Light painting

[leejinks]

I'm looking for a suitable light for light painting, a photography technique where one open's the camera shutter, paints the subject with light, then closes the shutter. I have a SureFire which I like, but the color seems a little too blue. I recently got a Coast #HL7 which seems to have good color and the ability to focus and the fact that it can be dimmed are added pluses. Its only drawback is that it's cumbersome while trying to hold it in your hand.

Here's what I think I want, but would be open to suggestions:
Color 5400K to 5600K (not an absolute)
Brighter is better, but not a priority. I really like the ability to dim the light.
Ability to focus the beam is nice since flood would more likely be used.
I'm not sure how to describe it, but the light should not be able to be seen from the camera, just the light that hits the subject. The person with the light will be walking around in the scene, so there can be no light spilling around the edge of the flashlight.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

I suggest a neutral-white forward-clicky, flood-to-throw light for this. In my experience, you can work with a general-use beam shape (hotspot and spill) although flood-to-throw optics give a nice even wash of light.

Having a light that isn't visible from the camera basically means that no part of the optic or reflector is visible. This is made from care in pointing the light while it's on, and a matte black bezel that sticks out past the lens or reflector.

Forward clicky is a plus, but reverse clicky works as long as you hold the light off between blasts.

I've done hundreds of lightpainting shots with a Quark 2xAA Neutral White, with good results. I like the cheap flood-to-throw widgets from dealExtreme, but I think I swapped the emitters in mine.

Unfortunately they don't sell the one I used, but I think CPF will come through with specific examples.

 

[ylw]

Maybe a silly suggestion, but how about a cheap incandescent light..say a Mini Mag?

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Maybe a silly suggestion, but how about a cheap incandescent light..say a Mini Mag?

Rarely bright enough.

 

[ylw]

Is it? I've seen lot's of people still use those kind of torches specifically for light painting. The camera is good enough to pick these kind of things up. However, if you want to light a specific object a flash is what most will use. As with any picture...it also takes skill and some experimenting (in this case experiment with the exposure time as well as covering up the lens with the shutter still opened (as you'd do with lightning as well)). That also makes or breaks light painting pictures.

 

[reppans]

Does tint really matter? Most any camera capable of keeping a shutter open should have a manual white balance setting.

I'd go with a variable magnetic ring for light adjustment, Jetbeam and Sunwayman have some offerings in reasonable price ranges. The variable ring will let you instantly (and infinitely) change your lumens to emphasize/deemphasize different areas of your subject.

 

[leejinks]

@ylw - intensity isn't a huge factor, but having the ability of more light gives me flexibility of using a shorter shutter time which helps to control the ambient light. Less bright lights just means the shutter needs to be open longer.
@reppans - tint matters because the flashlight isn't the only light in the photo. Ambient light will also spill into the scene.

@all - I have, in the past, tried to get the entire scene in one shutter actuation. I then realized I'm using digital, so I can light different areas with different takes and combine them in post.

 

[gcbryan]

What about a light with different colors? I have a light that is only about 30 lumens but it has 9 different colors plus white.

 

[Max_Power]

You might enjoy attending a flashaholic gathering with your camera and tripod, and experiment with some of the lights other people bring. This sort of thing is what high-CRI lights are perfect for. Neutral white and high-CRI would be the holy grail.

Or, use raw mode and play with the color balance in layers during post-processing (more work.)

 

[sbrom]

I'm playing the same game right now.

I've started with a Fenix TK21 U2 special edition and 4Sevens Neutral White Quark AA2. I'm very happy with the light quality/color from both.

I built some snoots for the lights from black gaffer tape and cardboard to control the spill of the light during painting.

I'm considering adding an Eagletac M3C4 XM-L (one LED) for selectively lighting up more distant objects in the landscape, given its long throw.

Here is an example from a recent outing to Sleepy Hollow cemetery. It was nearly pitch black. A 45 sec exposure at F18, with all the lighting other than the blue sky supplied by me, painting with the two lights.



Good Luck!

Sbrom

 

[leejinks]

@JDM - Thank you. From the original post you see I have the Coastal HL7. I've been looking at the HP14 and even possibly the HP17. I like what I see from your P7.
@sbrom - Both the TK21 and Neutral White Quark AA2 look good.
@Max Power - I was hoping not to become a flashaholic and attending a gathering might just send me over the edge. So where would I find one of these gatherings?
@gcbryan - I do experiment with color, but I find holding color film in front of the lens as I light different parts of the scene, to be the easiest method.

 

[Max_Power]

Look for flashaholic gatherings here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?26-Trade-Shows-amp-Flashaholic-Get-Togethers

 

[ylw]

@sbrom why use the flashlights instead of the flash? I can image you need a flashlight with lots of throw for the pictures JDM posted but your example could be done with flash. Just wondering :)

 

[sbrom]

@sbrom why use the flashlights instead of the flash? I can image you need a flashlight with lots of throw for the pictures JDM posted but your example could be done with flash. Just wondering :)

Great question! It would be very different if done with a single flash/strobe. Not necessarily bad. Perhaps I could have gotten the same look with multiple remote strobes. With a single strobe however I think this is what would happen:

1) The light falloff would be very noticeable if I used a single-strobe to the left, which would be my chosen placement in order to light the front of the foreground tombstones. (I wanted a sharp cross-light to bring out the surface texture)

2) Behind the foreground tombstones you'd notice significant shadowing.

3) The background tombstones would be poorly and inconsistently lit.

4) The tree would be underexposed (again due to light falloff from the strobe to the left of the scene)

Most importantly - I enjoyed using the flashlights! It was fun waving them around and experimenting with effects/reviewing the frame, and optimizing. All the time fighting the oncoming darkening sky. :):):)

Sbrom

 

[MikeAusC]

. . . . . Perhaps I could have gotten the same look with multiple remote strobes. With a single strobe however . . . . . .

. . . or a single strobe manually fired multiple times as its it's moved to multiple locations. A common technique for cave photography.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

. . . or a single strobe manually fired multiple times as its it's moved to multiple locations. A common technique for cave photography.

It depends on the strobe. I appreciate popping strobes off for very sharp portraiture underground, but for big areas I prefer to wave lights around to get balanced lighting.

Here is an example of an underground hike we took a few years ago in a stream downtown*. I used 3 of my own flashlights for lighting, and the other hikers' lights were used for that stunning wash across the water.

Mixing flashlights and strobes is dang hard. I know the theory and the math, but I find it easier to judge mixed-light shots when I am mixing continuous sources. Converting candle-seconds (or worse, 'Flash Rating') to lumen-seconds is harder than I like when working quickly.

Flashes tend to not have the output patterns I want. They are generally for shooting things about an equal distance away - an object a bit closer to a flash pop will be much brighter! Flashlights make it easier to play the light on distant objects for longer to correct for this.

There is a certain joy, too, in lighting an entire scene with one conventional source of light. There's a British gentleman who walks around with a car battery and a car headlight to lightpaint the castles there.







*Per that CPF rule of legality, walking here is frowned upon but legal.

 

[ylw]

. . . or a single strobe manually fired multiple times as its it's moved to multiple locations. A common technique for cave photography.

Exactly what I was thinking. Back in the old days this is what people would do to light out certain objects. You could use normal lights as well but that's more challenging when outside (it is common in studios). Light painting itself is quite different from that as you use the flashlight as if it were a brush. You are painting, not lighting out objects.

Btw, LEDs can also create problems with the white balance on cameras. It helps if you can set the WB manually by dialling in the temperature (in-camera or when post-processing). Flashes have this problem to a much lesser extend as the AWB already knows what it will do (especially if you use the own brand flashes, say a Canon flash when using a Canon DSLR). As said, flashes have a max range, flashlight can go further than that (especially the HID ones).

 

[vali]

For light painting I would suggest taking a look at the incandescent section here in CPF.

 

[AlPal]

I've been shooting landscapes for over 30 years, but just started light painting about a year ago. Done properly, it can produce some spectacular results. Like many folks on this forum, I've got quite a few lights. I only use one of them for my light painting - a lowly $60 Led Lenser P7. I much prefer it to my $300 lights due to it's unmatched versatility with the adjustable focus. If your beam is too focused and powerful, the beam itself will actually be rendered on the image. If the beam is too soft, insufficient illumination will result. If the beam is too floody (wide), you may end up lighting up subjects that you are trying to keep out of the picture. The P7 is perfect because I can adjust it just right to avoid all of these issues. Below are 2 examples of light painting shots I took last April in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. Both images were shot at about 3:00am using my P7.



"Stargate"



​"Balanced Rock and Milky Way"

Great Photos,JDM. Well done.

 

[leejinks]

I couldn't decide on one light so I got two. I'm concerned about becoming a flashaholic already. I got the Phoenix LD40 for the neutral white color and the Coast HP14 for the zoomable beam. The HP14 is much less blue than my Surefire, so I think the color will work for me too. I choose these two because I also use several strobes and I have a lot of NiMh AA's and didn't want to outfit with a different set of batteries. The only bad part is that I haven't done much light painting since getting the new lights.