Evaluation Of Light Painting Photography

The last part of my photography project, I am going to significantly evaluate my work that’s completed. In this evaluation I am going to talk about what I thought went well land what I could have improved on.

When I was first told about light photography I was considering how light would work with photography as Light photography is very much different from other types of photography topics I have studied. I found this topic Light Photography very practical as you not only have to stage pictures and take them but you have to get everything accurate in order to take them. The thing I think most people do notice about light photography is that if the photos are not staged accurately then nothing goes according to plan; including how you stage it and where abouts the light is.

In my techniques part I talked about the Exposure triangle; this includes ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. I did hear of the Exposure triangle before; but it was critical that I knew exactly what each element meant because if I didn’t then nothing would make sense when taking a photograph or even analysing them. It was also important that I practiced using a camera with all the different functions because this was not only help control my light photography but it would help me, myself getting grips on taking photos properly as most people think it’s just about pressing the shutter button or having flash on to make the pictures brighter; when actually there is a lot more to it that just pressing a button. The exposure triangle was something that I needed to learn more about so watching videos and practicing with my camera also helped me so much when it came to taking my light painting photography pictures. Some of the photos Some of the photos I took throughout light painting photography I never timed as I wanted to be in them so I got someone else to either draw around me etc. or press the shutter button for me. When taking photos for other people also helped me get the hang of and learn setting up the camera to take light painting photos. Just working in groups or sitting down with a camera and going through all the functions used in light painting photography really influences your confidence with it so it is widely advisable as this really helped me get to grips with it more as each element gives out different and great effects.

The photographs I took, I think they went really well in general. I am happy with all three of the photographs; this makes me feel really pleased with what I achieved and making me feel really confident. To achieve this I did have to take some photographs more than once to get them accurate but this is also good practice. I found that when taking some light photographs that I or someone else held the light too high up or out of frame on the camera so when viewing it; you would only see one half of the light painting. Also I found that when drawing something the shape I aimed for didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted; so as a result of this you had to practice it several of times to get a good angled shot making the picture look perfect.

When taking the photographs for this project I wanted to be as creative as possible, trying out lots of new ideas, to see what works and what doesn’t very well. The thing that interest me that I found when conducting artist research and looking at many other peoples work; that generally things can be created in many ways with light which I found great about this project as anything would work in some way possible. The one thing I also love that I also found out when conducting light photography is that you can express emotion through light. (Like my flower light painting; which expresses happiness along with the colour too as it is a white LED light which is very bright.) However you can find that light photography can be the completely contrary; making something which could be classed as ridiculous and had no significance what so ever but would still look creative to a viewer.

When considering what I could have done better I feel that I could have been more imaginative and could have done completely different ideas. Like when it came to actually creating the light painting photos as I feel I could have tried many different techniques to what I did try. I found this out because when I was watching other people create their photographs because I feel they came out with so much different pictures to what I did but then I cannot compare mine to theirs as we all come up with different and creative ideas; so I feel I should just be happy with the photographs I created. I did like the way each of my photographs turned out; and I learnt so much from taking them, not only about light photography but using the camera and different techniques. I do feel if I did take a different route and try different and more creative techniques then i would of had a better outcome. However I don’t feel my photographs were rubbish at all as it’s not about being the best photographer, but about being imaginative and creative as you want.

The last thing I did really enjoy about this light painting photography was working in groups to create light painting photography as I felt that with more ideas from everyone you could be more eccentric. 

Techniques

In the next few paragraphs I intend to explain about the techniques I used to create my photographs.

Getting Started with Light painting photography.

When starting to prepare to take light painting photographs I needed to make sure the camera was set to a slow shutter speed, this allows me to have enough time to create the light images with light sources I was provided with. A slow shutter speed is important when taking any type of light photography and it is also the first thing you have to do before  even considering taking the pictures as it would not catch the light otherwise and we would just have a normal picture. 

The exposure triangle comes into light photography so I decided to look more into this. The exposure triangle as you can see above contains three separate elements. The ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed. The ISO is an element that controls the camera lens itself and how sensitive it can get to natural light exposure. The second element which is the Aperture is an element that measures how much light can get through the camera lens; it also controls the quantity of light taken through the camera lens. Lastly the third element which is the Shutter Speed; the Shutter Speed calculates how much light is allowed through the camera and into the sensor within the camera. All of these elements are important when it comes to light photography, however the ISO is more important to the quality of the picture. The higher the aperture the higher or sharper the picture will be shown.

The light sources I used to create my images we some small LED lights, I found these gave me a really clear image.

My Techniques.

When taking my pictures I tried to use many different techniques on each photograph as possible. As there are such different techniques out there. So I took a range of photographs, seeing what techniques and images I liked the most. I then chose three images to write about as my final three photographs.

The three images shown above are my final chosen images, and below you can see the images and the techniques I used to create these images. 

My first photo is a flower that I drew using LED lights that we were given by our lecturer. The effect on this photo was to make the flower look like a sketched drawing, but not too messy. I feel that the flower gives off a good effect having more lines of light than needed for the shape. I was considering what I could draw having little amount of time as my Fujifilm camera isn’t compatible with light photography as the aperture only goes up to 8” and the shutter speed only goes to F8.4 and also the iso is automatic so it changes but the highest it will go is 800. As a result of this I had to use the Nikon cameras provided which were much easier to use when it came to aperture, shutter speed and ISO. To take this picture I only took one attempt as I was sharing the camera with 5 other people in a  short period of time so I had to have 3 photos done quickly as I said before about my camera not being compatible so it made it harder as I couldn’t take my pictures elsewhere other than college. It was quite hard to fit the image onto the screen as the timer was set to 30 seconds so once the shutter button had been pressed to take the photo I had to draw something as quickly as possible for the camera to be able to pick it up. The blue/ white light gives the image a cool and more laid back effect making it stand out more.  I am happy with the way this image came out. The aperture used to take this picture was F15 and the shutter speed was 30 seconds. 

My second photograph that I took was totally different from the first one because I used more straight lines and was very accurate with drawing around the people. Instead of just having one colour for each person (stood back to back) I used red and white for the right side then green and blue for the left side, this gives the photograph a mixture of effects, and also making it more eye catching to the viewer as they are focusing on the lights more than the background. I got a friend to draw around me and another friend who I was stood back to back with. There isn’t just an effect on the light, but on me and my friend too as the thing that inspires me about light is the technique, when you or someone else draws around yourself or someone else for this matter it really brings out the person stood still as you can see from the picture I’m stood still so the camera picks up not only the different colour lights contrasting against me and my friend but it picks up us stood there so there is more emotion in the picture drawing the viewers attention to both us and the lights. The image also looks really eye-catching however I think this depends on what colour lights you use because if the lights are really boring and plain then the image becomes less eye-catching. I feel my image is more old-fashioned as the pose is more suited for films and photography etc. This is also because of the lights used they’re mixed so this makes me also feel that the bright colours have that audience grabbing attention about them. The other thing that is interesting about the technique of drawing around something or someone puts that thing or person in perception, giving it a sense of belonging with the light also. I used the same aperture to take this picture which was F15 and the shutter speed was 30 seconds as well.

The last photograph I took was quite a simple photograph to create, I created this photo in a group taking one letter on one photograph and then we edited it on Photoshop putting all the letters into one photograph creating the word “ART” I was in the background of this photograph drawing strange lines and squiggles in the background so the word “ART” stands out more. The technique of creating letters can be very difficult at times, because it has to be mirrored or it doesn’t look right. What I mean by this is if you was to write something normally with light painting photography when you view it on the camera it would be back to front so to be able to do this accurately you would have to write the word backwards; when viewing it on camera and through the camera lens after it would turn out to be the right way around. So to be able to take this photo we had to figure out what way the letters would go and turn out on camera when viewing them. It took a few attempts to take this photograph accurately, as when we viewed it on the camera we was either really unhappy with how it came out or it was back to front. Like most of the photos as a group and I took look really simple to create but in actual fact it is difficult unlike it seems! So after all the fussing around about the ‘A’ letter being the wrong way around we just then flipped it on Photoshop so it look more realistically like an ‘A’ and not something unexpected. For this photo I’m not too sure what the aperture or ISO was set to as this was taken on our friends Cannon 600D camera so we had to keep changing the settings so we could get the accurate levels to which suited the final photographs, however to take this photograph the Shutter speed was set to 30”.

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Artist Research

My interpretation.

From doing some research into artists work, I was considering how I could create some light painting photography photographs of my own when it came to creating them and also how they could be similar to the artist work I looked at, or if this doesn’t go to plan I would then consider creating completely different light painting photographs or new ideas. The one thing I especially like about light photography is that you can be creative and imaginative as you like, which is great for some photography artists who want to produce many different and original type of styles. With light painting photography you can draw things, write many different things and much more. I took several photographs with light painting photography so I’ve decided to choose 3 of them to include in my light painting photography project, but when I get to the part of talking about my techniques I will clarify in more detail how I created my work and what techniques I used. 

Light Photography Artist- Research.

Light photography or known as light painting is a technique that is used in photography to create all sorts of photographs. The thing that people like about light painting photography is that light travels at such a high speed, but when you use a slow shutter speed, it allows photographers to capture the light in amazing and creative ways, allowing photographers to create absolute anything they want. So for light painting photography to inspire me even more I done some research into a photographer who creates light painting photography, I also included images of their work that I had found on their websites to use as examples of light painting photography. Below you can see my artist research and examples of the light painting photography photographs they have created. 



Jason D. Page was born in Newport News, Virginia. Ever since he was a young child he was interested in art, from painting pictures to creating sculptures. This helped him earn several amounts of awards throughout his school life. Soon after leaving high school Jason found a new love for cinematography and photography so he carried on studying related subjects such as film studies. Once graduating at college he went on to work at a local college near his home, after working there for a few years he created 4 feature length action sports movies which were award winning in 2007. This is a quote from Jason D. Page- found on his photography website: http://www.jasondpage.com/about-light-painting/  

After Jason D. page worked for several companies that involve media subjects he found himself going back to Florida but with his wife Courtney, in Florida he worked with Palm Beach International Film Festival, MTV Television Company, Parallax productions, JRO Productions, Fuel TV, Progression video magazine, The Discovery Channel and many more.  Jason D. Page has been a professional photographer for sixteen years discovering light painting in 2004. It wasn’t until Jason used light from the moon to create designs in the sky that he discovered light painting. His first light painting is called “Moonlight Drawings” many things have gone wrong since he has discovered light painting as he has received many parking tickets, trespass warnings and has been chased out of woods by what’s known as a Bigfoot all because of him creating light painting, however he has gained lots of positive things to this as well as negative.  When shooting at night Jason prefers to be able to create pictures alone deep into woods, because the fear he occasionally feels lets his imagination run wild under certain conditions. This allows his to create his best piece of work. Jason has made expose and explore lighting painting his aim in life, to its fullest prospective.

Moonlight Drawing no.1

Moonlight Drawing no. 2

Moonlight Drawing no. 3

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