Thinking about hand signs one thinks ultimately about the middle finger at some point. We are all using our hands to amplify our words. In some cases, it makes words unnecessary. The isolated middle finger is probably the most powerful of all signs. For that, I have a thumbs up in my repertoire.

Middle Finger (🖕)

Raising your middle finger while keeping other fingers down, is often accompanied by a closed fist. The isolated middle finger, also known as "flipping the bird," is a vulgar gesture used to express strong disapproval or disrespect. As I found out, the origins are believed to date back to ancient Rome, where it
supposedly symbolized a phallic insult.

As I just spent some time traveling again I came across an Airbnb with this model hand made of wood. It's easy to change shape so I decided to give it a try for a Camera rotation Light Painting. But I wanted to change the hand sign mid-exposure every step of the way. And it worked pretty well. See for yourself.

Before I was going to spin the hand I needed to do a lighting condition test. So here is the first result just testing to light up the hand.

This was the beginning. Simple as it gets. Look for the stripes of the suitcase in the images.

Not exactly knowing where this will go I tested a few different step angles. I settled for 45° steps in the end because the hand was perfectly fitting in this case.

Light only in the front, to show the hand. Easy to do.

As far as this goes I was already pretty happy with what I got here. But our hands can do sooo much more. Then I thought: OK what different hand signs can I do with this hand during the exposure? Less than I hoped and thought at first.

A few hand signs I could just not make the hand do: the Vulcan Salute (🖖) the Okay Sign (👌) Crossed Fingers (🤞) the Victory Sign (✌️) or even the all-so-famous Peace Sign (✌️). I would have loved to have a rotation with all the different signs. Ok, change of plans here.

A quick light test again adding the holographic color foil in the background and changing the gesture with every step of the camera rotation. After that worked out the final performance was going to get me that Banger Light Painting Shot.

This time I decided to settle for four hand signs showing them from front and back at opposite sides of the rotation. So I formed the hand, lit it up with a normal flashlight, then applied some effects with the black fiber brush in orange and repeated the procedure eight times to complete the wheel of hands. And yes that takes time and concentration.

The shot now features the Middle Finger (🖕) at 12 and 6, the Shaka Hang Loose Sign (🤙) at 1:30 and 7:30, Thumbs Up (👍) at 3 and 9, and last but not least the Shocker (🤟) 4:30 and 10:30.

While the Camera was set to ISO 100 and my TTArtisan 50mm tilt-shift to F22 it took me 323 seconds to complete the entire rotation in one single exposure. Quick reminder > all these shots are done in a single exposure and not layered in Photoshop!

I was also testing the Closed Fist (✊), Direction Sign (👉👈) and the Rock On Sign (🤘), Thumbs Down (👎) but especially the last one I wanted to avoid in my Light Painting.

There are a "handful" of other signs I could have used. Any good once I am missing here?

Ok now you guys! What do you think?

Camera Rotation, what?

You've seen it in a bunch of my posts. Camera Rotation YES. Exactly what it says: I spin the camera while the shutter of my camera is open. Sometimes I do it step by step, other times I go for a smooth, continuous rotation. And yeah, while I'm at it, I also throw some light on the scene.

When you are now interested in this specific niche photography technique, there is an article on my website and here on Hive as a blog post.

Link below: