Light Painting
Light Painting is a photographic technique, usually performed in the dark or at night, where exposures are made by the movement of a hand held light source or additionally by a moving camera. In Light Painting there are 3 main light painting techniques which include : Light Painting, Light Drawing, and Kinetic Light Painting or also known as Camera Painting.
History Of Light PaintingLight Painting goes all the way back to 1889 where the first light painting, created by Étienne-Jules Marey and Georges Demeny, was made. Picasso was also another to experiment with Light Painting, when in 1949 Gjon Mili introduced him to Light Painting. He attached lights to Ice Skates and started creating images in the air with a small flashlight in a Dark Room. These became Picasso's Light Drawings. One of the first artists to dedicate his whole work to Light Painting.
Equipment UsedA range of different light sources can be used for Light Painting. These light sources range from a Penlight, Candles, Flashlights, Matches, Fireworks, Lighter Flints, Glow Sticks and Poi.
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The image below has been created using a Poi.
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Man Ray; Light Painting, 1935One of the first artists to explore Light Painting was Man Ray. He was Born on August 27 1890 in South Philadelphia and died November 18 1976. In 1935 Man Ray set up a camera to create a self portrait. He opened the shutter, on his camera, and using a penlight, in the air he created a series of small swirls and lines and later discovered by the Ellen Carey, when she held up a mirror to the work, that the series of small swirls and lines were Man Ray's signature. |
Gjon Mili; Light Painting.Gjon Mili was a self taught photograph and was trained as an engineer. In the mid 1930's Mili pioneered photoflash photography. He used stroboscopic light (and was one of the first to use stroboscopic light and electronic flash) to capture movement from dancers to jugglers in a single exposure. He used this technique to study the motion of dancers, musicians and figure skaters. In 1939, Mili had a job as a freelance photographer for 'Life Magazine' He traveled to various different countries from, France to Israel to Florence to Athens and even Hollywood to photograph celebrities, artists, sporting events, concerts, sculptures and architecture. Mili also directed the film ' Jammin' the blues ', made a Warner Brothers. The film used multiplied images that recall the multi image still frames done with the strobe. Gjon Mili is best known for his photograph work done for Life Magazine, where he photographed the artist, Pablo Picasso.
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Frank Gilbreth; Light PaintingFrank Gilbreth was born on 7th July 1868 and died on 14th June 1924. He was an early advocate and pioneer of motion study. Gilbreth is best known for the father and central figure of 'Cheaper by the Dozen'. In the year 1914 Frank Gilbreth, along with his wife Lillian Moller, used small lights and the open shutter to capture the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. The Gilbreth's were working on developing ways to increase employee output and simplify their jobs. |
Light Painting Video
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This video has been done and presented by the digital photography magazine and explains about light painting. I have chosen to put this video up because I think that it really gives me a lot of information on light painting. At first i didn't know much about light painting but after watching that video its given me a better idea about what light painting is. The video is great because it goes through the different steps and the process of how to do light painting. It doesn't just tell you how to take the photo but it goes through what setting you should leave the camera on and what speed the shutter should be and why. I think this helps me get a better understanding on how to take a better photo in light painting and how to get the picture i want. The picture also gives the viewer and example on a light painting photo which i think is great for someone who knows nothing about light painting.
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Our Light Painting Images
COMPOSITIONIn our group I think we focused more on the lighting then the composition however we did still think about. We tried to think of a variety of different ways to composed the image. Most of the images are centred however there are different heights within the photo. Within the image we have was no more than two subjects.
IMPROVEMENTSI think some of our images are okay however most of our images could be better if we a full black room or black wall. It would make the subject or subjects more visible. Also the door of the darkroom is quite a small area so its kind of hard to get the light images you want, so if we had a bigger area to take the photo we could've got the bigger light images drawn. Also we need to focus the images on the camera as some of the subjects in the images aren't in focus.
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SETTINGThe images were taken in the darkroom. This was kind of a problem due to there being no full black backgrounds or walls, there was more white walls. This meant that too much light was bounced of the walls letting more light into the image. we tried to resolve this by trying to flash the flash light in different places, for example behind the subject or in front and seeing which one lets in less light. We then realised that the darkroom door is black so we decided to place the subject inside it and flash the lights around. These turned out nicer as not too much light was being let through.
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I think this was one of the best images we took . This is because the main subject is in focus and we have used all the spacing around with the lights which makes the picture look nicer as there is no empty space. The light is clear and visible. Also I think the way that the main subject is placed is really good as we are automatically focused on her and the light around her. |