When you snap a photo on a GPS enabled device such as a fancy camera or smart phone you (knowingly or unknowingly) add a little piece of information into the metadata, the latitude and longitude coordinates.

This can be great for things like location scouting or even tracking terrorist… Phillip Schmitt, who is way smarter than most people, figured out a way to create Light Painting using the information contained within these geotags by writing some code, making a phone talk to a flash and doing some other stuff I don’t really understand.

The results of his efforts are nothing short of pure light painting magic! Check out the info, video, and images below. For even more info check out Phillips website HERE!

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Phillip says “I built a custom camera, flash + smartphone setup that queries the Flickr and Panoramio API for photos taken at the current geographical position. Whenever there’s a photo available, a flash is triggered. Long-exposure photographs capture multiple flash lights — each representing one geotagged photo — and situates them in the place of their origin. Using this technique, I produced two kinds of images. Those with light dots in it are mere representations of the data. The second kind has “ghost photographers” or “holograms” in it, exploring the question how it would have looked if all the photographers who uploaded their pictures had been there simultaneously.”

Check out this excellent light painting video for the song KamaUnit by Samved. Incredibly this light painting video was created by just two people, light painters Chandrashekhar Karalkar & Nisarg Mehta of India. This massive light painting project took nearly 8 months to shoot starting in June 2013 and ending in Jan 2014, during that time Chandrashekhar and Nisarg created over 4000 individual still images! Below is a short interview with Chandrashekhar talking about what how this project came to be, what was involved in creating it, and a little advice for anyone looking to take on something similar.

LPP ∇ Chandrashekhar great work on the KamaUnit Light Painting Video, tell me a little about you, do you have a background in video or
 photography? How long have you been light painting?

CK ∇ I am Chandrashekhar Karalkar, enjoying creative services since the year 2001. Currently heading On-Air Promos for a leading youth Entertainment Broadcasting channel in India. Video Direction; visualization has been my forte & also have bagged some awards for my work.

I have never taken any formal education (Academically) in photography or any form of media. It’s pure passion. When friends ask me if I am a photographer I simply say “I have a camera but I am not a photographer”. I love stop motion animation & started being passionate about light painting / Long exposure since end of 2012. I needed to do something more and break through the mundane work clutter and that’s when some of your Light Painting caught my eyeballs & inspired me the most to take up Light Painting and challenge myself further.

LPP ∇ Thank you! Can you tell me a little more about the project, how did it come to be? Were you approached by the record label or
 did you go to the band with the idea for a light painting music video?

CK ∇ One of the key band members of Samved the band [K.K] has been a dear friend for more than a decade now, when he let me listen to this freshly cooked track, it just blew me up. We spoke, I was very keen on experimenting with Light Painting further, so I showed them some of my Light Paintings & I asked them if I could shoot a video of this track combining Stop-Motion with light painting technique & in return all I wanted was their time & patience, they all were thrilled and agreed readily.

LPP ∇ 


What inspired the project?

CK ∇ Like mentioned I was hugely inspired by your work and was extremely keen on experimenting with Light Painting.

The objective was to create a visually intriguing experience, with stunning light paintings & conceptual elements. This song “Kama Unit” by the band SAMVED, vaguely portray the birth of our universe through the divine intercourse of light & sound. That everything we know and see are made of is the result of heat, light, vibration & attraction. Musically, the piece has a fusion of Indian Classical & Electronica, creating a pleasant surreal incline, with enough room left intentionally for subjective interpretation by the audience.

It  was not an easy task to shoot and edit, however I was fortunate to have a young enthusiastic kid Nisarg Mehta along with me to work on this piece of art. Once the video was ready, the band made their move and approached few music labels. Universal Music one of the leading music labels today promoting new talent were thrilled and excited to see this new, innovative piece of art and decided to take on the launch of the album and the video.

LPP ∇ There is some beautiful lighting in this music video, some of the scenes
remind me of Dean Chamberlain’s work specifically the closeups of the
leading lady, were you inspired by Dean’s work at all for this project?

CK ∇ It’s a great compliment if it resembles the work of a great artist like Dean Chamberlain, however to be very honest, I came across his art only after I finished the video. This video took almost 9 months to complete and has taken a lot of hard work.

LPP ∇ What type of gear did you shoot on?

CK ∇ I have a 550D with kit 18 55mm lens, 50mm 1.8, Tokina 11-16mm & a basic Tri-Pod.

We attempted a DIY bullet time shot. For which we used 3 barrels which were present on the location, a thread to measure and mark the arc and distance, 2 plank of woods to place the camera, borrowed 7 cameras from the friends. (out put was not that bad :D) We had no budget for this video. So had to use things which were available for cheap or borrow.

LPP ∇ How many different lights and were there a few that were your goto lights 
that you used more than others?

CK ∇ There must be around 36 different types of light & light rigs we have used. Most of them we have customized & got them made from a local hardware store. It was fun, as they where totally confused of our needs but followed the designs we roughly drew but had good inputs from them too.
Our favorite where the different sizes, LED Strip Sticks that we got made, EL WIRE [of course] & various effects were created with lots of permutation combination of various intensity of torches and combination of gel papers.

LPP ∇ How long did the video take and how many individual images did you end up shooting?

CK ∇ We started working on this dream project in June 2013 & finished the shoot in January 2014. Since this project started as an experiment and a challenge, we shot around 4000 pictures & used about 1600 final shots. To put this in perspective, most feature length films take about 4 months to shoot, this three and a half minute music video took us around nine months to complete. Its indeed a labour of passion and dedication!

The result of this mammoth undertaking, endless nights of shooting, crazy amounts of editing and standing motionless for minutes together to get every single frame right is a music video that few have seen and fewer still have attempted to make, anywhere in the world.

LPP ∇ How was the talent to work with, did they understand how long and
 difficult the process was going to be?

CK ∇ The only reason I could complete this video and the result is so magnificent is only because of the talent. It was difficult to get all the band members under one roof at the same time as each of us had their own commitments but they were all so excited about the video that they would be all charged up. Since we shot only in the night and with the instructions of posing motionless while we did the lighting was extremely challenging. We use to shoot all night & be up for our work early. All the band members are young, full of zest and most importantly being an artiste they understand other art form too. It was pleasure working with Samved 🙂

LPP ∇ What advice would you give for someone that was thinking of taking on a light painting video project like this?

CK ∇ My advice for a any artiste would be, is to first conceptualize, plan and be extremely, extremely patient while working on a music video because unlike a still photograph the flow of the images to become a video is very tedious. After shooting for 4 to 5 hours we got about 6 sec of footage. Be calm and patient that’s mantra.

LPP ∇ Thank you again for taking the time and giving us some insight into this excellent light painting video project. This is great work!

CK ∇ Thank you.

Director / Light Painters – Shekhar Karalkar & Nisarg Mehta
Executive Producer – Shekhar Karalkar & Nisarg Mehta
Content Producer – Shekhar Karalkar, Nisarg Mehta & Samved
Costume & Makeup – Khyati Busa
Edit support by Kuldeep .J
Samved is – Ritvik Joe, KK, Zeeshan Khan, Sangeet Mishra, Kirti Prabar Das & Chandan Raina with Christie Bourcq

All I can say is WOW. This is going to be the greatest event ever organized for light painting in the history of the world. The Light Painting International Congress is going to be held July 4th-6th with workshops, exhibitions, talks, and a variety of other events from International Light Painting Artist! The Light Painting World Exhibition will be held July 4th-13th! Every single person in attendance should give a hug, a high five, a hand shake, or something to light painting artist Alfredo Álvarez, a.k.a. Frodo of Children of Darklight, Herramientas Light Painting OnLine shop and Sergey of LPWA for organizing this INCREDIBLE EVENT! Below is the calendar of events so far, check it out but what you really need to do is head over to http://congresolightartoviedo.com to get all of the details.

CALENDAR / SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, JULY 4TH
18:00 – Inauguration I LightART International Congress City of Oviedo – LPWA Special Event (Multipurpose Room, 1st floor). Credentials control.
18:30 – Opening Act
19:30 – 3rd World Light Painting Exhibition. Welcome cocktail (Exposition Hall. Main Floor)
20.30 – Hugo Baptista Workshop ” Crowd-sourcing a bullet-time light painting stop-motion video “(inscriptions mandatory)
23.30 – Collective Artistic photo show. The Gesta Square

SATURDAY, JULY 5TH
10:30 to 19:30 – Light Painting Call (Call First Floor Tent.). FREE ENTRANCE

SPEECHES (Multipurpose room)
10:00 – Door opening and credentials Control
10:30 – RIDERS OF LIGHT: ” Posibilities and alternatives of light painting photography ”
11:30 – DARIUS TWIN: ” Illustrating with light and evolution of style / technique ”
12:30 – Break
13:00 – JANNEPAINT: ” Visual tricks ”
14:00 – Lunch Break
16.00 – FLASHES IN THE NIGHT: ” Flashes of the Night’s night photography ”
17:00 – SERGEY Churkin (Chukos) “What is lightpainting” + “Historical lecture” (presented by Luis Alberto Fdez)
18:00 – Break
18.30 – DANA MALTBY (TCB): ” Digital double exposure. Covering the Lens ”

20:00 – PERFORMANCE ” Kaleido Light Show “(by Cisco Lightpainting and Will Wildnot)

WORKSHOPS (3rd Floor. Rooms 1 & 2)
12:45 – ” LIGHT PAINTING, CREATIVITY AND COMMITMENT “. The Child of Light.
16.00 – ” LIGHT PAINTING BUILDING AND REPAIRING TOOLS “Ivan Barco Tools Lightpainting
19:00 – ” NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY “. Flashes at Night

21.30 – Dinner and party at La Casona de la Montaña. Video projection, music, exhibition, kaleido light show

23:30 – Workshop: ” LIGHT PAINTING PORTRAIT “. Sergey Churkin
23:30 – Night park walkaround with Special Guests

SUNDAY, JULY 6TH
10:30 – Door opening and credential Control
11:00 – ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION: ” Present, past and future of light painting “(. Multipurpose room Moderator The Child of Light)

13:15 – slide show of Audiovisual Works and photo contest weekend
14:00 – Special mention to the photo contest “YOUR TOWN AS A Lightpainter”

The program schedule ** May change without notice.

Good grief check out this amazing work of video light painting ART by the mastermind Hugo Baptista!

600 photos and 4800 camera rotations of Beatrixkwartier, The Hague played at 8 fps.

All photos are as they came from camera without any manipulations in post-production.

To achieve the kaleidoscopic effect I pointed the camera up and rotated it 8 times on a tripod with L bracket to keep lens rotating on its own axis, while shutter was open. During rotations I covered the lens. I repeated the process at 1 meter intervals.

The first photo was taken on 27 February, 2014 and last one on 17 April, 2014..A lot of effort and back-pain went into making this and I’m very proud of the result even though original target of 800 frames was not met. I could finish up the last 200 but I prefer to make part II with another 600 frames on another location.

Been approached by the police 4 times, also a few curious people. Some found it cool some told me to not photograph their building for security reasons. Crazy huh? I mean, if I was shooting their building…. sorry for that…

Kudos for Rutger Verberkmoes for making another beautiful sound atmosphere that really brings Accent into this video.