Tonight I thought I'd share a number of images I have created over the years from my favourite tunnel. Buried beneath the Longdendale Trail in the Peak District, it's hidden away in a quiet spot. I love to LP in such places. I feel relaxed there and can really get in the groove. The title image above is my favourite image I have created there. Lasers and camera rotation always tick my boxes but at the time I graded this one as a fail on the back of the camera. It was only once I got home it grew on me, it was the back lighting on the outer silhouettes that got the ocd going. In my head I wanted the back light hidden from the camera but I stood in the wrong spot. The flares came out great and I think it added an extra dimension.
Here I was playing with mid exposure panning and creating 3 tunnels where there is only 1. Middle silhouette created first with a back light and some vape then I panned the camera to one side, used the www.lightpaintingbrushes.com orange filter, universal adapter and my trusty net curtain to create the silhouette of my mate Leon. I then panned the camera once again in the opposite direction to create the other. These are always hard to pull off as if you don't pan the same distance either side then it looks wonky and my OCD gets aggravated.
This one I created beforehand using Photoshop, which is obviously cheating but it was a good proof of concept. Once I formulated a plan to do it properly without the use of a computer program I headed for the tunnel. I lit myself wearing a gasmask with my palm outstretched and Leon replaced the lens cap. I swapped tripods to the tunnel and exposed Leon stood at the far end. It came out as planned but I really must revisit it one day to polish it a little.
This is probably the most labour intensive shot I have made here. It involves refractograph camera rotation, a lens swap and a back lit silhouette. Rotating refractography is a minefield of balancing exposure, lining it all up and capping the sensor. Took me a dog's age to get it set up but I got there in the end and I'm proud of how this one came out. Cheers as always to Chris T for his patience and help. Always appreciated.
This one was inspired by the absolutely sublime work of R Digi. Mr Ryan O'Connell is a massive inspiration of mine to this day and produced some of the finest LP created, in the golden era which existed just before I got into it. A time where making a circle behind a model or aimlessly waving a light blade about simply wouldn't do. It was a time of incredible creativity and ideas were bouncing round left, right and centre. I just wish I was a part of those early Light Junkies days. Looking back over the comments and descriptions from back then really helped me to become the Lightpainter I am today. Trying to push to be better and to create images which twist minds like theirs did way back then. If I ever gain access to a time machine I'll see you there.
Trying to macro circuit boards in this tunnel is a nightmare due to the steep incline inside. The floor is cobbled and trying to get the plane of the sensor and the circuit board to marry up takes time. If you don't align them correctly the thin depth of field from the macro lens throws the focus out on one half of the board. We always get there in the end though. I remember one such night trying to alight a shot a parade of early teenage D of E participants walked through the tunnel. Not one of them looked me in the eye and to be fair I don't blame them. A grown man, photographing the inside of a computer in the middle of nowhere in a tunnel doesn't scream normality or the type of person you'd want to interact with in the darkness. Hey ho...it takes allsorts. Mid exposure lens swap from macro to wide angle so the silhouette fell nicely in the darkness of the computer chip.
Simplicity for the win on this one and as is quite often the case the rest shot comes out better than the grand finale. Simple back lit silhouette and a burst of red from my head torch. Backlighting the figure in this way really brings out the sublime textures of the dressed stone walls of the tunnel. I'll never get bored of shooting here because of it. I love it.
I created this one during the first lockdown. I hated not being able to visit my favourite tunnel so I had to improvise. This is a shot from the inside of the tunnel displayed on a tablet screen which I photographed, replaced the lens cap and swapped to a macro lens and another obsolete computer board. Not as crisp as the real thing but close enough in times of need.
More net curtain fire, camera rotation, smoke and lasers. As always shot in a single long exposure with a mid shot pan of the camera to create the outer tunnels.
What caught my eye in this one was the laser light caught a fingerprint on the lens and placed a smear of laser over the face of the inner silhouette. I like little unexpected surprises like that.
This one caught my eye on the back of the camera and I fell in love with it immediately. The green light from the panned lasers reminded me of a crazy tunnel aurora. More panning of the camera with 3 fixed positions and a back light pop of flash for each. This is generally what happens when you are just messing about with the camera, trying different things to see what the outcome is. Watching tutorials on YouTube is all well and good but you'll rarely stumble upon anything which surprises you doing that. Find your own path through experimentation, like with all things in life is what will reveal the most unexpected and beautiful outcomes.
This one started out through creating mirrored patterns at home on my phone. Once I had a few which floated my boat, and more importantly had nothing in the middle I set out for the tunnel. Macro for the first half of the exposure of the pattern, a lens swap to wide angle for the back lit silhouette. I find it super relaxing creating such patterns and textures on my phone and some of them end up as extra layers of interest in my Light Art. Win Win.
Our first night out with Andrew, showing him our favourite tunnel yielded this crazy accident. Chris and I hadn't lined up the orb tool camera rotation correctly so it ended up in the middle of the frame. The happy accident is that my silhouette ended up trapped inside of the middle orb. Mistakes can lead to more ideas and often very left of field results.
This is the last image I created from this tunnel. I went there alone to practice with my new LACE / Pala backlight scanner. A simple walk from the far end of the tunnel to camera, lighting as I went. I added a few flares using a torch shone at the camera and made my way outside where there were a nice patch of gnarly trees. I removed the lens cap and lit the trees from either side. What I didn't notice was a couple having a night time walk who watched me doing it all. Again there was no eye contact and they left me for the night probably thinking I was off my head.
Here is the last shot created in my favourite subterranean refuge from light. This time I took my large Digital Light Wand which had an image I took of some water droplets converted to a bitmap. I rotated the droplets to create the circular centerpiece, swapped tripods, with the camera pointing to one side and rotated the silhouette to fall on either side of the frame. That reminds me I need to dust off the dlw, charge it up and flash some new bitmaps onto it.
I do hope you have enjoyed looking at my tunnel memories with me and if you've lasted this long then congratulations. I can go on a bit sometimes, especially when talking about Light Painting.
Cheers to Chris T again for all his help with some of these and for all the top nights out we've had. Here's to many more once we both have free diaries.
Should any of these shots raise any questions on technique, tools or technicalities then please feel free to ask.
Happy days.
Lightpainting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. Nothing is added or removed in post processing.
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