Painting With Light

[symphony-x]

have a project which I had an idea for of painting my friend to look like an angel with a torch, or light of some sort

which light sources would be best for such a project? I.e brightness of torches, style etc

[PhotosGuy]

Some people use hand held fluorescent work lights.
Light painting (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=469521)

[Anke]

Any torches will do, I just used a regular cheap one from a supermarket. Because you are pointing it straight at the camera even the dullest of torches will work.
Just set your shutter speed to 30 seconds and get experimenting. :)

Here's some (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ankehuber/sets/72157610891673985/detail/) where I painted around someone, is this what you mean?

[symphony-x]

Any torches will do, I just used a regular cheap one from a supermarket. Because you are pointing it straight at the camera even the dullest of torches will work.
Just set your shutter speed to 30 seconds and get experimenting. :)

Here's some (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ankehuber/sets/72157610891673985/detail/) where I painted around someone, is this what you mean?

yeah thats the 1, cheers mate :)

[chauncey]

Anke, don't consider picking up a pad and pencil to take up drawing as a career option. :lol:

[Gentleman Villain]

have a project which I had an idea for of painting my friend to look like an angel with a torch, or light of some sort

which light sources would be best for such a project? I.e brightness of torches, style etc

Mag-lites were really popular back when light painting was in style in the mid 90s

We would fold black cinefoil into snoots and put it on the ends of the flashlight to control the beam
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/44694-REG/Rosco_RS100112_Matte_Black_Cinefoil_.html

Forgive me if you're already familiar with his work...but I wanted to mention that Aaron Jones was probably the most famous light painter in the recent past
http://www.repertoireart.com/news_views/photo_legends/jones.htm

It was very popular to put diffision over the lens for different parts of the exposure. For example...imagine that a photographer was lighting painting a background. He might put a soft filter over the lens to light paint the background. This would make a really dreamy background. Then he might not use any diffusion for the lighting painting on the subject. So it was possible to paint both diffused and non-diffused light.

It was also popular to use about 2-3 levels of diffusion for light painting. For example...a heavy diffusion might be used to light paint the background and a light diffusion might be used to paint half of a subject...and maybe no diffusion would be used for painting the other half of the subject.

[breal101]

GV, Aaron was one of the photographers we recruited as a speaker in the early 90's, he's a really good guy and a very talented photographer. Brings back a lot of memories, I was so inspired I tore apart an RC boat to make a shutter similar to what he sold with the Hosemaster. It was a lot of fun and even used it on a few commercial shoots, it had a blackout card and a place for interchangeable diffusers, the neutral position was open shutter. I had three or four different flashlights including a couple of mag-lites modified just like you said, using cinefoil. All of it was done on film so I don't have examples. Do you think it would work on digital? Exposures took several minutes in those days, noise could be a problem. Now I want to dig my shutter out of storage and try it. BTW, hope you don't mind the GV, you can call me br if you want. :lol:

Ansel Adams has an excellent chapter on light painting in Artificial Light.

[Anke]

Anke, don't consider picking up a pad and pencil to take up drawing as a career option. :lol:

Ouch! :D :D

[symphony-x]

so i bought a mag torch

however, the beam spreads a bit wide, tips to focus in the beam more, or does it matter?

keeping in mind im talking about Light Graffiti

:)

[breal101]

so i bought a mag torch

however, the beam spreads a bit wide, tips to focus in the beam more, or does it matter?

keeping in mind im talking about Light Graffiti

:)

You could use the same trick we used with the other kind of light painting, cinefoil, tinfoil, cardboard tissue core, etc. to reduce the spread.

[symphony-x]

yeah was thinking of diying a toilet roll tube and some tape :P