Our photo club got together to do some light-writing this past Saturday and I decided seven of the shots I took would go perfectly with my crazy editing month since they had some really interesting patterns and designs. I'll be playing around with the color tomorrow, but for today, the more traditional shot which although it appears to be black and white is actually color.
WOW!!! Thank you for such an overwhelming response to my light writing! I apologize for the blanket response on my part- but I've got some catching up to do and this takes less time.
It's not complex and there are no special filters to accomplish this shot. Here is what I did:
My camera was mounted on my tripod which has a ball joint allowing me to swivel the camera side to side and up and down.
ISO- 100, set on Bulb (which allowed me to keep the shutter open as long as I wanted just as long as I continued to press the shutter release button- according to the exif info, I held this one open for 3 secs)
The aperature was set at f 5/6 (the wider you can open your lens, the more light gets on your shot. The lowest my camera goes is f5) I find there is a fine balance between having the shutter open too wide (the light overexposes that way) and too narrow (the light is very faint then) so this combo seems to have worked well for this kind of light-writing.
I used my 18-55mm lens. (This gives you the impression that I know lenses and when to used them- not really so- it's just the lens I have on my camera most of the time!)
Find a place where there is very little or no ambient light. We were in a field several miles out of town with a mountain in between us and the town. Obviously, you will need someone to hold the light for you unless you want to mess around by trial and error doing it yourself with a remote shutter release! Have your partner turn on the light and focus. Once you've gotten the focus to your satisfaction you're ready to play with your light source. In this case the "light" was a wheel we'd seen used for making light domes. But you can use any number of creative light sources. Once we finished making the domes, we started playing around with the wheel in different ways. Here, my friend held the wheel by its axle and moved it around in the air in front of herself.
So, how did I get this effect? Well, it's simple. Rather than keeping the camera stationary and catching whatever ended up in the frame, I followed her movements (to the best of my ability in the dark!) and kept the shutter open as I did so and voila! Since she was in dark clothes and doesn't emit any light the camera only picked up the light of the wheel and the way she moved it.
I only slightly sharpened this in post-processing as well as strengthening the contrast but the adjustments were minimal so if you're not into post-processing you could still replicate this effect without it.
Now, that you know, I'll be expecting to see some of these on your projects!
Ah ha! The key thing here is the use of a wheel. Great work.
I have used a light wheel before but only in a static position. So this is rather enlightening. I must have a go with a hand-held wheel sometime. Here is a previous work that you have seen before... http://365project.org/netkonnexion/365/2012-09-26
I forgot to thank you for taking the time to write out these directions. Finding an assistant would be my biggest problem I think. I may give it a whirl someday though. Thanks again Ann.
@prttblues Thanks Bev! And thanks for the fav too! We were out in the dark for a couple hours and after the sun went down it did get chilly. I couldn't believe it when I got in the car and turned the heat on- in JULY!!! But I'd dressed for a picnic that afternoon and didn't change so I was cold!! My joints were definitely NOT happy with me- but I was happy with all those light shots!
WOW!!! Thank you for such an overwhelming response to my light writing! I apologize for the blanket response on my part- but I've got some catching up to do and this takes less time.
@vankrey @littleconnie @jeanniec57 @netkonnexion @cdonohoue @suesouthwood @sailingmusic @helenhall
It's not complex and there are no special filters to accomplish this shot. Here is what I did:
My camera was mounted on my tripod which has a ball joint allowing me to swivel the camera side to side and up and down.
ISO- 100, set on Bulb (which allowed me to keep the shutter open as long as I wanted just as long as I continued to press the shutter release button- according to the exif info, I held this one open for 3 secs)
The aperature was set at f 5/6 (the wider you can open your lens, the more light gets on your shot. The lowest my camera goes is f5) I find there is a fine balance between having the shutter open too wide (the light overexposes that way) and too narrow (the light is very faint then) so this combo seems to have worked well for this kind of light-writing.
I used my 18-55mm lens. (This gives you the impression that I know lenses and when to used them- not really so- it's just the lens I have on my camera most of the time!)
Find a place where there is very little or no ambient light. We were in a field several miles out of town with a mountain in between us and the town. Obviously, you will need someone to hold the light for you unless you want to mess around by trial and error doing it yourself with a remote shutter release! Have your partner turn on the light and focus. Once you've gotten the focus to your satisfaction you're ready to play with your light source. In this case the "light" was a wheel we'd seen used for making light domes. But you can use any number of creative light sources. Once we finished making the domes, we started playing around with the wheel in different ways. Here, my friend held the wheel by its axle and moved it around in the air in front of herself.
So, how did I get this effect? Well, it's simple. Rather than keeping the camera stationary and catching whatever ended up in the frame, I followed her movements (to the best of my ability in the dark!) and kept the shutter open as I did so and voila! Since she was in dark clothes and doesn't emit any light the camera only picked up the light of the wheel and the way she moved it.
I only slightly sharpened this in post-processing as well as strengthening the contrast but the adjustments were minimal so if you're not into post-processing you could still replicate this effect without it.
Now, that you know, I'll be expecting to see some of these on your projects!
@jackie8 I LOVED that toy- and still have mine!
I have used a light wheel before but only in a static position. So this is rather enlightening. I must have a go with a hand-held wheel sometime. Here is a previous work that you have seen before... http://365project.org/netkonnexion/365/2012-09-26
@grammyn Thank you Katy- grab one of your grandkids- they will have a blast twirling the light for you.