Blog

Light Painting with YoungArts

October 20, 2011 - 4:26pm

Recently, YoungArts held an event at the Surf Club in Miami Beach and I was asked to demonstrate a fun photo technique known as “Light Painting.” It’s a simple enough process and was actually one of the first lessons I had in photography when I start taking classes. The mechanics behind it are simple: by leaving the camera shutter open for an extended period, the film (or in this case, digital sensor) is able to pick up motion, which translates into a blur or streak, like in a time lapse photograph. Light Painting is what happens when we take advantage of this effect and draw our own light streaks.

To make your own light paintings, you need a dark space, a flashlight, a tripod and a camera that allows for variable shutter speeds. For most of the photos we took that night, our shutter was open for 10 seconds or 20 seconds, depending on the outside light level (we started at dusk).

The end results of the night were really playful and it’s obvious our light painters benefited from the extra ten seconds. The drawings became evolved from simple scribbles to include action scenes, angels and dragons. For myself, it’s always nice to be reminded that simple tricks can be just as exciting and fun when used with a sense of play.

See "Light Painting" photo album here.