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Light Painting with the Twins 11-11-07 - Off Road Race 11-03-07 - Bryce Canyon 10-12-07 |
Light painting is a fun way to make interesting images with an artistic flair. Basically you leave the flash at home and use flash lights to light up your subject. Light painting can only be done at night. Your subject must remain absolutely still for 10 to 30 seconds. Any movement at all on your subjects part will result in blurred images.Your camera must be mounted to a sturdy tripod. It's a real challenge to get good images, which makes it all the more rewarding when you do. I first tried light painting in 2004 with my girlfriend at the time. The next time I tried light painting was during this shoot, November 11th 2007. I brought up the idea to two of my favorite Guinea pigs. These gorgeous twin sisters are up for just about anything I can think of. Although these images have a warm summer feel to them, the girls were freezing cold. |
  
The plan was to start shortly before sunset. We didn't arrive on location until long after the sun had dipped below the horizon. We drove into the desert, between Las Vegas and Laughlin. The models were already wearing matching black dresses which would have stood out nicely against the colorful sunset. We immediately started shooting before the remaining color fizzled out of the sky. I used an off camera light, positioned about 45 degrees to the models left. An on camera SB800 was used as a fill light. It was set to -2 1/3. The bright yellow portion of the sky is clear while the darker area above is thick cloud cover.
All images:
Nikon D2X - Nikon 70-200F2.8 - ISO 250 - Shutter 40th sec.
SB800 on camera - Photogenic Studiomax 3 off camera
Pocket Wizard wireless. |
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Nikon D2X, Nikon 17-55F2.8@ 4.5
ISO 100 |
It took a few tries to determine how long the flashlight should remain on the subject. After some trial and error I discovered that the best thing to do is use a powerful 1million candle power light to quickly light the model. Then I would use a weaker light to light the truck. We started with a 30 second exposure but eventually cut it back to 10-13 seconds. The first few shots brought out the remaining color in the sky. Since we were stuck with a sliver of a moon, hiding behind thick cloud cover, it was black as the background of this web page out there.
If you live in Las Vegas, you may recognize this twin. She is the main spokes model for a large car dealership. She stars in television commercials which air all day every day.
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While one of the twins posed in front of the camera, the other tried to warm up with a jacket while helping me light the scene with a second flashlight.
The location for this shoot is basically a garbage dump in the desert. Old dilapidated trailer homes could be seen in the distance. The girls were a little skittish whenever they heard a noise on this still night. I decided not to mention the abandoned well a few feet away that is full of animal carcasses.
A third flashlight was placed on the seat of this old tow truck. I taped a blue gel over the flashlight. |
Nikon D2X, Nikon 17-55F2.8@ 4.5
ISO 100
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A few feet away from the tow truck we found our next location. I was limited in my angle of view because the car was unmovable and the building was short. I wouldn't usually frame the model this close to the center but there was no choice. I used a bare flashlight to light the model and car. The twins took turns lighting the building with various colored gels.
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If this is the first time you've seen light painting I hope I encouraged you to give it a try yourself. I will most certainly continue my adventures in light painting. Don't limit yourself to light painting people. With strong enough lights you could shoot landscapes or architecture. I suggest you use a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release or set your cameras timer to a delay of 5 seconds or more. I bought two powerful, rechargeable lights for this shoot and brought a third smaller light. The box said these lights are supposed to last 5 hours. Not even close. This shoot took approximately 2 hours and the lights were losing serious power for the last 40 minutes. Next time I will bring at least 4 of these lights. |
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