Blow your night time photography out of the water by light painting. Light painting has become popular among the photographers that find the dark landscapes their blank canvas. Most photographers have vast collections of flashlights with diffusers and modifiers they use to shine the light towards the camera creating lines or shapes depending on the light. Artists will setup the camera to keep the shutter open for a desired length of time and in the mean time, they will use the lights to draw in the air. Once the shutter is closed and the image is saved, what was draw in the air with the lights are transformed onto the image.

Hand drawn stick figures created using a household LED Light. The light was aimed towards the camera as the figures were drawn in the air.
The results can be breath taking as the sky is the limit to what can be created in the image. The final image and designs that are a result of light painting, come down to the creative side to controlling the light that is allowed directed towards the camera. Similar to that of a studio environment where the photographer positions the different types of lights around a subject including the amount of light, the temperature of the light as well how the light affects the overall intent of the image. Light painting has become more frequent among photographers with the changing of film to digital photography as the final image can be seen earlier than that of film, where processing and developing time take much longer. Photographers are able to taken multiple exposures at a cheaper cost as well as having the ability to modify the image digitally if there were imperfections at a later time.

Light painting with The Pixel Stick

A startup company of photographers created a multi-colored LED light stick called the Pixelstick. The Pixelstick acts similar to a printer were the 200 LED stick displays each line of color in order as the light is moved. Walking in a straight line will display the image similar to that of a printer head. Although the image wouldn’t be visible to the human eye except for a series of colors in a line, the colored pixels aimed towards an open shuttered camera, the image appears. The camera settings will vary depending on location and the available light, but the camera’s shutter will need to be open for a longer than normal time in order to light paint. Due to the exposure setting requirements, having a DSLR camera would be highly recommended. The Pixel stick allows photographers and artists to put anything that could be created on the computer on to landscapes and add their personal touches on still night time environments. The light has unlimited creation possibilities as for it’s use and designs is ultimately up to creator.

This image above was created using The Pixelstick with a rainbow of colors being displayed on the LED’s as the stick was waved in circles in front of the camera. Below was created using a household LED flashlight and aimed towards the camera. The trick with spelling letters in the image is that everything needs to be reversed as you are facing the camera which is the opposite orientation as you. Spelling the word ART really meant drawing “TRA” in the air.