Light Painting Photography

For the promotion and progression of Light Painting Art and Artist.

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Chris Benbow Light Painting Dome Video Tutorial

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Well the cat is out of the bag on how to make the infamous dome. Here is a really nice video tutorial from light painting artist Chris Benbow on making the DOME…..

Just a side note: Chris waited until creator of the Dome Andrew Whyte gave him his approval to go ahead and release this tutorial. This is the kind of respect all light painting photographers should have for one another in our emerging and ever expanding art form. Well played Mr. Benbow.

Noctography – Tutorial 6: Domes

A basic tutorial on how to make Domes created and presented by Chris Benbow.

Camera: Canon EOS 5Dmkii
Lens: Canon 17-40mm
Shutter Release: Hähnel Wired Release
Dome Tool – Christmas Lights from Ebay – 1 Bike Wheel, 30 Battery LED’s

Camera Settings
ISO: 100
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter Speed: Bulb – 30 Seconds

More night photography tutorials coming soon.

www.noctography.co.uk

www.lightpaintingphotography.com

www.luminarymovie.com

www.flickr.com/photos/light_painter/

Andrew Whyte and The DOME Tutorial

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The Infamous DOME tutorial presented by light painting photographer Andrew Whyte.

Scientists, IT consultants, mathematicians, doctors, my gran and a geologist. Nope, not the invite list for Party of The Year- it’s a cross section of the hundreds, maybe even thousands of people around the world who’ve been amazed, intrigued and puzzled by The Dome since it first hit flickr in May 2010. And they’re going to be even more, erm, cross when they find out just how straightforward the technique is. Well, not my gran if I’m honest – she’s all over it. But all the others are true.

Let me say this. I’ve enjoyed the buzz – who wouldn’t? The emails I get every day bear witness to the interest it’s created. I think my favourite thing is seeing comments from light painters who’ve been inspired to reverse engineer the tool and are rightfully proud of achieving that.

But alas, just as numerous dome artists are now springing up around the globe, sooner or later someone’s gonna want to get their name in lights with a tutorial about how it’s done – so I’m getting in first.

Before I spill the beans though, I need to get out what a relief it is for it not to be under wraps any more. In trying to keep people guessing, I ended up stifling my own creativity for fear of giving out too many clues. For instance – you’ve never seen me produce a multicolour dome, or a dome with deliberate large gaps. In my mind, both of those would have opened the tool up to close scrutiny so remained on my to-do list for when the shape became as commonplace as the orb. In reality, both have now been done by others (and done well, for the record) and still light junkies en masse are none the wiser.

There’s a lesson in there – be motivated for the right reasons.

So, without further delay, let me introduce you to The Dome and tell you not only how to make your own but how to wield it like a pro.

All you need

1 bike wheel. Any regular circle will do but bike wheels are essentially hollow and that see-throughness helps with the 3D illusion
1 set of 20 or so festive lights from your seasonal surplus superstore
An axle, cut to the length of the wheel’s radius

What you do
1) Evenly space the lights around the rim of the wheel.
2) Fix the axle firmly to the wheel’s hub.
3) Switch the lights on and roll the wheel around smoothly and at a steady pace.
4) Amaze your friends

What to know a few more secrets about the technique behind making the perfect dome visit Andrew’s website HERE.

Freezelight Russian Festival of Science 2011 Promo

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New Freezelight Video

Client: Russian Festival of Science (Moscow State University)
Idea and production: Art-project Freezelight.ru (Moscow)
Artists: Roman Palchenkov, Artem Dolgopolov
Sound-design: Gleb Bondarenko
Producer: Julia Fateeva
Production date: Aug-Sept 2011
Location: Moscow, Russia.

Cameras:
for animations, stopmotions & timelapses – Canon 1Ds mark III
for video – Canon 1D mark IV

Lenses:
Canon EF 15mm f/2.8
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L
Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L
Canon EF 400mm f/4.0 DO
Canon 2x EF Extender II

Wes Whaley and His New Light Painting Tool, Interview

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I got the chance to catch up with light painter Wes Whaley recently to ask him a few questions about the tools and technique behind some of his recent images you see here.

LPP ∇ Hey Wes I have seen some of your awesome light painting images like “Electroluminescentness” and “Collective Consciousness” recently and it looks like you have been putting in a lot of work advancing your design tools and technique. Tell me a little bit about your set up for one of these shots.

WW ∇ My set up is a crazy hard to explain tool I made at home. I use a lot of EL Wire a Canon rebel XS.

LPP ∇ Is there anything different about the technique to create one of these images from any other light painting image?

WW ∇ Well it’s different as far as technique it took me a lot of practice to get all the movements the same or as best as I can. The movements of the tool took a while as far as making the distance the same and holding it for a few seconds so the EL would show up better as I have two different types and one is brighter than the other.

LPP ∇ What inspired this tool? Were you trying to create a tool for a specific shot or just experimenting?

WW ∇ Mostly experimenting.

LPP ∇ How long did it take for you to feel like you had it right?

WW ∇ It took me about 4 months to get it where i thought i was getter better at the movements.

LPP ∇ How long does it take to create one of these monsters?

WW ∇ Anywhere for 3 to 5 minutes depends on how many colors i lay down.

LPP ∇ The latest images look like the tool/technique has really evolved, how many have you made now?

WW ∇ I have 35 of this technique.

LPP ∇ What was the most difficult part about creating this light painting tool?

WW ∇ Making the tool lighter is the fun part.

LPP ∇ How long have you been light painting?

WW ∇ Been light painting for 1.5 yrs

LPP ∇ How did you discover light painting?

WW ∇ Through a friend Dennis Calvert an awesome artist!

LPP ∇ Any plans on making a tutorial for the rest of the light painting community to share how you are making these images or will you keep it your own?

WW ∇ I’m working on a tutorial now as a matter of fact.

LPP ∇ Where can people find more of your images?

WW ∇ On my flickr photostream.

LPP ∇ Anything you would like to add?

WW ∇ I love light painting the most because it all in your imagination and also if you were to ask anyone to draw or paint a picture it would take days or weeks. I can set up and shoot a photo in about 10 minutes that is sweet!

LPP ∇ Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. We are all looking forward to seeing that tutorial.

Letter to the Editor

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I get e-mails like this every few weeks and I just wanted to share one with all of the light painting photographers that help to make this website possible. Thank you.

Message:
To all persons it may concern with this website… I AM COMPLETELY MIND BLOWN! I THINK I HAVE FOUND MY ART FORM I WISH TO EXPLORE!!! A TRUE EPIPHANY FOR ME ON ALL LEVELS!! Although, I enjoy and appreciate the arts, a brush stroke masterpiece from myself will never materialise… However, I enjoy digital photography and whilst on an appointment with an artist much more talented than myself… By far!!! The subject came to a video from “So Red The Rose” by Arcadia… I knew the video, but I could nor remember the title of the track. The video was memorable… Sleeping Beauty theme, as far as I could remember. Thanks to the latter day wonder of the internet I rediscovered and savoured to the utmost, the video of Arcadia’s Missing… This went onto a brief exploration of Light painting Photography… Hence, why I am here and of course, a brief study of the master light photographer Dean Chamberlain. I WANT ALL I CAN EAT ON THE SUBJECT, THIS WEBSITE IS MY CORNER OF CYBERPARADISE! Monumental thanks beyond number to all contributors…. I will be back to browse more, even if all the relevant kit and kaboodle and camera expertise will take a while to amass. Without a doubt I will relish finding out more about this sensory blast of an art form! All The Very Best To One And All! Many thanks again!

Linda.

Light Painting Contest, 3 Weeks Left

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Light painting photography has been very lucky to have the best flashlight company on earth sponsoring the contest series for the last few months. A short time ago the folks over at COAST had the idea of doing a light painting contest incorporating the company logo. The winner will not only receive a brand new, hot off the line HP17 (530 Lumens, with Finger Tip Speed Focus) but you will also win the opportunity for your image to possibly be featured in an international online/print advertising campaign. This is an excellent opportunity for your work to receive tons of exposure!

The theme is this, you must use the COAST logo within your light painting composition. The high resolution Coast logo can be found below. Please note that you do NOT have to use red as the predominant color.

This contest is going to run for two months to give everyone plenty of time to get out there and create the absolute best image you can come up with. The light painting community contains some of the most innovative minds out there and we need to see some mind bending S@#* for this one.

Submit your images to contest@lightpaintingphotography.com by the 21th of September to win your LPP prize pack! Please remember to follow the THEME of the contest and resize your images to 600 pixels on the longest side and 72 dpi. If you win you will need to submit a high resolution version of your winning image.

This contest will be judged a little differently we will still have the light painting photography readers pick the top three finalist, but the winning image out of the three finalist will be selected by COAST.

The COAST LOGO.

 

Here is an good example by Chris Benbow of how to use a logo in your light painting composition.

The Winner Gets This Monster….

Troy Paiva Lands Stephen King Cover

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Light painting photographer Troy Paiva landed one of his images on the cover of the new Stephen King novel “Mile 81”.

Troy had this to say about the achievement…

OMFG, this is huge news. I got a Stephen King cover . . . for his new e-book “Mile 81.” It is for non-US markets only. All you folks in the UK, Australia and anyplace else other than America can download this story for your kindle or other readers starting today. The image is from the Pearsonville junkyard. They manipulated it quite a bit and yes, I am perfectly ok with that. Stephen King . . . wow.

 

Congratulations Troy!!!

Seize The Night

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Will Baltazar sent in the light painting stop animation. This is the first attempt at a light painting animation for this freshman light painter, the results are pretty cool. Will made this piece in his house over the course of a week, check out the interview below.

LPP ∇ Its a cool piece man, I can appreciate the amount of work you put into it.
What camera/equipment did you use?
WB ∇ Thank you soo much! The camera i used was a Canon Digital rebel xsi with an 18-55mm lens. As for the equipment, i used small keychain leds and electronic glowsticks. Very small budget.

LPP ∇ How long did it take to shoot it?
WB ∇ The shooting process was about 30 hours, but i stretched that over the course of a week, since i had to wake up to go to high school each morning. Id set a quota for the amount of shots id want to get done each night, so having a goal helped.

LPP ∇ What did you learn from making the video?
WB ∇ If I learned anything from this video, its patience. Drawing and tweaking and redrawing and cheking pictures hundreds of times is no easy task. I also learned a lof of different ways to use my lights as far as effects i could make with them.

LPP ∇ Are you going to make another one?
WB ∇ I do plan on making another one, some time in the future. The time in between will be spent by taking my light painting to new levels, so that when the next video is born, its quality will surpass this one.

LPP ∇ Did you shoot it alone or with help?
WB ∇ I shot this totally alone. The only “help” i had was the model agreeing to pose throughout such a lengthy process, but the drawings, editing, directing and everything else that went into it was all me.

LPP ∇ What inspired you to make the piece?
WB ∇ My inspiration to make this LP video was kindof testing my creative limits. I wanted a medium that was difficult and flexible enough to where if i did it and did it well, i (and people that watched it) could have a glimpse of just how powerful imagination is. And i also wanted to prove to myself that i could stick to this project and finish it.

LPP ∇ Who is your favorite LP artist?
WB ∇ My favorite LP artist has got to be this guy on Flickr. His username is like {tcb}. In being lp artists, we find ourselves able to look at other pieces and decypher how they managed to execute them, but tcb leaves me clueless, and i find that refreshing.

LPP ∇ How did you discover LP?
WB ∇ I discovered LP through google. When i first got ibto photography, id spend a lot of time googling tutorials, and among them was one for long exposure photography. The examples they posted were of LP. and i went from there.

LPP ∇ What was the first LP video you saw that inspired you to create your own?
WB ∇ The first LP Video i saw that inspired me was called “Light warfare” on Youtube by Freddie Wong. I thought it was so magical and creative itd be a crime for me not to try.

LPP ∇ Any other info you would like to add?
WB ∇ Additional info is just that this was made in my bedroom, at home, with the help of a friend and only about 30$ on materials. It was made when i was 17 (im 18 now). So, if people have a beautiful vision, i dont believe that the lack of professional resources or education is reason to not make it a reality. Anything is possible.

First Underwater Light Painting Images?

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Damn I wanted to be the first one to do this….. Congratulations to Soul Reaver Photography, I believe these are the first ever underwater light painting photographs. Super cool images check out the whole set on Flickr HERE. If you know of any others please post a link in the comment section.