Robert Smith – Crystal ball light paintingĬombine light painting with astrophotography.Ī starry night sky can be so spectacular that it’s tempting to focus on it alone. Especially if you combine the crystal ball with a reflection, you can end up with a fascinating image. Like reflections, crystal balls can bring an unexpected element to a picture of light painting. It’s an easy way to make your photo more dramatic! To double the size and impressiveness of your light painting, shoot it over a reflective surface like a quiet pool of water. For tips on composing photos with silhouettes, check out our post about silhouette photography. When you’re using light painting as a background, you can go a step further and create silhouettes against the light. It’s a great way to instantly make a simple portrait or still life photo more interesting. Often, light painting is the main subject of a photo, but you can also use the technique to create cool backgrounds. Instead of trying to capture a normal portrait, try creating a portrait that’s a bit bizarre, like a dream instead of reality.Īlexandro Valcarcel – Invitation to Light Light painting always adds a surreal element to a photo, but you can choose to lean into that surreality even more. Since you might already need other people to assist you with the light painting, taking their portraits can be a nice way to repay their help! If you want to try something new as a portrait photographer, light painting is a good technique to play with. (Note: this can be dangerous, so be careful, and stay away from flammable locations!) For details, check out this guide to steel wool light painting from Lomography. Want even more drama? Try working with steel wool that’s been set on fire. (Carefully) create sparks with steel wool. Velmerc – Still Life…late night contemplation. Though subtle, shining a light on a still life subject in a dark room can make a huge difference in the mood and drama of your photo. Still life photos are another way to use a static light with light painting. Simon Pankoski – Tee Pee playing with lights Then, with a slow shutter speed, the light will fill the space with a strange glow. You just need to place the light inside an object or building. This idea is much easier than drawing or writing, since you won’t need to move the light while taking the picture. Although drawing a picture or writing a word with a flashlight is actually more challenging than some of the other ideas on this list, it’s undeniably fun, too. This is often where photographers begin with light painting. It’s super simple to do, though, so even if you’re a beginner, you can find inspiration in the following ideas.
Since those tutorials cover everything you need to know about light painting, we won’t get into the technical details here. Combine Light Painting with Astrophotographyįirst off, for a light painting tutorial, check out this quick one from SLR Lounge or this in-depth one from MasterClass.(Carefully) Create Sparks with Steel Wool.Cool Ideas for Pictures with Light Painting Here are some great ideas for photos of light painting to get your creativity going. Using a slow shutter speed with simple tools like flashlights and light wands, they create scenes from their imagination. Though the light actually exists, the effect of light painting turns it into something fantastical. When photographers paint with light, they manipulate the subject rather than editing the photo. Unless you’re working with photo manipulation, photography tends to be about real things, captured artfully. One exception to this generalization is light painting photography. Many photos focus on capturing a scene or subject that actually exists.