What is lightpainting?

Lightpainting is a type of long exposure photography that use’s light emitting tools to create visually stunning images. The term “Lightpainting” refers to moving a light source in front of the camera lens while keeping the cameras shutter open, and the camera will record the movement of your light source or lightpainting.

My journey into the art of lightpainting photography began with the discovery of an image by a photographer named Eric Pare. His image was shot on a dried salt lake, with a model silhouetted by a light painted disc and a milkyway background. Astrophotography has always been my first love in photography, and seeing it combined with lightpainting was stunning!

Eric’s technique of spinning a light tube has become one of my favored ways to lightpaint. It enables me to quickly illuminate a scene and model. The tubes can also be easily modified too. In this recent image, for example, I’ve attached some tinsel down the length of my light tube to create a more textured effect.

A fiber optic brush is another lightpainting tool that I really enjoy using. There are two kinds of fiber optic brushes: white and black. A white fiber optic illuminates the entire length of its bristles and, despite its name. its colour can be easily changed using lighting gels. The black fiber optic brush, on the other hand, is black all the way down the length of its bristles and only illuminates the tips.

If you have a subject you want to lightpaint quickly, the white fiber optic brush is a great option. In a lightpainting, usually, you want to avoid subject movement because it can result in a double silhouette, which can ruin the effect that you’re trying to achieve. The amount of light emitted by a white fiber optic allows me to quickly and effectively fill a space.

Lightpainting an aerialist suspended from silks.

This an excellent example of the advantages of a white fiber optic brush. Becouse my model is suspended from silks while posing, I had to lightpaint the space as quickly as possible while maintaining a dynamic effect.

The black fiber optic brush is a lot of fun. Because the brush is only illuminated at the tips, you have far more control and can be quite creative. Weather I’m creating dreamy wings or a dynamic head shot, the results I get with the black fiber optic never fail to impress.

Black fiber optic for headshots.

I lightly brushed my subject’s face with the black fiber optic brush to create thin veins of light, being careful to only illuminate the parts of his face I want visible, then added an explosion of light for a bit more impact at the top of his head.

While we are only scratching the surface of the lightpainting world here, I wanted to emphasis is a very enjoyable and creative aspect of photography that I’m grateful to have discovered. Please contact me if you are interested in collaborating on a project. I’m sure it’ll be a good time.