Light Painting Photography

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Light Painting Break Down: Mart Barras

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From time to time we come across a light painting and just stare it wondering how the F@#! did they do that?!?! For my own sanity and to hopefully enlighten some of rest of the light painting community I am starting a new series on the LPP website called Break Down. Basically if you put out some crazy, confusing, mind boggling, or just plain different work that the rest of us can’t figure out I am going to harass you to share some of your secrets. Now relax, I am not going to ask for a step by step so we can all rip you off. I am asking for just a piece of inside knowledge maybe a little hint as to how you’re creating your compelling work! I will only ask the artist one question “How the F@#! did you make this” its up to the artist to tell as little or as much as they want.

For the first one in the Break Down series we are prying open the mind of Light Painting Photographer Mart Barras for this WTF image:
Light-Painting-Mart-Barras

Mart how the F@#! did you make this?

Here is the Break Down:
GEAR USED
Camera: Nikon D7100
Lens: 18-35mm
iPad with Stand
Custom Camera Rotation Tool
Magic

Settings:
F-Stop: F16
ISO: 100
Exposure Time: 93 seconds

IPAD as the Light Source.
Basically it like using stencils but doing it from an iPad.

Capping The Lens
You expose one at a time, each image to the lens (capping the lens between images).

Masking and Camera Rotation
It does require some masking, and a lot of lining up to get parts of the image to sit right or even behind what you want in front so I used a mask cut out using black tape roughly the same size as the fire atom at the front and placed it over the image of a few laser beams and rotated the shot twice (180 degrees).

Finally a Zoom Pull
I then exposured a shot of a PCB and and a star field that I zoomed pulled, then an image of some smoke then finally exposed the image of the fire atom and done, though it did take lots of goes to get the alignment right and the exposure too.

Check out a few of the set up shots Mart shared of a recent shoot he did using similar techniques to create another WOW image seen below and for even more beautiful masterpieces check out Marts Flick Profile HERE:


Light Painting Mart Barras 2

“I Light You” by KechLight

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Light Painting Kechlight Follow The Light

“I Light You” is a beautiful time-lapse video showing the creation process of the magnificent light painting work of “KechLight” a collaboration between light painting artist Zakaria Kacha, Cisco Light Painting, and Will Light. “I Light This” is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the incredible light painting work KechLight is producing. It is obvious that that these two together are genius, they are really pushing some boundaries not only with this work but also with LIVE light painting performance! Check out the video below, but for even more inspiration you should really check out their website http://studio-lightpainting.com

Nike MAGs and Light Painting

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Nike-Mags-Light-Painting-Photography-1

Nike-Mags-Light-Painting-Photography-2

What better way to announce the launch of Back to the Future Nike Air MAGs than with a little light painting. I have no idea who shot these images or if they are even real light paintings (could be some computer trickery) but they are made to look like light painting. I think its pretty cool seeing more and more big corporate names discover the magic light painting can bring to a advertising campaign! If anybody knows who created these images please feel free to share in the comments. Thanks.

Light Painting Contest Winner, Dec 2014

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December 2014 Light Painting Contest 14

And the winner is… Jordan Kjome for this fiery masterpiece titled “Forging the Stars”. This image was one hell of a long exposure at a whopping 1,836 seconds!

Thank you to this months judge’s Denis Smith and Jelle Schuurman.
Denis said “There were some stunning light painting images entered into the Orb competition this month. Light painting has progressed so far since I first Created the Ball of Light. It fills me with joy. The three finalists were beautiful. To me a great photograph is one that creates an emotional reaction inside me. Striving for technical perfection is secondary. Focusing on the art, rather than the pixels, allows us to become free to go hard and create magic. And in all of the images entered I see that, and feel it.

In the three final images we have three very different styles of image. All are beautiful but for me number 14 stands out. I keep going back to have another look. Firstly because it fills me with a feeling of wonder and awe, then I need to figure out how? Congratulations, this is a truly stunning light painting image!”

Here is some more about the image from Jordan:
“Forging the Stars” is one of my favorite light paintings, and certainly one of my most exhausting and longest exposed photographs. It is a 1,836 second (over 30 minutes), single exposure photograph with no post processing. The structure is a brick kiln in Decorah, Iowa called “Schulze Brick Kiln”. There were unique challenges to this shot that required some problem solving before I could begin light painting. About fifty feet to the rear right of the shot is a tungsten street light mounted to a building. This meant that I could only do very short exposures before the photograph would over expose. I did not have access to turning this light off, so my only option was to eclipse the light. I used a thirty foot long, extendable fiberglass pole with a plastic trashcan lid taped to the end to eclipse the light. Three heavy weights, along with steel cables, allowed me to triangulate the pole so that it would not sway in the wind and come into contact with the power lines. Needless to say it worked, but I won’t risk the dangers again next time.

The faux fire effect was light painted using a single LED and red translucent plastic. The “star” at the center of the photograph was light painted with my tool tied to a string, and that string was tied to the top of a homemade stand, similar to a microphone stand. The string enabled me to create a perfect sphere, and about twenty minutes of the exposure was spent filling in the sphere with light. The trick for a realistic fire effect lies in the wrist. Be as random in movement as possible, and move at an absolute snail’s pace. This is where your spatial memory comes into play. It is very easy to miss a spot when you are filling in a sphere that has twenty square feet of surface area, and you are moving one millimeter at a time for twenty minutes. Fortunately, the spots that I missed worked to my advantage as sunspots.

The four portal doors were light painted using the same light tool, only disconnected from the string and stand. Again, I moved at a snail’s pace while I covered every millimeter of the face of the doors, and then I added quick wisps of light to make it appear as though the fire is blowing out those doors.

Thirty minutes of moving your arm/wrist as quick and random as you possibly can will result in muscle fatigue- especially when you do take, after take, after take. Physically turning the car’s ignition key to head home was a funny challenge in itself.”

We are glad Jordan didn’t cause any blackouts and was able to get home safe and sound to upload
his winning image! To see more from Mr. Kjome check out his website www.NocturnalDesignArt.com and his Facebook page Nocturnal Designs!

For the winning image Jordan will receive a LPP prize pack filled with treasures from our sponsors below. 

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Click here to see the current contest theme and find out how to enter to win your LPP prize pack!

LPWA Video Report from Oviedo 2014 Light Art Congress and Exhibition

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LPWA-Closing-Report
Here is the official LPWA Video Report from Oviedo 2014 Light Art Congress and Exhibition. As you will see from the video it was an incredible event with light painters from around the world, light painting exhibitions, workshops, and many talented speakers! Light Line Master Darren Pearson may have said it best “This is the greatest meet up of light painters in my entire life.” Check out the video below and for even more info click the link for the LPWA closing report.

LPWA Exhibition in Paris

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LPWA-Paris-2015

The Light Painting World Alliance is presenting another excellent opportunity for light painting artist to exhibit your work in Paris! The exhibition will be held January 19-20th 2015 in conjunction with UNESCO’s Opening Ceremony for the International Year of Light!

To find out more about submitting your images head over to the LPWA website HERE!

December 2014 Light Painting Contest Entries

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ORBS ARE PROGRESSING! Here are the entries for the December 2014 light painting photography contest. Everyone PLEASE VOTE in the comments section of this page to pick your top 3 images, the images all have a number in the title (EXAMPLE… IF ONE OF YOUR FAVORITES IS THE IMAGE TITLED “December 2014 Light Painting Contest 02″ THEN YOU SHOULD PUT THE NUMBER 2 AS ONE OF YOUR CHOICES). Please remember that the theme of this contest was to create a light painting using some sort of ORB as you can see there are many different creative and innovative interpretations of an “ORB”. Voters that do not include 3 unique choices in their post will not be counted. In other words no 1,1,1, or 5,5,5, or 7,7,7,…..Please pick your three favorite IMAGES based on the image alone.

The light painting photography contest series is sponsored by the best damn companies on earth COAST Flashlights, Neon Flexible, LED Flexible,and Light Painting Brushes ! Please support these awesome companies that support our light painting art from, without them this contest series would not be possible!
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December-Light-Painting-Contest

Patrick Rochon “Inspired Light”

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Inspired-Light-By-Infinity
Prepare to have your mind blown out of your head.

You may have seen recently Light Painting Photographer Patrick Rochon teamed up with the creative design team at Infinity to create the most beautiful automotive advertising campaign ever. I know I am a little bias but oh my goodness this is some stunning work! Now that things have settled down a bit for this inspiring light painter, Patrick finally had a few minutes to answer some questions about the project. Check out these images, the BTS video and the short interview with Mr. Rochon below!

LPP ∇ Holy cow Patrick this is just great, how did this project come about?
PR ∇ It came through email from TBWA. The Infiniti client was looking for something fun, new and creative to do. TBWA saw the Red Bull wakeboard video and asked me if I could do something with cars.

LPP ∇ Who else was involved? Did you work with any other light painters on this project?
PR ∇ Evan Jones is my partner on this, he’s the mind behind the Red Bull project we did last year. As soon as I got this offer I got him on board. It’s amazing to me that he invested two months on this going at it non stop never knowing if this was going to work. This was a big risk for him but he sticked in all the way until we got a green light. We did a photo shoot and the making of video as a first part and we also created a live show similar to the shoot in front of a crowd at the Dubai Motor festival.
For the live part I reached out to Cisco and his partner William. First to get the live light trail on the video screen and second for Cisco to do portraits with participant, he’s a specialist at this. So we ended up with a team from Orlando, Los Angeles, Montreal, Paris, Morocco. Plus in Dubai the local team was composed of “we are the world” with so many nations working together, it was great!

LPP ∇ This must have taken some time to bring this vision to life, can you tell me a little more about the process what was involved?
PR ∇ Like I said before, enormous time of preparation, thinking, designing, bouncing ideas and negotiating with the client. I was spending hours every day and sometimes full days with Evan on Skype. The project started six months prior but it took a good four months of work.

LPP ∇ How many lights were on those cars?
PR ∇ Each vehicle has a total of 2,520 LEDs with output exceeding 30,000 lumens. Designing and assembling the Light Rigs took a team of six specialists several weeks. The specially-made LED strip lighting is a proprietary product manufactured in China under U.S. specification.

LPP ∇ Where were the final images created?
PR ∇ In Dubai

LPP ∇ Thats a pretty awesome place! How many trips did you get to make there?
PR ∇ Just one, I worked from Montreal the whole time by Skype. The computer is now such a resource, a real powerhouse. Then I went one week in Orlando to meet with Evan and work on the final preps tests and tweaking of the lighting on the cars. From there, we went to Dubai for three weeks. First one for the shoot, the second for the edit and the third for the live show.

LPP ∇ What were some of the technical challenges of a project of this magnitude?
PR ∇ The technical challenges!??!! That’s basically what we did all day every day. Solve problems. It is impossible to list the amount of difficulties we had, it was like a non stop fight uphill. That is why I chose my team wisely and this became one of the main keys to this successful accomplishment. To name one, time was one of the biggest challenges, we needed more time to do this. We were constantly working in emergency mode. We had to change the design of the rig on the car three times because of the lack of time we had once the first deposit was given.

LPP ∇ You also did a live performance for the launch?
PR ∇ The live was amazing because of the direct response and contact from the crowd. This was a tour de force with many obstacle heading our way. We would like to refine it and push it further.

LPP ∇ What was the most rewarding part of the whole project?
PR ∇ Seeing the dream go from mind to matter and the feedback we are getting from the public watching, definitely.

LPP ∇ It is just wonderful work congratulations on a very successful project!
PR ∇ Thank you.

To learn more about the project check out the Infinity website HERE.