Light painting questions...

Yes I'm a newbie so bear with me here (aka be nice lol I did search and didn't find anything definitive with worklight painting)

I've been looking around and have seen a few lighting techniques. I just don't have the cash right now for good strobes (student woes), but I know Tanglca (sp?) light painted with an LED shop lamp.

What are the benefits of either method?

And any tips on light painting a black truck at night?

I'm already in love with late and early light (Thanks Frank) but I want to keep options open, the last time I was out shooting a friends car it turned disasterous because we ran out of light and all I could do was run around and pop the test light on my 430 EX. outrageous hotspots insued, as well as a total loss of body lines. (I'm not even going to link to it...)

The good thing with an LED worklamp is if I have a "power pack" the LED's shouldn't draw all my juice in 5 minutes.

Thanks for any input, I guess this can turn into a discussion thread if need be lol.

Hey mate, why would you need a powerpack to work with LEDs? Any light painting that I do (which I must admit is minimal) I use a straight-up LED torch from a Servo. They only cost 10AUD and do the job fine - I lit this one using a torch like that - Reflect.
While i'm not so keen on it as a shot, you can see that the lighting turned out ok. Like I said though, i'm not really one for light painting so anything that I can produce with these little LED's i'm sure others could do a lot better .

Cool... Thanks

I was thinking something more along the lines of this with a soft box for lighting (still reading up on some searches as we speak)

I bought one of these off ebay Australia. I just typed in rechargeable work light.
160 LEDS, rechargeable via power or cigarette lighter. It has a on/off switch. Comes with magnets so you can actually use it as a worklight.

I put this inside a 47" Octabox and it works beautifully. Cost me $80 shipped to my door. Bit expensive but its EXTREMELY bright and i use it for more than just Light painting

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If you can see the truck, then there's light there, so use as much of that as you can & just paint as little as you need with the light. Then blend the shots together.
Malibu in the snow. See post #13 for some ideas to play with.

And post #18 here: https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=762434

Don't try to do it all in one shot. Take several of different parts & put them together in PS.
And if you think you've got problems now, just wait until you try that on your black, non-metallic body!

As usual, the threads you pour your time into are ever so helpful. Thanks.

I was trying to do "as little PP as possible", but I guess when you're working with almost nothing there's alot of PP necessary...

I can usually find some little thing in every shot that could use some tweaking. I use this a lot: Adjustment Layers in Post #9:
Airport runway shoot

Theo has posted the various shots he took for this thread 2002 RSX: Downtown Houston in post #78 here.
Automotive Image Editing/Post-Processing: Before and After

More links: Light painting

I think I'll start shooting my "serious" stuff in RAW...

Good idea for a thread, there really isn't alot of light painting info in just one place.

My light painting shots are using a custom built LED setup that is designed in the shape of a handle and has a fitting to slot straight into my 24" softbox. It uses a couple of 36LED 12v auto globes and runs off a Li-ion 12v 1800mah rechargable battery that runs for about 5-6hrs. There is a slot in the handle for my Phottix plato remote for triggering the shutter so its all in one piece. It has a momentary on/off trigger switch on the handle and also a switch to switch from 1 to 2 globes. Its all very light (about 500g) and is very convenient. Its also bright enough to use both diffusers so its a nice soft light.

This is the result I am getting

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/30871201@N05/5​024605510/

03canadian_f5 wrote in post #11124790
As usual, the threads you pour your time into are ever so helpful. Thanks.

I was trying to do "as little PP as possible", but I guess when you're working with almost nothing there's alot of PP necessary...

While doing automotive rig photography and automotive lighting, I learned more about PhotoShop in two weeks than I had previously learned since shooting the past 6 years.

Supra_t wrote in post #11139310
Good idea for a thread, there really isn't alot of light painting info in just one place.

My light painting shots are using a custom built LED setup that is designed in the shape of a handle and has a fitting to slot straight into my 24" softbox. It uses a couple of 36LED 12v auto globes and runs off a Li-ion 12v 1800mah rechargable battery that runs for about 5-6hrs. There is a slot in the handle for my Phottix plato remote for triggering the shutter so its all in one piece. It has a momentary on/off trigger switch on the handle and also a switch to switch from 1 to 2 globes. Its all very light (about 500g) and is very convenient. Its also bright enough to use both diffusers so its a nice soft light.

This is the result I am getting
[...]
Untitled by OnSet Images, on Flickr

Most of my shots range between 30 secs - 1 min, usually at around f7.1 @ISO 100. Definately shoot in RAW and set your WB to match YOUR LIGHT, some LED lights will be very cool (like 7000-8000k). A decent tripod is important for long exposures if you want nice sharp shots also.

Very nice, is this a "secret setup" or can we see pics? Are you doing all of this in a single exposure?

03canadian_f5 wrote in post #11123204
Cool... Thanks

I was thinking something more along the lines of this with a soft box for lighting (still reading up on some searches as we speak)

or

These will more than likely be way too hot for use in a softbox.

I'm using a 2 fluro tubes. Most of my exposures are 10sec f14 iso200

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^^ Very impressive, those are the results I'm striving for at some point in my future... how near it is depends on how much time I have to practice lol

Could this be considered "sufficient"?

http://cgi.ebay.ca …ights&hash=item​5195ca608c

03canadian_f5 wrote in post #11144194
^^ Very impressive, those are the results I'm striving for at some point in my future... how near it is depends on how much time I have to practice lol

Could this be considered "sufficient"?

http://cgi.ebay.ca …ights&hash=item​5195ca608c

The problem I see with that is that you may catch the individual LEDs in the paint and you'd have all those little streaks.

I'd probably make a "sock" for it just to diffuse the light a bit, nothing too thick though I don't want to reduce output too severely.