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.
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.
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.
