Online Photography Courses - Painting With Light - Literally!

Often photography is referred to as a medium that 'paints with light'. This is true to some degree as you are using light to record the image. I'm not referring to this; I'm referring to actually picking up a light source (such as a torch) and paint your subject with it!

Painting with light isn't a new technique at all. Before photographers had access to current technology with high powered flash units, this technique was standard for lighting a large interior and other large subject material. Depending on the room size and the strength of the light used, exposure could take up to thirty minutes or longer. The photographer - normally dressed in black so they wouldn't record on film - moved around the room with a light and painted where necessary.

Even the early portraits had long exposures of up to several minutes. The subject had to be extremely still for the entire exposure or the result would be blurred. This is why the expressions in the old portraits are usually expressionless. A device was even made for the photographers to assist with this problem. It was a chair with a head clamping device so that movement was limited (no, I'm not joking).

We can still use this past procedure; easily emulated at night, inside or out. Simply limit the amount of light on your subject or remove it altogether. Put your camera on a tripod, lock open the shutter for several minutes with a small aperture and start painting. An ideal 'brush' is a torch. You can fine tune the beam by creating a snoot from some black card or foil. Start painting - it's that simple. You will need to make trial and error exposures to find a suitable combination of controls, but it's not difficult.

If you want to experiment outside you can use an off camera electronic flash for the light source. Just walk around the frame environment and discharge the flash in the direction of subject material. This can yield some very fantasy like images. Just me careful not to point your light source in the direction of the camera; this will flare or overexpose considerably.

Using these methods, lighting from different angles, painting various subjects, you will be able to achieve unusual and strangely appealing effects.

Source : Ezinearticles