Simple light painting tips

Light painting is cool. It's a really neat way to light up your subjects when flash or strobes just don't, or won't cut it. Granted, most of the light painting photos you'll see are long exposure, text writing, light tubes and those sorts of things, which are amazingly cool, but you can use light painting techniques to light up just about anything and create a really neat, and unique lighting effect. I use light painting as opposed to strobes, or continuous light every now and then for lighting up small objects in my studio for the sole purpose of trying to get a different look for my photography. 

Here's an example of a shot I took of one of my vintage cameras using light painting with a small LED flashlight. This photo is a 6 second exposure, f8, ISO 100 at 35mm. I processed this photo in Photoshop to go from a color image to black and white 'cause I think it makes this camera look that much cooler. 

Vintage Camera - Light Painting 6 Second Exposure F8 ISO 100 35mm
 

Here's a short video of the light painting process to show you how simple this technique is. Once you set your camera settings, turn on your light painting source, hit the shutter button and paint away! Just remember to shut your light off after you're done so you don't have any light leaks getting into your shot.  

See? Easy. Light painting is a really cool way to light your object if you are looking for a different look to your photos, or even if you don't have fancy strobes or LED light panels. All you need is a solid tripod and a light source as simple as a flashlight. 

Get after it!

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