I teach a night photography class and I find that many people who’ve never tried it imagine it to be a lot harder than it really is to get spectacular results. In this two part series I’m going to take you through step by step how I created the image above using light painting techniques that are actually quite easy.

PART ONE – THE PHOTOGRAPHY

In this article, Part One, I’m going to go through everything you need to know so that you can go out and create some images using this technique. In Part Two I’ll take you through combining multiple exposures, like I’ve done for this shot, using Photoshop to create the final photograph. It’s really not that hard and I’ll do it one step at a time so …

Image by Sippanont Samchai

Roads… they’re all around us but I’ve never really considered them to be in my most photogenic subjects list. But maybe I need to rethink that!

Image by Ben Fredericson

Image by fatboyke

Image by Berenice Decados

Image by Paolo Margari

Image by Tambako the Jaguar

Image by ecstaticist

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Photographer: Sylvain Latouche. Shot with a Sony A850, 85mm lens and a 105cm silver circular foldable reflector.

As we head into Autumn here in Australia the days are becoming shorter and we’re seeing more and more overcast days. While some might say the weather is poor – this is one of my favourite times to shoot portraits out doors.

Overcast cloudy days present photographers with some beautiful soft and even light with the loads acting as a big natural diffuser.

This also means you can position your subjects almost anywhere as there’s little direct light which can open up great creative possibilities.

One of the key tools to have at your disposal on these kinds of days …

Image by Darwin Bell

I’m presuming that this article will not apply to most of us… but after 3 conversations in the last week which revealed the same photography problems in 3 different people – I thought I’d better jot them down.

Warning: none of this is rocket science sometimes the basics need to be said!

1. You don’t Take Your Camera With You

If you don’t practice using your camera you’re unlikely to ever grow in your understanding of and skill in photography and if you rarely have it with you – you’ll not get that practice.

Does that mean you need to lug your DSLR and all your cumbersome gear around with you all the time?

Maybe – I have friends who are never without their main camera – but if

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The finished image was a nice, high key portrait. See below for details on the histogram.

To many newbie photographers, getting the proper exposure in camera is the biggest challenge they face. While letting the camera do the work for them turns out fine most of the time, there are many times where the camera can require some help.  Knowing just how to give your camera that help is key to getting an image you’ll want to keep.  The best way to judge an exposure (or a potential exposure, when using Live View) is to use your camera’s histogram.

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