Light painting with D200

[Kerry Pierce]

Nikon D200 ,Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D AF ED Micro
13s f/14.0 at 70.0mm iso100

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[Coresounder]

Well done! Light painting is so much fun!

 

[Kerry Pierce]

Well done! Light painting is so much fun!

Thanks, Carlton. :smile: I agree, light painting is a great deal of fun. :wink:

 

[Dragon]

What light source do you use?

 

[RForshey]

Beautiful image and very sharp. Great composition, but just a little dark and cold. I would brighten it about .3 stops and warm it a little. These are nits against a gorgeous image..

 

[naisan]

This is a great image. I especially like the dark reflection of the rose in the foreground, which gives it a ponderability, a certain mystique. Roses are so cliche in greeting cards and in supermarkets and giving a rose its counterpoint, its reflection, its "anti-rose", is quite a nice effect.

 

[Gale]

Beautiful.. Very pleasing

 

[Russell Whyman]

Beautiful shot Kerry.

 

[Kerry Pierce]

What light source do you use?

I used a AAA penlight. :smile:

 

[Kerry Pierce]

Beautiful image and very sharp. Great composition, but just a little dark and cold. I would brighten it about .3 stops and warm it a little. These are nits against a gorgeous image..

Thanks for your thoughts and kind comments, Randy. :smile:

 

[Kerry Pierce]

Many thanks to all for your kind comments.:biggrin:

 

[Kevin Scott]

Kerry, what a beautiful shot! I love the feel of it and the composition!!

 

[annedi]

This would be a lovely way to commemorate a special anniversary or birthday bouquet, so I'm definitely going to try this out. Then I wouldn't always be finding around the house all those old dried up "special" roses that I've tried to save that now look so grungy, LOL !!!
May I ask -- what did you put the roses on to give the reflection?? How did you use the pen light to do the "painting" -- constantly on, moving around, on/off ??? THANKS !!

 

[BassGod]

I really respect a photographer than can use odd sources of light to create such beautiful images. I'd like to know more about "painting with light" so that I might try it. Are there online tutorials ... or is it more like trial and error shooting?

I assume there's not much to it other than careful composition, exposure time and a steady hand ???

Any tips for trying this out?

Thanks in advance!

~ J

http://www.pbase.com/lasombradelosdiablos

 

[DianeR]

Beautiful! I'm inspired to give it a try.

 

[Kerry Pierce]

May I ask -- what did you put the roses on to give the reflection?? How did you use the pen light to do the "painting" -- constantly on, moving around, on/off ??? THANKS !!

Hi Andrea,

Thanks for your kind comments. :smile:

The roses were placed on a piece of dark, smoked glass. Some of the shots in the series also had water puddled under the flowers.

For "painting", the exposure is just a guess. It took me a few shots to figure out how long to set the shutter and then to experiment with how I "painted" the subjects with the pen light.

Usually, I would turn off all the room lights and turn on the pen light, shining it on the flowers, and then start the exposure. I would then move the light around on the different parts that I wanted to emphasize, until the shutter closed. Exposures with this particular light ran around 13 to 15 seconds.

 

[Kerry Pierce]

I really respect a photographer than can use odd sources of light to create such beautiful images. I'd like to know more about "painting with light" so that I might try it. Are there online tutorials ... or is it more like trial and error shooting?

I assume there's not much to it other than careful composition, exposure time and a steady hand ???

Any tips for trying this out?

Thanks for the very kind comments. :smile:

I don't know of any tutorials, but there might be some on the web. I did it by hearing about it and doing trial and error. :redface:

Your assumption is pretty accurate. You need a good tripod or good support of some kind and a willingness to experiment. I detailed my technique in an above post, but if you have further questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[Kerry Pierce]

Again, many thanks to all, for the very kind comments. They are greatly appreciated. :biggrin:

 

[annedi]

Kerry -- thank you very much for the pointers !! I've never tried a light painting, so wasn't quite sure how to get started.

 

[Kerry Pierce]

Kerry -- thank you very much for the pointers !! I've never tried a light painting, so wasn't quite sure how to get started.

You're welcome, Andrea. I assume that you're wanting to do the reflections. I think that you can use a mirror or a plain piece of glass with a black cloth under it, to get the same or similar effect that I had with the smoked glass. The amount of reflection will also depend on the angle you're holding the light. You can see how the light increases/decreases, as you move the light, assuming you keep your eye on a similar angle as the lens.

You will want more light on some parts, with less on other parts of your subject, to give the very different look of light painting. Just be careful with the lighter colored flowers, so as not to burn them out.