Light Painting Photography Instructions - C10

[Ekliptix]

Hi! I'm going to share a photo technique for your C10 that uses simple tools and can create photos you can't believe you actually took. I'm happy with how well these turned out, myself. If you decide to try this, post your results. If it's not working for you, no problem, I'm happy to suggest some adjustments to make.

Video showing the steps, with trial and error: https://youtu.be/dJHV4IMHXuA

Setup


Results


Equipment needed:

• Tripod. AmazonBasics has tripods for cheap, $30.
• Flashlight (good to have a few types to see what works)
• Camera with manual mode

Concept:
Cameras collect light. That's their job. When you take a photo in the daylight, the light from the sun bounces off the subject and into the camera lens. That's how the photo shows up later (digital or film). In the pitch dark, a photo will be black because there is no light for the camera to see and create the picture. So, in the dark you can provide the light via a flashlight! This offers you the control to dictate what the camera sees. Wherever you shine the light during the photo, that lit-area will appear in the photo. Why am I not visible in the photos? Because I never let the light touch me. As far as what the camera sees, I'm dark, so it does't register me as in the photo. Only what the light touches.

Camera Setting:
Your camera will need a manual mode. Why? Because this type of photography is all about controlling 2 major settings, and trial and error. It took 40+ attempts to get the final photos I liked, below. This means making large or small adjustments to the following settings: Aperture & shutter speed.

Aperture:
This is a ring within the lens that can open or close to let more or less light in. A photo will be brighter if the aperture is open, and darker if the aperture is closed. The term to describe the aperture setting is F-stop, and it describe in the units of F4, F8, F11, F18, etc. There's a big range of aperture values for each lens. The odd thing to remember is F4 is more open (more light) then F18. Check out the illustration below.


Shutter Speed:
Shutter speed means how long the camera is letting light in, during the photo. Typical photography uses fractions of a second to capture a still image (1/500th of a second). When there is a lot of light available (sunshine) a very short (brief) shutter speed (1/500th of sec) is required to allow the light to build up and create the image. When there is less light available (indoors), more time is required for the available light to build up in the camera to create the photo (1/5th of a second). Shutter speed or "exposure time" can be thought about like leaving a piece of tan leather out in the sun. The longer you leave it there, the more bleached it's going to become. This 'brightness' of the leather in the sun is related to a) how long the sun hits the leather, and b) how intense the sun is. The same is true for the brightness of the photo building up.

In the case of light painting photography, I typically use a 30 second exposure. That's right 30 entire seconds of light entering the camera. This is why I put it on Manual mode, so I can set the shutter speed to 30 seconds. My aperture is typically F9 or F16, depending on the power of my flashlight. It'll take trial and error to figure out what aperture you'll need for the photo to be bright enough vs too bright.

Why do I want 30 seconds of shutter speed? Mainly to give myself time. Time to grab my flashlight, run over to the truck, and have time to 'paint' light on the truck for a 30 second period.

This brings the tripod into the picture. Have you tried taking a photo inside, with poor light and no flash? If you're holding the cameara, guess what? You're moving. In auto mode, the camera senses it's dark, so to compensate it a) opens the aperture up, and b) tries to apply a long shutter speed to collect the little light that's available (1/5th of a sec sometimes). During this 1/5th of a second, you are MOVING, even a little. This causes a blurry photo. This is why in auto mode, the flash will typically try to add light to the scene to the goal of getting a brief shutter speed to avoid a blurry photo.

The tripod fixes this 'movement' problem that creates blurryness. During the 30 second exposure, the camera is totally still. And since the truck is totally still, there is no blurryness.

Other tips:

• ISO - I'm not going to get into ISO here, but I recommend a low ISO setting as long exposure in digital cameras can create noise in the photo, so a low ISO can help combat this. I personally used ISO 200 in all the photos here and it worked out.
• Focusing - In the dark, it's hard for the camera to see the truck and auto focus on it. It just keeps hunting. I kept my tripod in the same spot for ~20 pictures, meaning my focal distance to the truck didn't change. My process was: 1) put the camera in auto focus mode, 2) point the flashlight at the truck so the camera can see the truck, 3) push the shutter release button 1/2 way down which enables auto focus (on every camera, trust me) and lock on to the truck, 4) disable auto focus. Step 3 sets the focal distance correctly. When I set it to manual focus in step 4, it means when I start the picture, the camera won't be hunting in the dark to try and auto focus before taking photo.
• Timer - Remember above where I said movement during the exposure can cause a blurry photo? When you use your finger to hit the shutter release button to start the photo, you touching the camera introduces movement! To get around this, set a 10 second timer on the camera. This way, 1) you allow 10 seconds for the camera to stop moving after touching it and 2) you have more time to run over to the truck with your flashlight.
• White balance - If the color in your photos looks really yellow or really blue, it means the white balance is off. The AWB (auto white balance) can often work ok, but if not, there are some pre-set white balance settings that can also work. Most LED flashlight have a white/blue tone, so I found the pre-set white balance of 'fluorescent' or 'flash' help match the LED color tone, providing a natural color from the photo.
• Light streaks - It's important to not point the flash light AT the camera during the photo. This can cause some interesting effects (see below), but typically you don't want these streaks. So, when shining the flashlight, be conscious of where it's pointing.

Results:










Good luck!

[notsolo]

FANTASTIC photos. ....I think you forgot to mention 1st, you need to polish your truck till your fingers bleed......Awesome results...Thanks for sharing.

[dmjlambert]

This is a downright fun post you've made here. Good work. You're right, I would not believe it if I took those, I'm sure mine would not turn out that great. Of course my truck looks best in the dark, especially if you're not poking around with a flashlight! :-)

I have done something like this with a film camera in the dark with shutter open and then walked around lighting up various items with a portable photo flash unit. But yours is better with a flashlight because the fill does not have the sharp and deep shadows that a flash gives, your lighting is more uniform and natural. I like your flashlight on a stick idea. Very nice work and nice truck.

[special-K]

Reminds me of brochure photography

[KQQL IT]

Chasing clouds.

Been messing with a 10 stop ND 30 seconds in daylight

[Jim Boy]

Back in 1966 I had a 63 Chevrolet Impala and was going to get it painted. I loved the new colour that Chrysler came out with that year called Red Maple. I said to the body guy and showed him a picture of the colour, I want this colour. He said he can get it close but not exactly the same unless I want to drive around with lights hanging all over the car. The picture was taken inside with all the the lights at certain angles to bring out the best look. I painted the car that colour and was happy with the way it turned out as it changed colour from day to night and even under the street lights there was a different glow. Since then lighting has meant something to me when looking at different paint jobs so far as to have test sheets done so I can view them under different lights and very important out in the daylight not inside an office or body shop. Be fussy it's fun and drives the body guys crazy. Have a good one eh!

[weq92f]

.
Impressive results! Did you have multiple light points on the full truck pics? I could only discern a single one, like you stuck the stick in the ground somewhere off the passenger rear quarter aimed at the scene. Those are nice with the snow/shadow effect.

Looking good.

-klb

[Ekliptix]

If you check out the video, at the 10:45 mark you'll see the way I applied light in 2 steps:
1) Move the flash light from the front grill around the side of the truck, along the lower trim. I'd call this multiple-points, since I'm walking and moving the light.
2) run over to another location and shine a more powerful light at the truck, and the background. This is also multiple points, since I'm standing in one place, but moving where the light is shining on the truck during the photo.

Does this answer your question?

[weq92f]

Yes thanks..

-klb

[cornerstone]

Learned a bunch from this thread, Thanks!

[bruceman1968]

Ekliptik, thank you so much for turning me on to light painting 3 years ago. Every year when my brother comes to visit we spend a evening light painting. Here is a photo of my truck that we did the first year. You have seen it before but for everyone else here it is.



165 photos were taken and out of those I stitched about 50 together in photoshop to create the finished photo. Here is the first photo showing only the interior lit up. I used a LED light stick on the floor of the cab pointing up. The aperture is F5.6 and shutter speed 1 sec.



For this photo I was laying down in the bed and my brother operated the camera. I used a 110V stage light and bounced the light off a orange 5 Gal Home Depot bucket to get the orange reflected light. The aperture is F5.6 and shutter speed 1 sec.



In this photo the stage light was pointed the other way with the same aperture and speed settings.



In this photo you can see me and the trail from the LED light stick. Of course the unwanted parts are taken out in photoshop when all the layers are stitched together. The aperture was 5.6 and shutter speed 10 secs. For each photo I would paint a different part of the truck or the background/foreground ect..



This type of photography really makes for a fun evening and really interesting photos. The lights I used were a 110V stage light, a 48 inch shop light, holding them by hand with a long extension cord, and a light stick which was battery powered. Thanks Ekliptik, Great thread and Youtube video.

[jimbosprint]

Thanks so much for the photography lesson. This is the nicest night photo I have ever taken of my truck. It took just a few minutes and a half dozen tries. And I took it with my Samsung S7 cell phone!

With a little more effort, I'm sure I could do better.

[LEEVON]

Wow, I need a nicer camera asap!

[KQQL IT]

You ever mess with nuetral density filters?

10 stop filter
30 seconds in mid day sun

[Ekliptix]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

Wow, I need a nicer camera asap!

$500 or anything with manual mode is all you need.

Originally Posted by KQQL IT

You ever mess with nuetral density filters?
10 stop filter
30 seconds in mid day sun

Yes, but mainly to darken a too-bright sky, to let the foreground appear brighter. I've never done a long exposure in the daylight like you did there. Nice work!

[EagleChief]

Just watched your video. That is very cool!! I admire photography and quality stuff, but have no idea how to do it. Haha! I might have to try this out sometime, if I can figure out how to adjust my camera to do that. LOL

Very cool photos!!

[Ekliptix]

Little update. My friend came over in his lambo last night. We parked it in the same spot the C10 photos were taken, above. Now it's summer, so no snow this time. He setup his camera beside mine, and I taught him all the steps. He did most of the actual light-painting.

[weq92f]

.
Great shot.

Was your friend wearing sandals with white socks? LOL! Looks like he stood in one spot too long there in that first shot.

-klb

[Ekliptix]

haha, I didn't see that before. Those are his white+black sneakers. Good eye.

[dmjlambert]

I kind of like that extra foot.

[Ekliptix]

Btw, the camera I used was a whopping $500. The light was $10.
The 2 recent photos above took about 50 attempts of trial and error.
The photos are not edited! They're straight off the camera.

[weq92f]

.
A local speed shop posted this image on their FB page.

With the bit of knowledge I've gained on this thread, it's looking to me like this is a pretty good effort. My guess is that the image hasn't been edited otherwise the EXIT sign would have been deleted. Wonder how many takes it took...

-klb

[KQQL IT]

Light paint
Long exposure
1 frame

Gone plaid...

[OregonNed]

I'll have to try this.. I have all the gear to do it. My friends use the same techniques in the field with nature landscapes

[70cst]

Awesome ...