25 Spectacular Light Painting Images
Light Painting in its many forms has been a growing trend on Flickr and other photo sharing sites in the last couple of years.
These images are attention grabbing and full of amazing color, movement and detail. In this post we share 25 examples to inspire you.
Image by brentbat
These great images come from a variety of talented photographers including Brent Pearson (his image is above) who has written a great resource touching on the topic – Night Photography and Light Painting (one of the few resources we highly recommend).
Image by sebastien.b
Image by purplemattfish
IMage by BUR?BLUE
Image by maistora
Image by CowGummy
Image by Sean Rogers1
Image by Thomas Rockstar
Image by Pedro Moura Pinheiro
Image by Tom Paton
Image by duane.schoon aka The Schoon
Image by artwork_rebel
Image by sebastien.b
Image by Conekt
Image by mikeleary83
Image by gnackgnackgnack
Image by ohhector
Image by CowGummy
Image by artandsteel_com
Image by BUR?BLUE
Image by rafoto
Image by onlinewoman
Image by sebastien.b
Image by brentbat
Image by Dr Craig
65 Responses to “25 Spectacular Light Painting Images” - Add Yours
December 1st, 2009 at 12:52 am
Awesome!
My favs: Image by brentbat, Image by CowGummy & Image by BUR?BLUE.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:07 am
This is excellent! How about having some of the photographers tell us how they did it? I am ready to learn.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:16 am
Great photos :D
December 1st, 2009 at 1:36 am
Excelent shots..
I have had my hand at a few lightpainting shots, and have always enjoy making them.
http://fmatiasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/Lightpainting
I find that I have to try quite a few times untill I get exactly what I am looking for. Very much trial and error!
Enjoy!
December 1st, 2009 at 1:39 am
Amazing. There are also videos made with this technique, I once saw a video by a Japanese group but can’t remember the name.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:42 am
wow!amazing shots!i second larry,am eager to learn how those shots were made
December 1st, 2009 at 3:16 am
Those are some ingenious ideas. I like the umbrella one the best.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:04 am
@afaris: I have 3 photos featured above (thanks Darren), and I wrote a small blurb about how it was done in the corresponding photoset page. Time permitting, I’ll write something longer, these are just pointers.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:06 am
Image by mikeleary83 is by far my favourite.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:35 am
I did a couple of posts on light painting in my blog. It’s so much fun, super addicting. And when you pull off the shot, it’s a definite great feeling of reward.
http://naturesmugshots.blogspot.com
December 1st, 2009 at 5:46 am
I agree with Larry and afaris…
I have tried doing this so many times, but the results are ridiculous…
December 1st, 2009 at 6:27 am
I love these, thanks for sharing. I love the chair by Pedro Moura Pinheiro and Bur?Blu’s moonlit work. Made my day.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:20 am
Thank you for featuring my photo of Goku! It always comes back to this my photo, one of my first to practice with long exposure photography! By all means message me on flickr if you want help or advice more than happy t share!
Many thanks!
December 1st, 2009 at 8:21 am
Poke at http://EdibleLight.com for lots of light painting portraits that I’ve taken. Or look at my pro site: http://www.juliancash.com/edible.html
Thanks for the great gallery of glowing images Darren!
-julian
December 1st, 2009 at 9:07 am
Really enjoyed looking through these images. Some great ideas here. Really like the stick figure sat in the swinging bench. Bet that took a few attempts. Thought I’d have a quick go at my own tonight. Here’s an attempt of an outline using my girlfriend as the model, I drew round her using an LED torch.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick92/4147895517/
Let me know what you think. Hoping to attempt a few more complex light paintings in the future.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:40 am
Lovely executed shots! My favourites are the MacBook Pro shot and the chair ones…
I agree that we should invite the photographers and share their technique here ^^
December 1st, 2009 at 1:29 pm
These are all great! But I really love the precise light lines the best. Truly amazing!
December 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
So so so inspiring. Thanks for sharing.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:42 pm
some excellent images there – I remember when we did our painting with light module at photoschool, though we didn’t produce anything like this.
I especially like the anime lightning bolt and the umbrella one.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:17 pm
omg! that is just so cool! how do u do it?
December 1st, 2009 at 10:20 pm
please check that gallery, he’s a french who is doing light painting for 30 years with a large format camera :
http://www.michel-semeniako.com/gal_1.html
he’s work is just amazing, no digital, no photoshop just fiilm sheets and light.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I really like the guitar! The lights make the instrument “sing”.
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 am
I LOVE light painting. here are some I’ve done. http://www.erikajean.com/search?q=light+writing
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:28 am
Great collection of images. I used to use this technique when shooting weddings and sparklers were being used to usher out the couple after the ceremony. It was always a hit with the couple.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:40 am
This is really awesome! Great colors and nice paintings!
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:19 am
really liked the guitar ( the first one ) … fabulous post !
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:09 am
I love these lighting photos. What a great new art.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 am
Very cool! I’m going to run a workshop with my photo group so everyone can learn how to Light Paint. Thanks for the images! ~ Adrienne Brand, Founder & Organizer, Long Island Photography Meetup
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 am
I also did a lightpainting with a friend ;)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthiashombauer/3689125807/
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:39 am
Thanks for using one of my pictures, the fire spider, You can find more of my pics and info on how I took them at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/duaneschoon
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:35 am
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:36 am
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/3057180491_7e3b23dfeb_b.jpg
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Thanks for the inspiration, makes me want to dig out any old flashlight and have some fun.
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Hey thanks Darren for including a couple of my images in this list.
For those that want to see how I do my lightpainting, head over to my blog, I have quite a few free video tutorials which give you a sense of both the capture and post production.
Cheers
Brent
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Very Beautiful & excellent Photos.
Thanks for sharing with us.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Thanks for featuring my photo (sparkler angel wings). I’m glad you all liked it and I’ve added a couple of notes on how it was done to the description.
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:21 am
here’s my contribution, the cam was a simple point and shoot but the final result became cool. :D
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:22 am
forgot the link :p
http://www.flickr.com/photos/senhor_havok/3469394265/
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 am
http://picasaweb.google.com/swapnilsahamate/Photography?authkey=Gv1sRgCIqOv-D89f3fOQ#5406075759424717826
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:57 am
Thanks, these are state of the art.
And of course I would like to add my collection of Lori Stotko’s drawings.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/unklstuart/sets/72157601507669278/
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
it’s really imaginative
December 4th, 2009 at 2:41 am
how can I do such photas!…I want to learn!!
December 4th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Does anyone have any tips on where to get lights? I am only workin with small LEDs right now and i want to step it up….any advice?
thanks!
Lightpainting = LOVE
December 4th, 2009 at 5:28 am
These are amazing, love them….
It’s an art of imagening everything before you see the results!
December 4th, 2009 at 5:43 am
these are amazing, ive done some like these before but not like this, heres 1 of mine.
December 4th, 2009 at 5:45 am
amazing images, ive done some like these but not like this, really cool though
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freerunner/2938380415/in/set-72157607993343868/
December 4th, 2009 at 5:54 am
hmmm, yeah interesting. Not sure how but might try this myself ..
December 4th, 2009 at 6:09 am
Just trying out light painting on my camera too! Hope you like this one! :)
December 4th, 2009 at 6:09 am
http://desotocameraclub.smugmug.com/Members/Amanda-Tatro/Welcome-to-the-light-show/8918564_dz9yp#730927331_oyLTB-A-LB
December 4th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Oops, I didn’t put the link…. <- Beginner alert! :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/plaid_hippo/4094940237/
Ashish
December 4th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Nice work. Can we get a “how-to” ???
December 4th, 2009 at 8:07 am
I’ve just begun to try my hand at light painting here’s a link to a few on my blog http://bit.ly/4r2AIb
December 4th, 2009 at 8:19 am
The second image depicting violence is inappropriate, I think there is too much violence in the world without having to make it look attractive. Very poor selection.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Everyone should give this ago.
It is alot of fun. me and acouple of mates went out to take photos of car trails one evening after a few beers. we ended up at the park with acouple or torch’s and spent the whole night drinking beer and coming up with crazy ideas for photos.
I can assure you it is fun, even though passers by might think you are a little strange doing cartwheels with torches taped to your hands and feet at 3am. its well woth it i assure you.
Ahh good times
December 4th, 2009 at 10:00 am
wow! amazing lighting shoots! tnx darwen for sharing
December 4th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Love working with light havent done enought with it but with these winter night i have plenty more time to create more. Check some of mine that i have done..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blindedvision/4012538738/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blindedvision/4009934804/
December 4th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Wow! These are really amazing!!! I have to learn to do this. Any tutorial?
December 5th, 2009 at 4:05 am
The things that you are able to do with light is amazing. Thanks for such a great collection.If you are ever interested in having your photos printed on canvas check out CanvasPop at http://www.canvaspop.com.
December 5th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Thanks Darren for sharing this great 25 inspirational images with us!
December 8th, 2009 at 2:01 am
amazing work!!!! thanx for sharing =)
December 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
nice light painting images….by just looking at the images, you already think of how the photographers made the images….am sure different photographers could do it in a different way than the others…nice
December 11th, 2009 at 3:47 am
dude occem work budy thanx 4 sharring
December 11th, 2009 at 5:07 am
What kind of light did you guys used in this photos? I want to make one also.( ^_^) Spectacular photos indeed!!!
December 14th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Superb images, something I want to try soon!
January 12th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Here’s one:
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