Without even realising it, I seem to have become obsessed with a beam of light in my lightpainting images. It's completely by accident but when I recently bought a new flashlight, an Olight Marauder Mini, it's only then I realised I may be obsessed / possessed / delete as appropriate!
The Olight Marauder Mini emits a focussed beam of light in a small coke can sized light. I can't recommend this torch enough. As well as a focussed beam, the Olight has a wider spread and can also emit quite bright red, green and blue colours. Amazing in a small torch. Needless to say this one has a permanent place in my camera bag!
In addition to my most recent obsession, I managed to take a camera rotation technique a little further. I've been experimenting with spinning light painted circles and camera rotation and pretty pleased with the results.
Take me to your leader!
This is an example of what can be achieved with an extra pair of eyes when lining up a shot.
I set up the Olight in a clamp on a tripod and aimed the beam at a 45 degree angle. I recently realised that if you point the beam forwards toward the camera at say 45 degrees, the light emitted provides incidental lighting to the scene. It should be obvious but I hadn't noticed how soft the light is on the sides of the frame.
Even though the torch is tilted forwards, the beam creates a perspective trick by appearing to point upwards. Adjust the tilt of the torch achieves different levels of side lighting.
I'm looking forward to experimenting with this technique a little more:
The Thing!
One of those nights where an extra pair of eyes would have helped with the beam alignment. I don't have OCD but this alignment was killing me on this evening! There was quite a bit of a breeze going on and throwing a couple of smoke pellets in to the tunnel and then rushing to get in to position isn't easy.
This was about the best I got all night. Rushing to get close enough to the camera to trigger it remotely and guessing where I need to stand without being able to see the camera or any reference points on the floor drove me crazy!
One man fail army
This shot demonstrates how tricky it was getting in to position. It's the kind of shot that sits on my hard drive never to see the light of the internet but Hive gives me a chance to show the fails as well as the successful shots.
I like this one because of the haze from the smoke pellets emanating from the tunnel.
Nailed, despite everything
After many attempts to line myself up in a rush without being able to see the camera, this is as close as I got on my own. Not bad but I did learn never to attempt this on my own. You need an extra pair of eyes!
Experi-Mental
@fadetoblack and I have been lightpainting together for just over 10 years. One of the things that got us working together quite successfully was the experimental side of lightpainting. We were both relative novices at the craft and over the years, we've figured out how stuff is done between us.
Between us we used to marvel at others' lightpainting images and wonder how it was done. It was fun to figure out how and maybe add our own twist. I like to think that both @fadetoblack and I have developed distinct styles born out of this experimentation.
So when Tim and I get together, it's always a good night. This is an idea I've had in mind but it wasn't quite working. It takes another lightpainting brain to help realise the shot even if it's just lowering the tripod to make it work!
I'm not going to reveal how this was done. It's up to the viewer to decide how. But one thing I keep having to remind people is that this is shot in one photographic exposure and is not Photoshopped or even the result of generative AI! Just say no to AI!!!
Upside down, back to front and losing track which way is up!
This shot is a variation of the above where we wondered what would happen if the camera was turned upside down and the rotation of the camera was reversed. I wasn't expecting this but the result is great. One for the memory banks for next time when we're out in the dark to see if we can polish this!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex, landscape and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; the social side of photography is always good!
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