Light Painting at Night

[cbui81]

This photo was taken at the Pigeon Point lighthouse near Half Moon Bay, CA. It's a great spot for night shots if anyone lives in the area. I went here with an uncle, and that turned out to be very helpful in catching this shot.



Right in front of where I had my camera, there was a chain fence, so I had to get my camera in between the lengths of chain, which isn't too tough to do. It's just a few long pieces of chain on posts.

This shot was taken on a night with a full moon at 558 second exposure at f/8.0 on a Canon Rebel EOS XT with a Sigma 28-70mm lens, and just zoomed into 31mm.

After setting up our location and firing off the shutter, I climbed over the chain and used an LED flashlight to light paint the fence from the left side while my uncle walked around and lit the fence from the right side. At first, we made a sweeping motion with the flashlights while standing still, but the light diffused too much when we tried to light the further posts. So for this shot we basically walked along the fence line, and lit it from about 30 feet away.

I wanted the focus of this shot to be on the fence itself, and didn't want the lighthouse to overpower the picture, so I tried to shoot from as high as my tripod would let me.

Some post production was done in Lightroom to enhance the fenceline and the highlights, but not much else.

Hope you guys like it, but I'd like to hear any thoughts about how to make this shot better. Thanks everyone.

[derekspacelewis]

It looks like you accomplished what you set out to do and did a great job at it! TFS.

[KingBubbaTruck]

Great looking picture...

What ISO did you use? Thanks!

[Glayva]

Hi
I think you have done an excellent job with this shot. From past experience of light painting, I would say that it is a matter of trial and error. Take several shots at different timed exposures. If I was going to be ultra critical, I would suggest trying to lighten the foreground just a touch or possibly crop in a bit. The light in the lighthouse is also beginning to burn out. But it is a great attempt and I think very successful. Thanks for sharing and very well done.