Here in the UK in May, June and July, it doesn't get properly dark till well after 10pm. If I wanted to shoot star trails, it's one hell of a task staying up late till 3 am and being hungover and jetlagged the following day. Being a keen lightpainting photographer, I need locations which are both dark in daylight and preferably local. So finding an abandoned railway tunnel only 10 miles from home was amazing to me.
Spinkhill Railway Tunnel near Sheffield, South Yorkshire was built in the 1890's and looks like it was a two rail track tunnel and the headroom inside is one of the highest I've seen. I've recce'd this location in January but the entrance was flooded with 3 feet of water. And another reason I didn't enter was that hanging from the ceiling of the tunnel were enormous stalactites of ice. No amount of bravery would get me to wander inside a tunnel up to my nether regions in freezing, icy water whilst wondering when I would be skewered by falling stalactites!
So last night, @neilru75 and I set out to visit Spinkhill Tunnel hoping that the flooding would have subsided and the stalactites melted by now. As we made our way into the cutting leading to the tunnel, it wasn't easy climbing over boulders and trudging through the mud. Being built for comfort and not for speed, climbing over a fallen tree in the way wasn't easy either!
Once inside the tunnel, we had a productive evening:
Alien death rays....
This was the last shot of the evening and seems to have been my most successful. I've used a cheap fractal filter and my "tilt and pan" method for the trails of light. I tilt the camera and shoot the silhouette, then just before the exposure ends, I pan the camera across in the opposite direction to the subject. The multiple silhouettes and rays are the result of using a fractal filter.
Zoom Pulling
I had intended to bring continuous lights with me but I forgot to charge the batteries. Here I've used a Godox AD200 strobe and zoomed in from out, one step at a time. The pose here really helped! Another fractal filter shot:
Beam me up Scotty!
I placed two small RGB LED panels either side of the camera and zoom pulled with a fractal filter. The green laser pen used added another element although I would have liked more beams. The smoke pellets being used wouldn't behave themselves and the air vortices in the tunnel were very wierd!!
More Neils than you can shake a stick at!
I would count how many Neils I can see but it's Sunday morning as I write this and the coffee on my desk is more appealling!
The Tilt and Pan Shot
I must admit to becoming quite addicted to this technique. I tilt the camera and shoot the silhouette. Then leaving the shutter open, I ask the model to switch on the torch and I simultaneously pan the camera across the frame. For this one I used a full frame 12mm fisheye lens making use of the aperture ring. The line created looks better if you can reduce the aperture to let less light on to the sensor.
All of the above images were created in one photographic exposure and are not the result of Photoshop manipulation! After all these years, I still feel compelled to remind everyone!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
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.
If you would like to see more lightpainting please give the Lightpainters United Community a follow and you will be introduced into the illuminating world of light painting!
If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys:
Mafu Fuma | Oddballgraphics | FadetoBlack | DAWN | Mart Barras | Stefan Stepke | Nikolay Trebukhin | Lee Todd | Stabeu Light | Maxime Pateau | Stephen Sampson | lightandlense | Neil Rushby | L.A.C.E.
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