Painting with Light

I mean, 20 seconds is a long time to stay perfectly still, in the dark, while people wave funny light sources around you.

Last Friday, I attended a light-painting workshop with my Ottawa Photography Model Meetup group, at the Merivale Photographic Studio. I've played with light in the past, photographing light trails of moving cars, and I've drawn patterns with a light source—my phone—on a long exposure. I've even shone a flashlight on inanimate objects in the dark.

But I've never done something as complex as what five photographers, a model, an instructor (Evan), and various lighting props could accomplish in a studio.

The actual photography component was the simplest part of the shoot. We all set our cameras on tripods. We put our cameras in Manual mode: a 20-second exposure speed with an aperture setting between f/8 and f/11, at 200 ISO.

Tat, on her mark.

Our model, Tat, did most of the work. With the lights on, we had her stand on a taped mark on the floor. She could move to either side of the tape but could not move back, toward the black backdrop, or forward, toward the cameras. Each photographer focused on Tat, as she stood on her mark, and once we had her locked in, we switched the auto-focus switch off. If there was an auto-stabilization setting, we had to switch that off, too.

Depending on the light source for a particular photo, only our f-stop would change.

Cameras were also connected to a remote shutter release. Most of us stood back from our cameras: they were placed so closely to one another that we didn't want to accidentally knock a tripod leg with our feet.

Once we decided what kind of light source we wanted to use, we were ready to take the shot. We had a long wand, like a lightsaber; we had long lengths of optical fiber, almost like a whip; we had a crushed plastic water bottle with a small flashlight inserted in the neck; we had a flat piece of Plexiglas, shaped like a wide dagger, attached to a light source, which produced streaks of light.

We even just used a single, small flashlight to shine around Tat as she sat in a chair.

When we were all ready to go, Tat would strike a pose that she could hold for the 20 seconds that our shutters would be open. As soon as she was ready, we turned out all lights in the studio.

Evan would count down: "Three... two... one... shutters open."

We pressed our shutter releases.

Two flashes with strip soft boxes, positioned vertically, set to 1/4 power, and each aimed at either side of Tat, fired within seconds of our shutters opening. And then Evan would walk onto the set with the light source and move it in patterns or swing it around Tat.

Sometimes, Tat would be handed the light source and she would move it around herself. Other times, the photographers would take their turns trying to move the light.

When we heard our shutters close, someone would turn the overhead lights back on and we'd try something new. Tat, who brought various outfits to wear, would pop off for a quick change.

I've been sharing the results, this week, on my Instagram account but thought I'd share some here.

Here's a RAW, untouched image, which shows one of our photographers to the left side of the frame. She's holding the "lightsaber" and has decided to use various colours. The photo shows all the motions, from the pose, the flashes firing, and the light source moving around. You can also see more of the studio space in which we were working.

In post production, I cropped out parts of the studio that I didn't want appearing. I brought up the blacks in the image and raised the saturation. I added fill lighting. I digitally removed reflections that were ever-so faint but were noticeable. I made sure the tape on the floor was hidden and if it wasn't, I brushed it out.

Here's the final result with a couple other lighting effects.

What do you think?

Happy Friday!