Light Photography

photos by the Desktop Photo Team

written by Nicole Tessmer

Good lighting is one of the key aspects of taking a good picture, but what happens when you change it up a little? Light painting is a form of photography where you use outside light sources like a phone or glow sticks to “paint” images and shapes in the dark. This is a really fun way to get creative and think outside the box with different styles of photography. We had some fun with this concept here in desktop, so here are some of our results. We’ll also take a brief walk through on how best to execute this type of photography.

The first aspect to consider is what environment is best for light painting. We used the supply closet in room 226, but you could use any room that won’t allow any outside light sources. Eliminating the unwanted light creates the perfect environment to see the other light sources as you “paint” with them. There are a variety of different poses and images that can be created, as you can see in the pictures below. It’s interesting how different color combinations can combine or bring contrast to the picture. From using just one color to melding two together there are hundreds of different possibilities to get creative with.

Camera settings are another important aspect to creating a good “light painting” picture. We used one of the desktop cameras, the Fuji X-T100. It helped to set the camera on a timer so that the photographer could have enough time to move and start “painting”. The lens was open on a set timer allowing more light to enter allowing the light from the phones or glow sticks to be seen. The shutter has to be several seconds long and the ISO, which measures the camera’s sensitivity to light, has to be set at 100 or as low as possible. The F-Stop, which determines the amount of light let in through the lens, has to be set as high as it possibly can. Because the camera takes one shot and has to capture everything you “paint” it takes a couple of tries to get a good photo. From making silhouettes to swirls and outlines there are numerous opportunities to take a great, artistic picture.

So if you want to try this out all you need to do is grab a camera that’s not a phone, a tripod, set the camera to a long shutter speed, and of course, have fun!