Tutorials

Light Painting Photography (in the dark)

Light Painting started from using light sources during what is called a
'Long Exposure' in photography. Long exposure means that when you press
the shutter button on a camera (first click) the shutter which lets the light into the camera
stays open until you are ready to close it (final click). The length of
time that you want to keep the shutter open varies depending on how much
time you want to spend using lights and other materials to 'Paint' an
image into the long exposure photograph. Painting a light image into a photograph normally requires you to be in a dark room or space or do this in the dark outside in an external environment. Any kind of light can be used from cheap small and large lights through to sparklers, burning flames, gas lighters etc. Your Creativity is endless on how you can create a light painting. Ultimately if you want to do this as an artform like anything else you have to practice and experiment to get what you are looking for in a light painting.

Introduction to Light Painting Video:

Safety / Insurance

Making sure you have the right insurance (if it is needed) is important especially if you are working with other people and on other peoples properties both inside and outside and generally for your own safety if you are the facilitator.

Safety is a must when doing light painting because much of the work involves moving around in the dark.

is important because you are often working in the dark especially outside in external environments and especially if you are working with flames or fire or gas lit lights.

Trick/Tips for working in dark environments:

Use a dark piece of paper or a lens cap or something similar which can go over the lens to completely darken out any light. When you are doing a light painting and you need to stop and pick up another light or someone else has to move into the scene wit their own light or you have to change your materials in the room or change much of the whole set then there is a work around that lets you turn on a light when you need to see more.

* During your long exposure when you are ready simply put a cap or a dark cover over the camera lens being careful not to make it shake then you can turn on te lights then do what yo want to change in the scene then when you are ready to continue your light painting then you simply turn off the lights and then take the cap or cover off the lens and continue.

Light Painting Photography (during the day)

Some artist are doing light painting during the day and they use different techniques to achieve this such as putting strong nd filters on the lenses. Some people actually do light paintings in video mode (means many frames per second) and not in photography mode (one frame per shot).

How does iDreamingTV do its Light Painting Photography

iDreamingTV like most people started out doing this technique during the dark and inside buildings then outside in external environments. We used all sorts of lights and fabrics to achieve our intended and experimental looks. Flashes are used in light paintings by many light painters/photographers.

Long exposure is a profoundly broad photographic technique which can be manipulated endlessly so opening the artist doors for highly experimental art.

Light Painting with Fibre Optics

Light Painting with stop animation

Light Painting with Timelapse Photography

Modelling with Light Painting

Check in here often as we will be updating this area with useful tutorials to help you in your artistic ventures.

If you have an idea for a tutorial or resource for this section that you would like us to work on suggest it via our online form.