I'm really into light graffiti. (when you take a flashlight and write stuff and then capture it) But I'm not the best at it and can never get full letters or drawings. I was wondering if there are any tips for getting full words written?
I have a canon rebel.
thanks :)
Well you need the shutter open for as long as you'll need to write the stuff, is the first tip. Stick it into Tv mode and you'll be able to dial up times of up to 30 seconds. To give you an idea, I managed to do both of these inside of 30 seconds...
... although they were pretty tight. One does need to be fast, for these things.
Next you need to make sure you let the right amount of light in, which depends on whether you're doing this at night or day and stuff. If this doesn't work right in Tv mode, go all out and hit Manual mode, dial up the 30 second shutter, and experiment with waving your torch around in front of it, with different aperture (the f-number) settings, until you see your patterns clearly.
Ah yes that's the part I forgot - you can set a countdown timer on the back of the camera, I forgot the exact button but it's kinda a circle with a line cut into it, sort of like a clock face. So you can set a delay, press the shutter, then dart in front of the lens and wave your arms about for 30 seconds.
The much easier option, if you're really into this, is to get a remote trigger. I can personally vouch for this one which is wireless and works an absolute charm - you can also set it to take a shot every X seconds, so you can do time lapse stuff with it. On the cheaper end you can get wired remote triggers from anywhere, with a few metre long cables, so you can press that, drop it on the floor or throw it so the cable goes out of shot, and wave away. Highly recommend the wireless one, though.
@eyebrows great info as usual. Is there any advantage to using the Bulb setting? I have seen this term used in relation to light painting, but I'm not real clear what exactly it is and why it would be better then a 30 sec exposure.
I`m also kind of new to light-painting,but I find it fascinating. I normally set it at around around 40 seconds shutter speed,and aperture 22 , self time and experiment.
But sadly I still can`t wrap my head around it.I only made 3 (lame) attempts,so far,and the best one is a totally random and lucky result.Here are mine,from this project so far:
I`m not really happy with my light-painting talents,and I can only dream to achieve the greatness of this guy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jannepaint/5056249147/
@rebcastillo77 The only reason I mention "30 second" is that's the highest you can go on Canons, at least the ones I've had. You could use "bulb" sure, but that means having to hold the shutter release button down yourself (unless you have some remote trigger than can do it for you) for the entire time you want the shutter open, which tends to introduce more problems.
@stepheesue A fine compliment you do pay me miss, thanks :) but even if I'm not uploading I'll probably still be here... plus there's the other members of Team Helpful (that I'm too tired to recall the full roster list for) who'll be on call!
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... although they were pretty tight. One does need to be fast, for these things.
Next you need to make sure you let the right amount of light in, which depends on whether you're doing this at night or day and stuff. If this doesn't work right in Tv mode, go all out and hit Manual mode, dial up the 30 second shutter, and experiment with waving your torch around in front of it, with different aperture (the f-number) settings, until you see your patterns clearly.
Do I need the help of others to create these or will I be able to set a self timer?
The much easier option, if you're really into this, is to get a remote trigger. I can personally vouch for this one which is wireless and works an absolute charm - you can also set it to take a shot every X seconds, so you can do time lapse stuff with it. On the cheaper end you can get wired remote triggers from anywhere, with a few metre long cables, so you can press that, drop it on the floor or throw it so the cable goes out of shot, and wave away. Highly recommend the wireless one, though.
But sadly I still can`t wrap my head around it.I only made 3 (lame) attempts,so far,and the best one is a totally random and lucky result.Here are mine,from this project so far:
I`m not really happy with my light-painting talents,and I can only dream to achieve the greatness of this guy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jannepaint/5056249147/
and my fav but not really light painting
On my old Canon 300D and now on the 5D I have used the max 30sec on TV and stop it to about f/8 and even f22.
More recently remote release with bulb setting stopped to f22 (me thinks - look at the exif info of the pix)