Light painting fun.

[sidibear]

A bit rushed because it was ****** freezing outside, and the wind moved my tripod towards the end and f**ked up my red shots, Manfrotto Carbon with a bag hanging off it and it still moved.
Oh how I suffer to give you guys a quick demo

First take one car, one DSLR on a tripod and then park it somewhere dark, use time view (TV) setting and rotate the dial to give you 30" exposure. A good torch is critical, my weapon of choice is a Lenser P7 and a V2. but this time I was using a Gamma head torch. Very recommended as it uses three led's in white, green and red and also has a 88 lumen "oh my god that's effin bright " switch. (It also has a red light at the rear on the battery pack for if you are a cyclist).

Right, lets take some pics...

One with a white light

A couple of green ones...

And a couple of red ones...

And a red one from inside just for the hell of it...

Add all the images to Photomatix, click process and out it comes. This is just the stacked image and has not been tone mapped.

Not fantastic but it gives an idea to anyone wanting to have a go at light painting and tone mapping.
To tone map it, just move the sliders about in Photomatix to get the desired effect.
The easiest way to teach yourself tone mapping is to take three shots of the same thing, use a tripod so you get nice lines, one under exposed, one over exposed and one normal exposure. Most modern DSLR's have a facility to do this for you, select P mode, go to menu and select Bracketing Mode, adjust the scale to 2 stops either way, make sure your camera is set to take multiple shots, pick a subject and pull the trigger. Stack the three shots and tone map.

Get out there and give it a go.

Linkies.
Lenser V2
LED LENSER - Classic Line - V² (v squared)
Lenser P7
LED LENSER - P7 - P Serie - High Performance Line
Gamma H/T
Gamma LED headtorch - Outdoor Gear Shop - Alpkit
Photomatix
HDR photography software & plugin for Lightroom, Aperture & Photoshop - Tone Mapping, Exposure Fusion & High Dynamic Range Imaging for photography

 

[beanoir]

I keep meaning to give this a go at some point, I must get my hands on a tripod first mind!

Good effort, interesting with the various colours! I dread to think what my first go is going to end up looking like but i'll share them whatever state they are in!

 

[sidibear]

Beanoir,
Get somewhere really dark but with good background features, if that makes sense. Once you start light painting the spill over light illuminates the background, so pick somewhere interesting or failing that, edit it out in PS.

Take your time when you are doing it, 30 sec exposure is longer than you think it is going to be, you can light paint the whole thing, or just parts and stack them. Try it with just a white light first, I wholly recommend the Lenser P7 and V2 but you could do it with just the Gamma and point your head / look where you want to paint.