Technique 35
Photography News Issue 26 absolutephoto.com
Paintwith light
Left Compare the light-painted final image with the same scene as lit by the room lights and you’ll quickly see how powerful this method of lighting can be. I combined several separately lit 4sec exposures to make the final image in Photoshop, but there’s nothing to stop you setting a longer exposure and trying to paint it all in one go.
This time of year, daylight becomes an increasingly rare commodity and if you’re anything like me, you feel like hibernating until the smell of Easter eggs wakes you up. But for photography the lack of light just means you need to be more inventive; you have tomake your own. Here’s an example, a technique that uses old- fashioned light-painting tricks but gives thema digital gloss. Light painting works by setting up a long exposure, then illuminating the subject while the shutter is open; the longer the exposure, the more time you’ll have to do it, and by moving the light you can get a lovely soft look. Set an exposure of, say, 5secs, and depending on the size of the subject, you’ll be able to pass a light right over it, wrapping the illumination around and reducing shadows. Butwhat if youwant toget different types of light, all the in the same picture? Different strengths, different angles, and different colours? That’s a bit more complicated, unless you
Lighting style As my intention was to shoot lots of exposures with the light in different places, I took plenty of shots, knowing I could pick the best to combine later. The style of lighting comes from how you hold the light. Close to the subject the light is stronger with fewer shadows; further off it’s weaker, but harder looking. So to get the same level of illumination you need to hold the light longer further away, and more brieflywhen close up. I also used aMaglite with the bezel removed and shone the naked bulb through the plastic beacon on top of the Power Loader to light it. This was tricky and I very nearly jogged the model – that would have been bad news, because one of the most important things when shooting to combine exposures is that you watch out for minor movements in camera position and subject. Any shift and your pictures won’t line up easily. Lighten up Blending the images is easy. If you have Adobe Bridge, select the files to use, then go to Tools > Photoshop > Load files into Photoshop Layers. This will stack all the pictures up in the same document. If you don’t have Bridge, open the pictures individually, then copy and paste them all into the same document to create the layers. From here, you just need to change each layer’s Blending mode to Lighten. So, in the Layers palette, click where it says Normal and pick the Lighten option from the list. The Lighten blending mode lets all the lightest parts of the stacked images show up, so all the separately painted exposures will come together at once. And because the way Lighten works, if there’s part of a layer you don’t want to see, just paint over it with black using the brush tool to make it invisible. KS
also use software like Photoshop or Elements. Because these programs let you blend images using layers, you can easily combine separate exposure and build up a light-painted effect. Setting up the subject You can paint anything with light – the larger it is, you’ll just need a longer exposure and a more powerful torch. But tabletop subjects are the easiest, and that’s what I used here. The exposures themselves must be shot in darkness, but when setting up, keep the room lights on, so you can focus and perfect your composition. I set up the subject (a 1/12 scale Aoshima Aliens Power Loader, thanks for asking) on top of a suitably distressedmetal tray andwith a black card behind. Take a look at the before version above right, and you’ll see how rubbish this looks with the lights on; the card doesn’t even cover the background. But this doesn’t matter because with the right lighting, all the clutter will disappear.
I set up a Nikon D800 and 24- 70mm f/2.8 lens on a tripod, focused and then switched to manual focus to prevent it hunting when the lights went off. Setting the camera tomanual exposure, I dialled in settings of 4secs at f/16, ISO 100. A test exposure with the room lights off and no torch showed the scene in total darkness, so control over the lighting would be complete. I set the white-balance to daylight, more on that in a moment. Finally, I set the drive mode to self- timer, giving me enough time to trip the shutter and start moving the light. Holding a torch Many people use mini LED torches for light painting, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but for ease of use, kit designed specifically for photographers is always a benefit; enter the Rotolight Creative Colour Kit (see panel). Setting off the first exposure, the ring-shaped Rotolight was easy to pass over the subject or hold in place formore directed effects. Holding it in one hand, I could also use the other to create a flag to stop it the light falling on the background and keep that dark. Checking the exposures at this point, if the subject is too dark, you’ll need to move the light closer, use a longer exposure keeping it on the subject for more time; or you could raise the ISO. If it’s toobright, do the opposite. Going back to setting that manual daylight white-balance, the Rotolight’s gels meant that I could get a contrasting mix of warm and cool light. I chose to use a blue gel fromone side, orange from the other and a little daylight balanced light from the front to fill the shadows. I also used a blue- gel to put a spot on the background. If the white-balance had been set to Auto it would have adapted to the light so the difference in frameswould have beenmarginal.
Rotolight LED
You can use almost any type of torch for this technique, but the Rotolight Stealth RL 48, part of the Creative Colour Kit did a really good job. You can fit Lee Filters gels for colour effects, and it’s a snip at under £100. Rotolight.com
Exposure 1
Exposure 2
For photography the lack of light means you have to be more inventive Left Four of the light-painted exposures that were blended into the final image. As it’s only the light areas that are visible in the final composite, the separately-lit parts combine seamlessly. Streaks of light from the torch can be painted out of the layered image so it doesn’t matter if you put the light in shot trying to get the angle right.
Exposure 3
Exposure 4
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