A couple of years ago I managed to drop my very expensive iPad Pro and tried to turn it in to a cracked glass banana! I successfully claimed on my insurance policy and bought myself a shiny MacBook to replace it. But lately I've been missing my iPad and the fact that I could use it as a lightpainting tool.
It would be very easy to use my MacBook as a lightpainting tool too. I don't however relish the idea of dropping my expensive laptop on to a rock or damaging it some way or another. I just know for a fact I am going to break it!
So when my eldest son gets given a free Android tablet and rejects it as a piece of junk, I picked up the tablet and took a look at whether it would be possible to use it as a light source.
This is a post where the iPad has been used in a lightpainting image. The process involves photographing the iPad screen and without ending the exposure, I replace the lens cap to prevent more light from entering the sensor. I then add another element in the image by removing the lens cap with the camera still exposing. Every image that follows is shot in one photographic exposure and are not Photoshop creations. (I'm not that good at Photoshop!)
If Michelangelo was a Lightpainter...
This was my first successful attempt at this technique. I lined up an image of Michelangelo's God's finger to the left hand third and exposed the iPad on the cameras sensor. Then, without ending the exposure, I replaced the lens cap to prevent more light from hitting the sensor. I then spun a drill full of burning steel wool in more or less exactly the right place after first removing the lens cap to allow the light from the spark to expose on the image sensor.
The Kiln at the end of the Universe
This iPad double exposure technique can often lead to new ideas as you shoot away. I realised with this one not to make the image too complex. The background is a nebulae image using a star gazing app on the iPad. The silhouette is @fadetoblack stood posing in a lime kiln in the dark with a pop of gelled flash.
The God Particle
I am a dyed in the wool atheist and I like nothing more than to take the piss out of believers!
Its also great when you realise you can fit a human silhouette inside a Lightpainter orb! This was very much a "make it up as you go" shot!
My best friend, Paranoia
Continuing my lightpainting adventures at the kitchen table in the dark shooting circuit boards and squeezing an eye in the middle of the chip.
Defocus
Using an image on the iPad of a nebula, I decided to defocus the manual lens for this effect.
Can you be sure you aren't being watched?
I made this shot around about the time that Huawei was being regarded with suspicion by the West and no-one can be absolutely certain they aren't being watched!
I zoom pulled on a circuit board and lens swapped to an image of an eye on the iPad. In this case I also panned the camera on the iPad to create a little motion although it's not nearly as obvious as I would like.
Reach out before you pass out
This is the iPad lightpainting technique in reverse. I used a silhouetted image of a model I shot previously to create dark, unexposed spaces in the frame. I then filled the unexposed parts with a lightpainted circuit board pre-arranged in my kitchen.
Where am Eye
And finally this shot won me an award, the 2017 Oviedo Lightpainting Awards as the outright winner. It was originally done as a quick demonstration to another lightpainter to show him the technique.
At first I wasn't too keen on the image but posted it to social media and it was surprisingly well received. So much so I entered this in to the competition and to my amazement it won!!
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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