For a long time I’ve had a bit of an interest with photography, given half a chance to use my Dad’s SLR, whether it was his old film one or his newer DLSR I was always keen on having a go! So, it comes as no surprise that I ended up getting my own!
While getting used to my shiny Canon 450d, I have been using flickr a whole lot more and have found inspiration within the realms of light painting!
For those of you that don’t know, ‘Light painting’ usually involves fairly long exposures and a light source. From what you generally see on flickr, there’s 2 main types – static lighting that lights up a scene with funky colours or ‘drawing’ with a light source.
Here’s an example of painting a scene with a light source and ‘gels’.
The Throne Room by JohnnyBlough
Generally these sort of photos are done with a flash or ’strobe’ and using different colour ‘gels’ in front of the flash. You use a long exposure and light up different parts of your subject to build up the end result.
I’ve experimented a bit with a few different light sources and here are some of the results…
These first two are of a lightning bulb, one with me touching the side of the bulb to attract the strands of lightning to one spot and one with a bit of foil on the top to keep the strand in one place constantly.
Blue Touch by me
Match Stick Lightning by me
This one below is using a light intended to sit in the bath and light it up! Random I know but I was going through firebox.com looking for interesting light sources.
Technicolour Spiral by me