Flashlight Photography- Light Painting 101

frisco

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Messages
736
Location
San Francisco
I read these forums and hear about people who use there flashlights for real life things like LEO's, fire, EMT, survival, caving.... Checking on the baby.

My interest in lighting and equipment goes way beyond my needs for a handy flashlight in my glovebox.

In my work as a commercial/advertising photographer I use both electronic flash and continuous burning lamps. Huge outputs up to 5000 watt second strobes, 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k/watts tungsten lamps.

Thanks to CPF I recently participated in a run of lights that Cmacclel produced. His wonderfully built version of the ROP is just stunning in every way. Construction is top notch, fit and finish (HAlll nat) perfect, parts used are commercial grade. What surprised me the most.... Was the beam quality and the color temperature. This is one serious tool....... for a LEO...Fireman....????? Certainly wouldn't think a photographer could use it for more than loading the truck at night???

I just did a project that involved photographing a Race Car in the studio and put the Cmacclel ROP to the test!

Old school light painting !!!! Turned all the lights off in the studio.....opened the shutter, fired off a 1200 watt second strobe light off for the bluish background...... and in the dark..... Turned on my Cmacclel ROP w/HOLA and painted in all the light that is on the Race Car.

The driver in the car was kinda freaked out cause he really didn't know what was going on with the lights out and all.

Check out the attached photo..... Remember the light on the car is done with one Cmacclel flashlight and one exposure on the camera.

Camera- Hasselblad H1
Digital Back- Leaf Aptus 22

frisco


 

Sigman

* The Arctic Moderator *
Joined
Sep 25, 2002
Messages
10,124
Location
"The 49th State"
FANTASTIC pic - THANK YOU for sharing!!

BTW, nice tires! (My brother is one of the supervisors in the design/composition/production process at the Goodyear Tire Racing Division in Akron, Ohio! ---> In other words I don't know exactly what he does, but they make up different rubber compounds/designs and such for all of the racing tires. He's going to love this pic!)
 

greenlight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 18, 2004
Messages
4,298
Location
chill valley
Great pic. The effect you achieved makes it appear as if there are different light sources in the studio.
 

EV_007

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 4, 2006
Messages
924
Location
Over there -- >
Very creative use of a flashlight. I was thinking of playing around with the whole painting with light myself.

Was the color temp that neutral to the naked eye? Did you have to correct for white balance?

Great shot!
 

GhostReaction

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
1,194
Location
Singapore
Yeah, a full size pic would be cool for my PC wall paper.

Somy Nex said:
damn that's nice =)

any chance of a full size pic? ;) :D that's some impressive equipment you got there! :wow: :drool:
 

Somy Nex

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 29, 2005
Messages
746
Location
Penang, Malaysia
:D :laughing: :D :laughing: :D :laughing:

sorry =) although i was half serious, i was also half not... the hasselblad is a medium format camera (a damn nice one i might add), and that digital back is 22 mega pixels. It'd be one hell of a download methinks! ;) but what the heck. if you post it frisco, i'll put it up as my wallpaper too! :D

GhostReaction said:
Yeah, a full size pic would be cool for my PC wall paper.
 

flashlight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
3,554
Location
Republic of Singapore
Great shot. I wouldn't have been able to tell that it was lit using just one flash strobe & one flashlight. :D

What was the exposure time? How far were you working away from the car?

How did the driver manage to stay so still throughout? You sure that's not just a helmet propped up in the cockpit? :grin2:
 

frisco

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Messages
736
Location
San Francisco
Thanks for the comments!


-Was the color temp that neutral to the naked eye? Did you have to correct for white balance?

Camera back was set to Tungsten default. 3200 degrees Kelvin I believe. No post color balance was needed, it was pretty close.

- What was the exposure time? How far were you working away from the car?

Without looking back at the file, I think the shutter was open for about 20 seconds.... But the light wasn't on the whole time..... Gotta turn it off while I move from position to position. Was pretty much between 3 and 6 feet away at all times.

- How did the driver manage to stay so still throughout? You sure that's not just a helmet propped up in the cockpit?

Looking at the pic, I guess we coulda had a propped up helmet there..... but the racer/driver of this car was in it. If you don't know about these type of open wheel cars.... The driver actually gets the seat molded to his body so he stays put in high g force corners.

frisco
 

frisco

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Messages
736
Location
San Francisco
photorob said:
1200 watt seconds is pretty hot. What was your iso and aperture set at.

Wow .... Didn't I was gonna have to get technical.

I think.... Without having the files in front of me..... iso maybe 50 ..... maybe f16 .... There may have been a honeycomb grid in there to narrow the light a bit.

frisco
 

photorob

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 16, 2005
Messages
586
Location
long island ny
I'm just wondering because for 1200 watt seconds that background isn't that hot. I've used my flash lights tons of times for painting night time outdoor scenes. Never really in the studio though. I've been recently playing around with my royal blue tri lux. The camera reads the color as more violet then a blue.
 

frisco

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Messages
736
Location
San Francisco
sniper said:
VERY nice! The old techniques work well, don't they?

I did most of my learning pre-Photoshop days from a true Master. Most old school disciplines and techniques still prevail..... freaks out some new guys! That said.... allot of the new school techniques and equipment are quite amazing!

frisco
 
Last edited:

Robban

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 6, 2004
Messages
849
Location
Sweden
I wish I had the talent to take shots like that. I have a decent camera (nothing like a Hasselblad of course. Us Swedes make pretty decent cameras huh? ;) ) a Nikon D70 but that doesn't help much when you can't handle it properly :(
 
Top