Light painting a still life

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ebrown88
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p.1 #1 · Light painting a still life

Hi Everybody,

Below are some of my first attempts at light painting. If you're not familiar with the technique, here's the basic procedure:

1. Set up your scene and put your camera on a tripod
2. Use manual focus and manual exposure. Focus on the scene and set aperture to something in the f16 to f22 range. Shutter speed will be 15 or 30 seconds, typically. You need to experiment to get the correct exposure.
3. Turn off all the lights (you need a very dark room for this) and wave a small flashlight beam at the scene. Keep the light moving and point the light for longer times at the places you want to emphasize.

You might want to put a snoot on your flashlight too. I just made a cardboard tube and taped it around the front of the flashlight.

In the first image below, the smoke-like stuff behind the pear was actually a mistake. Some of the light leaked from the flashlight as I was trying to illuminate the rear part of the bowl. I thought the effect was kind of cool though.

C & C's welcomed!

Dennis B.


	© Dennis Brown 2013

1. Pears in blue bowl
Canon EOS 7D 59 mm f/22.0 15 sec 320 ISO 0.0 EV


	© Dennis Brown 2013

2. Apples and vase
Canon EOS 7D 55 mm f/22.0 15 sec 320 ISO 0.0 EV


	© Dennis Brown 2013

3. Fruit, bust, and vase
Canon EOS 7D 55 mm f/22.0 15 sec 320 ISO 0.0 EV

Jan 15, 2013 at 06:29 PM

Bert DeMars
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p.1 #2 · Light painting a still life

Dennis,

Outstanding work. I've wanted to try some still life, but couldn't figure a way to get the kind of lighting you've produced. Thanks for the instructions. May I ask what kind of flashlight you used, or did you do color correction in post. They look like something right out of Rembrandt's studio.

Bert

Jan 15, 2013 at 11:53 PM

ebrown88
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p.1 #3 · Light painting a still life

Hi Bert,

I have a small LED flashlight that's fairly bright, and it produces a somewhat cool light. So, yes, I warmed the colors considerably in PP. You'll also get a fair amount of noise, which you'll have to deal with.

The biggest challenge for me was selecting props and arranging them. I also bought some gold colored fabric to place under and behind the scene. The black background area is black velvet.

So, expect to do a lot of trial and error. But it is fun. Good luck, and please post some of your results for us.

Dennis B.

Jan 16, 2013 at 02:47 AM

Jason Lang
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p.1 #4 · Light painting a still life

Thanks for the intro to this -- on rainy days in the dead of winter, it's nice to have an indoor project.

J

Jan 16, 2013 at 03:42 AM

RKnecht
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p.1 #5 · Light painting a still life

Fantastic set. For me, #2 is my pick. Just love this.

Jan 17, 2013 at 09:02 PM

buggz2k
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p.1 #6 · Light painting a still life

These look great.

Jan 17, 2013 at 09:22 PM

StormShooter
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p.1 #7 · Light painting a still life

WOW!! These are awesome Dennis!! I'm gonna have to give this a try sometime!

Thanks for sharing!
Dave

Jan 18, 2013 at 05:12 AM

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