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Mastering the Art of Light Painting at Night

on Oct 26th 2011 with 24 comments

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Every two weeks, we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Phototuts+. This tutorial was first published in December of 2009.

Light painting is the process of photographing at night and illuminating the scene by moving the camera, or a handheld light/torch. The actual source of the light doesn’t need to appear in the photo, but the technique gives you the flexibility to cast light on only certain aspects of a scene. It can lead to some really stunning effects!

In this video tutorial, we’ll take a look at the equipment needed to experiment with light painting, go behind the scenes on location, and walk through the the different images produced during the shoot.

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Simon Plant is an award winning Uk Photographer with over 20 years experience shooting automotive-life-location images for advertising. He also produces Behind The Scenes Digital Photography Tutorials for his training site .  

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  • http://example.com Anon.

    Sorry, some people don’t have super fast internet connections, so video tutorials take too long to load and then watch.

    It would be much more helpful if there was even a simple written explanation, with a couple of photos to go with it.

    • anon

      I don’t know where you live, but most people have broadband. Especially tech saavy people on the net. Just saying

      • http://www.andersoncastro.com Andy

        Yeah this video didn’t take any time to load. and this would have been a looong post to fit all the info that was on the video

  • http://craigps.info/ Craigsnedeker

    Looks awesome, will watch later.

  • http://jackmcdade.com Jack McDade

    Pretty cool, nicely done. Would have liked to have seen a few of the other shots full-sized. Just curious — what camera and lens are you using?

  • jim

    you put tut on your video? i just can’t see your video……you must publish your video on youtube.right??…….our country close all the type like facebook…twitter…..youtube…can you change another video site

  • http://www.cashbackprinting.com Tom

    Videos are always nice. Would it be possible to have someone transcribe it for people who want a quick read?

  • http://www.mywedding.ie gabriel

    great vid thanks!

  • http://www.dubtastic.com Jason Morrison

    I had tried this about a month ago and did not get the shots that I wanted. Sure wish I had seen this because I think my results would have been better. For this type of tutorial, I actually think a video tutorial is perfect. I will second Jack’s comment, however, in that I too would like to have seen more final shots.

    Nicely done, Simon.

  • http://smashingwebs.com/ SmashingWebs.com

    I like photography and I usually go out with my cam :)

    http://smashingwebs.com/

  • http://www.cpdigitaldarkroom.com Carlos

    Usually when using a big light source light that, I like to tape a black large sheet of construction paper to the rim of the torch to help focus the light more to where I can it, it helps in controlling some of the light flashlights sometimes scatter around the scene.

    Good tut, agree with the other guys though, dont have much time to be online because I am always out, a quick written tut would be faster for me to read than a 12min video is to watch,

  • Bryan

    Very nice technique – this is very cool stuff :)

  • iOhnn

    very good!

  • http://www.gregveit.com Greg Goodale

    Great tutorial, thanks Simon.

  • Antonio Martinez-Benedetti

    I vote for a simple written expanlation. Best regards, Antonio Martinez-Benedetti

  • Gabriela Hernandez

    Thanks Simon,

    I think this tutorial will end being very useful for me. Without your tips I think I’d be losing a lot of time with trial and error.

    Will try this technique as soon as I find a cool place to shoot.

  • http://shelbyblue.com/ Paul Groth

    I did a light painting photo of myself reading the paper, and myself again in the same shot looking at the other side of the paper – just used a torch and 30sec exposure if I recall correctly. I just moved to the other chair 15 seconds in – see it here http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs584.snc3/30806_400448431869_691471869_4028835_6673262_n.jpg

  • http://twitter.com/Mikaeltheangel Ulf Anders Hed

    “Mastering the Art of Light Painting at Night”, Yeah, I for sure like it ! (And especially that this should be comment nr 18., which should be rather enlightening I think ; )

  • http://www.noelkernsphotography.com Noel Kerns

    I specialize in this sort of photography, and occasionally offer workshops in and around Texas. Visit my website to see my work, and for more information on techniques and tools, visit the FAQ page.

    http://www.noelkernsphotography.com/

    if you’re interested in a workshop, simply drop me an e-mail.

    Thanks!

    Noel Kerns
    nkerns@gmail.com

  • solomon

    am a photoshop educator and am still undertraining was happy to see all videos here

  • http://www.stephendevlin.co.uk Wedding Photographer Manchester

    Great work many thanks for taking the time to do the video.

  • http://www.lublin-fotografia-slubna.pl Fotografia Ślubna Lublin

    very nice video – thank you, can’t wait to put these techniques into use

  • http://delayfoto.ru/fototehnika/matrica.html VadimG

    Thanks for the video. Aonyatno explains how to make these pictures. I really liked it.

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