Painting With Light March 15, 2010
Posted by Emily in : My Handsome Husband, Photography, School , trackbackI was asked to “paint a portrait with light.”
Huh?
That’s exactly what I thought!
I was told I could only use a flashlight, tripod, and my camera to “paint light” on a portrait.
OK. Are you throughly confused yet? Because I was for a few days. I mulled this over in my mind for days and the only thing I knew for sure was this: I had NO IDEA HOW TO DO IT, and I had no concept.
That is a double bummer if you know what I mean.
I consulted my BFF, Google, and came across this incredible video that walks you through step-by-step how to “paint with light.”
After I watched it I was all, “YEAH. (AHEM) RIGHT.” I will be the first to admit, this dude is pretty amazing and what he does is completely out of my skill level at this point.
Please watch this. You will be amazed. (This video will not work in Google Chrome, so use Internet Explorer or Firefox to watch this.)
Amazing, right?
So . . .
I was feeling pretty lame about my skills after watching this. I mean, SERIOUSLY? WHAT THE HECK WAS I GOING TO PHOTOGRAPH WITH A FLASHLIGHT?!
And just as an F.Y.I., photographing someone reading a book in the dark with a flashlight would not have cut it. But trust me, it crossed my mind several times . . .
For the record, I had no concept for this shot. I’m normal. I get creative blocks. Especially when I have a technical assignment that doesn’t make sense.
All I knew was this:
- The house had to be PITCH BLACK. (I shot this about 11:00 PM on Friday night)
- I needed my camera
- I needed my tripod
- I needed a flashlight
- I needed someone to photograph
There wasn’t a lot to this equation.
It just so happened that David was home (Yay! After FIVE LONG DAYS away every week, I get to see him on weekends!) but dog tired. So I was all, “Hey! Lucky you! You get to be the subject in my experimental photograph! You have such perks as my spouse! Go lie down on the couch, close your eyes, and I’ll take your picture!”
After many lame attempts at “painting him with light,” I randomly came up with this idea:
The word “LOVE” is written with the flashlight while outlining his profile.
To do this, I turned my shutter speed to BULB (which means the shutter will stay open as long as you want it to) and held the shutter release remote in my left hand while I wrote the letters in my other hand. I had my f-stop at f22 (so really small), my ISO at 200 (so there wouldn’t be any noise), and I took the flashlight and wrote each letter individually and turned off the flashlight between each letter. This made for a clean, crisp look between each letter. The shutter was open for 18 seconds.
David got into the fun, and took a turn photographing me! As you can see, he had fun making fast circles. :)
This is another shot of David, with only a flashlight used to illuminate parts of his face. The key to “painting with light,” is to constantly move your light source, have your model hold their breath (so avoid blur) and have the room pitch black.
I was surprised at how fun this was and I plan to do more. Maybe, I’ll try a complex shot like in the video above. :) OK, probably not, but you get the idea.
Try it! It’s fun!
Comments»
Totally impressed by your flashlight handwriting (mine would look like the circle even if I was trying to write love) and both you and David’s ability to lay so still for that long!
Great concept Em…it looks amazing!
This was the first assignment we did this semester, and we didn’t get to be this creative…you nailed it!
I LOVE it. I think it’s completely awesome.