Light Painting Photography – Controlled Blur Moving Camera Up/Down

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Photography is about recording light. Light painting, also known as light drawing/light graffiti is a photographic technique that usually involves moving hand held light sources around in a dark place. However careful movement of a camera up/down at the time the shutter is pressed can also result in interesting light painting effects

The first step is to point the camera at a bright light source at night, preferably a colourful building or organisational logo.
Set your shutter speed to 1/4 second. An SLR camera may need a different, probably faster shutter speed depending on the lens used.
Set your ISO to 800 if using a compact camera. Your camera may need this to be set lower if using an SLR.
Focus the camera on the logo or other most colourful part of the building
Press the camera shutter while moving the camera either up or down using your wrists only. Keep the rest of your arms still.

Comments

Kate

October 3, 2011

Interesting concept ‘photography is about recording light’ – very true and something I hadn’t considered before. This is a technique you can employ anywhere but the bright lights of cities probably best capture this notion.
Elizabeth Hunter

February 10, 2012

Exciting idea ‘photography is about documenting light’ – very real and something I had not regarded before. This is a strategy you can hire anywhere but the shiny lighting of places probably best catch this view.