Painting with light

With the last three models we’ve had by our studio, we’ve tried to accomplish some photo painting techniques with flashlights, and strobes.

Thanks to the models that were willing to help out:

Anurakthi – Angie – Mayhem #590882 – http://www.modelmayhem.com/anurakthiangie

Shayna ding – Mayhem #1521750 – http://www.modelmayhem.com/shaynad

Rebecca Li – Mayhem #754772 – http://www.modelmayhem.com/rebeccali

Here are some of the better of the results:

For this shot, we used a 6 second exposure, and fired a stobe 3 different times once Angie was in possition. This is not photoshop wizardry, but complete use of long exposures to give an image multiple overlay.

For Rebecca, we wanted to try something a bit dark. The plan was to have Rebecca sit still for the first 3 seconds of the photo with 1 stobe firing within the first 100m/s. Then we used a flashlight to fill in the details, and movement of her, to give the image the appearance that she was coming, or fighting to get out of her own body! Looks pretty neat!   

In this last photo, we used no flash, and the room was completely dark. To expose Rebecca onto the sensor (film) we used an 8 second shutter speed, and used a flashlight and shinned it onto her body as a light source. The image has a different feel to it than if we were to simply use a flash and modifier such as a softbox.

In this example, we used a long shutter speed again, had Shayna stand still while we fired a strobe on her. The she slowly began moving to the floor, while assistants painted her with light (with a flashlight) and then one last flash exposure was taken once she got to the floor.

This is certainly not a new photography technique. Photographers have been playing with photo painting, or painting with light for many years now. We do hope we have brought something original to the table for our viewers. If you have any questions about the technique, or you would like to try it out one day, click “contact” on the main menu bar and send us a little information about yourself.

Hope you enjoyed, comments are always welcome.

www.eternalphotography.com