Painting with light is one of the most fun photography techniques I have ever tried. Basically it is leaving the shutter of your camera open on a tripod, playing with lights, then closing the shutter. One picture usually takes several attempts- but the results provide an entirely different experience in photography. It is called painting with light because depending on how you ‘paint’ with light it can create a different picture every time. Here are a few pictures that I have created while playing around.
Spinning Christmas lights. I attached the Christmas lights about 10 feet in front of me and then swung them in a circle as you would a jump rope while I took the picture. Luckily I had a remote for this. Painting with light generally involves more than one person.
I taped an LED string light to the underside of the toy car and had my husband wiggle the light strand up and down while I took the picture.
My husband helped me on this one again. He held an LED light above the pan and wiggled it back and forth to create the steam. I have also seen pictures where individuals have done this over water such as a pond.
I taped an LED string to the wall and flashed it a couple of times. I then took a laser pointer and traced the heart.
This picture is actually a blanket. I hung it up and then traced several of its elements with a flashlight while the shutter of the camera was open.
This was actually my third try doing this picture, and there are still improvements to be made. For this we used a couple of flash guns that I had, placed some colored gel paper over the top of them and painted our cabin.
Okay, enough pictures of my playing around. One last photo I would like to share is by Rusty Sessions of Sidewinder Media. While exploring painting with light techniques I took one of his classes and he showed us the effect of steel wool (as seen below).
If you have an SLR camera, a tripod and want to play- I highly recommend painting with light. If you live in Utah, send me a note, I would love to go!
Chocolate Fact: The word “cacao” is from Greek and means ‘food of the gods’.
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Wow. I’m stunned. I never knew how people could take these types of photos, amazing! I found your post on Summer Fun Party! Thanks for the inspiration.
If you have the gear it is seriously a riot to play with. Thanks for coming by!
Gorgeous photography — I love the effect with the car & the blanket. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! And thanks for coming by! Loved your shutter post BTW…
See you again soon!
So cool! I loved these ideas! Thanks for sharing this great post on Saturday Show & Tell @ Cheerios and Lattes last week!
Hope to see you again this weekend! 
Mackenzie
Thank you for hosting… I always find great things at your blog hop. Thanks for coming by.
amazing photos! i loved this post!
Thanks, we just did some more painting with light today with chocolate. Check it out here. Thank you for visiting today, see you soon!
I featured you today on Blissful and Domestic. Stop by and check it out!
http://www.blissfulanddomestic.com
Thank you for sharing that picture! I love painting with light, it is all about experimenting and playing. Thanks for coming by!