here's my favorite from that evening.

[silentdark1979]

Nice work JSV -
I love the fact the halo has also been caught in the glasses themselves.

I have no doubts you took a shed load of photos just to get one you like. I am still trying to work out my next project....watch this space.

[silentdark1979]

jbrown7815

Your more than welcome to have one of the pics for a background.
Both of them are larger than you require but im sure you can trim them down.

[jsvphoto]

Thanks. Actually, I only took about 60 shots total, which included several other subjects. I think there were around 20 or 25 of the glasses, trying different light sources and angles. Sometimes it comes together, sometimes it doesn't...

Looking forward to more of these types of shots :)

[Hazey]

silentdark1979.
Was that in the Feb '08 issue?
I tried it last night...with the cards just for experiments sake. I flunked.
All I got was blackness with diffused light everywhere. Not a single crisp light trail anywhere to be seen.
Had the settings on ISO100 f/8 and 8 secs in Manual.as suggested in the magazine and you said you did 10 seconds but don't see that two seconds would have changed anything for me.
Any suggestions as to what we did wrong? Certainly not as easy as I thought it looked!
What angle do need you have the torch on? Do you hold it above the subjects and swirl the light around or have the light from behind the cards into the camera or what? I would love to master this.
The one above with the sunnies is great too...very imaginative.:)

[p-photography]

Great idea!! Well done :)

[Dami]

I gave this a try the other night, too. Getting those ultra-smooth light streaks is an art in itself! Mine were all jagged and all over the place. Any hints on getting something smoother, besides a steady hand? I need to remember to take my watch off, too.

[silentdark1979]

Hazey -
I have just checked my settings from my images and these are the key stats - 10 second exposure, 100 ISO, F6.3.

As for the angle of the torch, it was simply pointing straight down towards the table. The reason the light still shows as bright as it does, is because I removed the head of the torch, so that the small bulb was fully exposed. That way I didnt have to worry about changing the angle of the torch in relation to my camera, which enabled me to get a consistent line.

Dami -
I deleted a whole host of images where I wasnt happy with the smooth lines - They key to me getting smooth lines was simply being slow with my movements. Initially I had a quicker exposure and as a result I was moving so quickly to ensure that I got all the cards lit up that lines appeared jagged as I crossed between cards. Slow your speed and all will be revealed.

Im hoping to do another in the coming weeks with more cards in some form of arc, but I really need to stop playing and start practising my landscapes for when I head to New Zealand for a few weeks in November. :-)

[elysium]

Nice work there buddy. Light painting is always fun.

[Charles Richards]

this is awesome :D

[Randy1213]

Love the pic! I read the same article while on a plane then got home that night and asked my wife to grab a flashlight and run around a tree I wanted to shoot, but she refused. Something about me "having gone nuts."

[Hazey]

Thanks very much Silentdark...will try again tonight! Appreciated.:cool:

[radak99]

Hello, I am new here and new to photography. When I seen this thread I had had to try it. This was my first go at anything like this. I used my Rebel XT and Sigma 24-60 @ 35mm f/2.8 for 20 seconds.

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll307/radak99/IMG_4652-4.jpg

[jsvphoto]

Looks like it worked out okay for you. What's the significance of the two aces and the eight? Anything?

[radak99]

I was going to use Aces over Eights (deadman's hand) but 5 cards was too much clutter, so I cut it down to 3 cards.

[acchildress]

Nice idea and nicely played.

[brg513]

After reading and seeing all the cool stuff being done, I decided to give it a try... this stuff is pretty fun. :)

[gorgon2k]

not to bring up an old thread, but i'd love to try this out... a couple questions, I see alot of the light streaks infront of the the object, why isn't it picking up the arm movents etc? also in images like this:
http://www.funonthenet.in/images/stories/forwards/light%20graffiti/lightgraffitiart29.jpg

I'm assuming they use two different pictures then merge them? any help?