What do you get when you combine Hugo Baptista, Cisco LightPainting, Darren Pearson, Will Wildmot, a light painting workshop, 3 hours of shooting, 12 Nikon cameras, 9 Canon camera, 1400 photos, and 30 hours of post-production? One really cool piece of Light Painting Bullet-Time Stop-Motion Animation. This piece was created at the 1st International LightArt and Light Painting Convention held in Oviedo, Spain. The event was organized by the LPWA (click here)to read a detailed closing report of the event.. For more about on the background of the bullet time lapse project check out the interview below…

LPP ∇ Hugo I just saw your Bullet Time Lapse you create at the LightArt Congress in Oviedo Spain this year awesome work what inspired the idea and how did the project come together?
HB ∇ As you probably know the term bullet-time comes from that scene in The Matrix where Neo dodges bullets. When I first saw it in 99 I thought I want to do that one day. And that’s how I can now dodge bullets…lol
Seriously, Eric Pare and Patrick Rochon have made great bullet-time videos with light painting and of course they were also a big part of the inspiration. Unfortunately the budget required for such a feat with a large number of the same cameras, lenses and an advanced triggering system with live viewing often exceeds what many clients are ready to spend. When I was in talks with the Oviedo LightArt congress organizers about how to go about this project we decided it would be feasible to crowd-source this with workshop attendees. Not only was it feasible but it was more inclusive too in a workshop setting. To make it work we needed to have the attendees bring along camera/lens combinations with approximately the same field of view. That is why we required a complete list of camera(s) and lense(s) on the sign up form so I could request the most common. We ended up with 12 Nikons and 9 Canons and diverse lenses that I tried to keep at approx. 18mm.

LPP ∇ Oh wow this created as part of a Light Painting workshop?
HB ∇ Yes. A 3 hour workshop designed to be all about doing and not so much about talking given the little time available. Here is a more detailed explanation of the process: http://www.oddballgraphics.com/?works=crowdsourcing-a-bullet-time-stop-motion-video

LPP ∇ Who were the other light painters that were involved?
HB ∇ I was very happy to have Cisco Light Painting (left) and Darren Pearson (right) agree to LP behind two dancers from ZigZag dance group while Will Wildmot helped with the setup as well as being responsible for a side light.

LPP ∇ How did you set it up, it must have been very difficult working with so many different people and camera?
HB ∇ Yes, Particularly the language barrier was an issue since not everyone understood English and my Portuguese masked with a Spanish accent wasn’t clear to everyone. That lead to a misunderstanding with two members of the Canon row who set their cameras to 80mm instead of 18mm. That’s why I didn’t use that row in the bullet-time. I should have printed the settings for everyone to read like I originally planned but I naively thought it could be done verbally. The first hour was spent aligning the cameras in a semi-circle, pointing the cameras at a ping pong ball on a tripod and making sure they were at the same height and same distance from each other.

LPP ∇ What kind of light painting tools did you use?
HB ∇ I made a custom tool consisting of a transparent hose, two handles and a double DLW from Michael Ross. Cisco and Darren were using their own tools.

LPP ∇ Do you plan on doing more of these workshops?
HB ∇ I sure do. But not necessarily using this format. I want to do it with many more cameras in a wide open space next time.

LPP ∇ How were the images put together in post?
HB ∇ The first stage is importing all the raws in Lightroom and organize them by camera number. Then I’ll approximate the settings so that the different cameras/lenses match. I then created a 1400 photo quick collection making sure to not select accidental shots and to not include sequences that were missing shots as was the case with some. I found pretty soon that some cameras had moved slightly between exposures which meant copying crop settings wouldn’t work as it did with all other settings. I knew a considerable amount of editing would be needed so I decided to go all the way and crop all the photos one by one based on where the action was taking place which meant this bullet-time would have a variable center of rotation. I liked this effect in early tests so I went with it. I then exported the quick collection to a 4K sequence and further edited it with After Effects and Twixtor.

LPP ∇ Woah thats a tremendous about of work! How long did it take to put everything together to make the final video?
HB ∇ About 30 hours (excluding the many hours of rendering)

LPP ∇ What was the most important thing you learned from this experience?
HB ∇ I met many people from around the world who are very passionate about light painting but also many who were just starting, all working together for a greater goal. I learned that the Spanish LP community is brewing with incredible talent and was inspired to see how committed everyone was.

LPP ∇ Is there anything you would do differently next time you make a Light Painting Bullet Timelapse?
HB ∇ If I have the budget to do it for a commercial project yes, pretty much everything would be different but next time I use this workshop format I will definitely not forget to write the settings down on unambiguous pieces of paper!

LPP ∇ Its a really great piece of work! Thank for taking the time to answer some questions.

To keep up to date on the NEXT light painting workshop and for more amazing work Check out Hugo’s website OddBallGraphics.com

A few years ago I met Jadikan at an art show, we were talking about light painting when he pulled me into a back room to show me a secret project he was working on. Jadikan showed me this ancient looking contraption that was like a wooden version of a Viewmaster toy I had when I was a kid. This old contraption turned out to be a stereoscopic viewer! When I looked inside I saw my first ever analog 3D light painting! Of corse I immediately started running away to try and steal it but he caught me so I had to give it back. A Stereoscopic viewer holds an image known as a stereogram. Basically how it all works is you shoot two images of the exact same scene that are at a slightly different angle from one another, when you put them side by side in the viewer your brain turns the two images into one image with extreme depth.

A 3D light painting was a very exciting thing to see for the first time and I wanted to learn more so I asked a bunch of questions, Jadikan was rightfully quiet about the project and just showed me enough to make my mind race. Now thanks to the SOLID-LIGHT Project I have the answers to all those questions that raced in my mind some 3 years ago. Check out the images, interview, and video below.

LPP ∇ I’m sooooo excited to see this project ready for release, tell me what is behind the Solid-Light Project and who is involved?
JLP ∇ The Solid Light Project’s purpose is: To promote 3D pictures/content with an original stereoviewer.
Behind the “Solid One”‘s step, The Light Painting Photography was created by myself and photographer JF Delamarre, the website was made by another friend and the viewer is from me (using laser cutting machine in a Fab Lab)

LPP ∇ Where the idea come from ?
JLP ∇ I have been interested in stereo photography since I discover it. My first attempt was in 2008, when I had a second digital camera available for the first time. A few months later, I met a guy who was practicing stereo photography with an old film camera on medium format.

LPP ∇ Shooting stereoscopic film has to be pretty difficult? How does that work?
JLP ∇ You have to cut the film and display it correctly between 2 pieces of thin glass to be insert in an old steroviewer.
Not an easy job but when you see inside the viewer, it is just amazing how the depth and the detail jump out at your eyes on the 120 inversible film with magnifying glasses.

LPP ∇ What kind of camera are you shooting with?
JLP ∇ So we started to shoot together with his “Stereflektoskop” from the 30’s. From 2009 to 2014, we have learned a lot about 3D pictures and shot rolls and rolls of film (always invertible) at the same time, I found a few other medium format cameras in specialised shops on the internet.

LPP ∇ How did the project progress into what we see now in the Solid-Light Project?
JLP ∇ As I was started to understand the full process of stereophotography, I wanted to find a way to share thoses 3D works at exhibitions.
Using prints or screens instead of the original film will allow to show easily in different places without the original.
I experimented with different viewers on the market, built a few others by hand and I finally discovered a way to reach my goal of a personal reproducible stereo viewer when I found The Fab Lab network!
Fab Labs are a fair sharing place for computer controlled machines. (laser cutting, 3D printing …)
I went to the closest Fab LAB to start designing a Stereoviewer. It took a few months with different versions to finally present Solid One in a kit – for prints or for using with a smartphone (compatible size).

LPP ∇ How does it work if someone wants to make their own viewer?
JLP ∇ I made the plans available for people want to make their own.
People have 2 choices: Download the .dxf file and use a laser cutting machine to do the job (I use a 3mm thick medium wood for the viewer) or download the pdf, print it and cut it from a 3mm foam board for example. The trickiest part is to find the lenses, I did not find reseller for one piece, so send me an email if you need a sample.

LPP ∇ Whats next for this project?
JLP ∇ The next step of Solid Light is not fully determined, but I have in mind to collaborate with a painter artist to make with “his” 3D boxes. (inside/outside/shape) I also want this tool can be used by other photographers/artists who want to show stereo artworks.

LPP ∇ This is one incredible project and I speak for all of us when I say THANK YOU for all of your hard work and especially for making the stereoscopic viewer freely available for all of us! Anything else you would like to ad?
JLP ∇ I think that this was the right time to make the final touches and launch this project because of the “google cardboard” announcement this summer… (check this out if you don’t know about it)
…Solid One is fully compatible with the Virtual Reality content displayed by google ! 😉

For more info on the Solid Light Project check out the video below and website http://www.solid-light.com/en/ stay up to date with all of Jadikans latest projects on his Facebook page HERE!

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.