Light Painting with Glow sticks

[Evn1ngStar]

I tried my hand at some light painting, we used those small glow sticks that they sell at the dollar store for kids partys. These were the bracelet size although I'm sure the longer ones would work just as well. Of course we did it at night, in the basement, where there wasn't much chance of stray light.

Camera was on a tripod, shutter set to bulb with a remote cable attached, ISO set to 400 and F10 for the aperture setting. This was a 15 second exposure.

I aimed a flashlight at my son's fist which held several of the sticks so I could set the focus then switched to manual focus to keep it there. Turned off the flash and hit the shutter and cued him to slowly moved his fist down then up.

We did several shots and this was the best of the lot. Small amount of level adjusting done in photoshop.

[Lizj]

Fun - I will give this a try - love the effect

[hubblefromthesun]

It's nice that you had your son help you for this shot. I think what makes this shot especially impressive is the curvature of the light (from the arm) and the straight lines from the glowstick intersecting. The middle structure looks like two cones with spikes in the center would have been a great focus point if it could be seen more clearly. I hope you try this again and concentrate more on specific shapes.I bought a cheap party light and it was a lot of fun to play with but the battery died.

[windrider86]

I agree, very nice. Kudos for thinking outside the box

[LSURoss]

Fantastic Idea. I will be trying this soon. I wonder how hard it would be to write a name or short message?

[SLWRTHNU]

Looks like fun. I might give it a try as well. Better to try all different kinds of photography then just focusing on one specific type (I think at least)

[Evn1ngStar]

Originally Posted by windrider86

I agree, very nice. Kudos for thinking outside the box

Thanks.
My cats never let me IN the box, so I have to do my thinking outside

[IMG][/IMG]

[Evn1ngStar]

Originally Posted by LSURoss

Fantastic Idea. I will be trying this soon. I wonder how hard it would be to write a name or short message?

I'm sure that would work as long as you make be to check that all your gestures will be within the camera frame. I'd try a few writing passes while looking through the viewfinder with the lights on before turning them off and opening the shutter.

[CarissaLyn]

Originally Posted by Evn1ngStar

I'm sure that would work as long as you make be to check that all your gestures will be within the camera frame. I'd try a few writing passes while looking through the viewfinder with the lights on before turning them off and opening the shutter.

The hard part I've found is making it readable while trying to write backwards (unless you flip in PS) while not being able to see what you wrote. I tried it with my sister once, shapes and short words like "Hi" were ok, but longer words were hard to get really readable, the letters would overlap each other, or connect strangely. But it's really fun to try!

[SpiffyApe]

This is pretty cool. I like the colors and the shapes the glow sticks made. I have to agree with what hubblefromthesun said about pulling your focus towards the middle. It would've been a lot more interesting if that was the focus point. Fun pic! I'm definitely going to try it out.