This week has been weird. I've had the inclination and motivation to get out and shoot EVERY night but seem to be crippled by the damn weather. So it's a few less from me this week.
I'm also slightly surprised / not surprised by the social media reaction to something I created which in my own mind was artistic and I've never seen done before only to find when I posted the results, they dive bombed like a hot air balloon with a hole. C'est la Vie.....
Lightpainting a tree
I've had a lightpaintingbrushes.com portrait light scanner in my kit for a few years but never really saw a use for it. The scanner is an 18" long tube of perspex where light is projected through the tube and only a small part is visible like a photocopier scanner. The scanner is usually used to light up people in the dark in a lightpainting situation but I decided to try something different.
We headed to my fave location in the dark, Padley Gorge in Derbyshire. There are plenty of twisted and gnarly trees which make great subjects.
I wasn't sure this was going to work well but I was amazed by the results. I set a smaller aperture to prevent light pollution from other stray objects in the scene and slowly used the scanner around the contours of this tree.
The result here reminded me of a kingfisher maybe? I posted this to Instagram and FB only to see it flop big time! It's also very wierd in that FB's own algorithm labelled this as an "angel's trumpet" WTF?!
This lighting and subject reminded me of a landscape photo. I'm going to revisit this idea and see where it goes.
Two minutes of moonlight
Deep in the woods of Padley Gorge, I noticed a shadow cast by the moon. The scene was otherwise dark or pitch black without lights on. I set the camera going and exposed for two minutes with a wide aperture on ISO640. My camera is ISO invariant meaning that if I shoot at ISO640, I can push more details from the RAW file but in this case I didn't need to. Two minutes in complete darkness and the result looks like daylight.
Rotating a tree
I set up a flashgun around the back of this tree and placed RGB LED panel to camera right and grabbed this rotation shot. This shot is made in camera and is rotated on the lens axis.
Portrait format:
Different tree, same lighting set up in landscape format:
Rotated jungle
This is a 4 way rotation with a red gelled flashgun behind the tree. I tend to shoot one of these when out with the camera rotation tool to see how well I have the tool aligned. Close to perfect this time.
Very annoyed
This is a shot of Sycamore Gap in Northumbria. It's a very famous landmark facing a dark sky region but unfortunately someone turned up with a chainsaw and cut the thing down in the middle of the night!
The tree being felled has caused outrage among photographers and walkers who travel from all over the UK and beyond to see this. Words have failed me to think what possessed the two people who were arrested to do this!??
I was planning a trip here later in the year to shoot it in the dark with a clear sky but no longer. Very annoyed....
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
Lightpainting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. Nothing is added or removed in post processing.
If you would like to see more lightpainting please give the Lightpainters United Community a follow and you will be introduced into the illuminating world of light painting!
If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys:
Mafu Fuma | Oddballgraphics | FadetoBlack | DAWN | Mart Barras | Stefan Stepke | Nikolay Trebukhin | Lee Todd | Stabeu Light | Maxime Pateau | Stephen Sampson | lightandlense | Neil Rushby | L.A.C.E.
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