Light Painting Photographer Mart Barras creates some mind blowing images and one of the techniques he frequently utilizes in his light painting work is the Lens Cap Technique. If you are not familiar with what Lens Capping is, basically you are covering your lens with something while the exposure is still running so that you can move the camera or otherwise change the scene without the camera recording any unwanted lights.

One of the problems with lens capping is that you either need to cap the lens yourself by walking back to camera or you need to have an assistant do it for you. If you don’t have an assistant and you are shooting an image where its difficult to back to camera, especially in the dark, then this can become a major challenge to creating the image you envision.

Mart has come us with a simple yet genius solution that he calls the Gimpomatic 2000! Mart says it’s a work in progress and he hopes to revise it to make it better as the idea progresses. He is also happy to see how other light painters will modify it and use it in their own different ways. The Gimpomatic 2000 is basically a remote Pan head mounted to a light stand (or tripod) and a 3D Printed Black Flag, simple and genius! Check out the images and video below of this innovative contraption and a the bottom of the page is a full list of the parts you need to make your own! Make sure to throw Mart a thank you and tag him in your images if you use this technique so he can check them out! Thank you Mart for sharing your ingenuity! Check out more of Mart’s incredible light painting work on his Facebook and Instagram too!

Here is a list of the 3 parts needed to create the Gimpomatic 2000.
1. Remote Pan Head

2. 1/4″ Aluminium tripod screw

3. 3D printed flag, probably best to paint this even if you print in with black material.
Best print in PLA and print with the face with the hole down on the bed, no supports needed. Weight of this part 98-99 grams
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2511632

You can have this file printed for a few bucks at any place that has a 3D printer in your town if you don’t have one yourself. You could also make a similar flag out of cardboard and glue if you do not have access to a 3D printer, but it obviously won’t be as cool.

This could be an interesting light for Light Painting. Spekular is an innovative new lighting system from Spiffy Gear. This system tags itself as “The Only Light You Need”. This is not specifically for light painting, Spekular is geared more toward the traditional photo and video maker market however I can think of a few ways this could be utilized in the world of Light Painting. My first thought was as a tool for long exposure portrait images. Holding the light bars in a line you could “Scan” your model creating an balanced and even light over your entire model in one pass of the light to ensure a sharp image. This system also can create some interesting shapes with the way the light bars attach together, and I really like the catch light they can create hmmmm……

As far a light painting tools go this one is on the pricy side, however if you’re a light painter who also does commercial photo and video work this versatile lighting system is interesting and definitely worth checking out, more right here.