Sometimes I have to remind myself not to be such a perfectionist. Life isn't perfect, lines aren't straight and curveballs happen all the time. It's a curious thing where most lightpainters tend to be a little bit OCD. Not actually OCD like the obsessive hand washing person with a medical condition but the type of person who likes things to be "just so"
So when a lightpainter messes up an image, in my case quite a lot, they tend to shoot it again and again until they get it right! And then after many attempts at nailing an image, the original rejected shot becomes the one that you settle for.
This is a post full of mistakes but somehow ended up looking better than the image originally planned!
Mistake 1
This shot was actually a first attempt at a camera rotation image but was totally messed up. The alignment on my camera rotation tool was out and nothing was symmetrical. But sometimes you have to admit that even being a lightpainter with a touch of OCD, random is good!
The main silhouette was shot with a fractal filter over the lens. I then removed the filter and panned the camera across the frame to shoot four more silhouettes at 90 degree increments. But with the rotation tool out of alignment, the results were totally random!
Mistake 2
Shooting in the rain is never a good idea but with droplets of water all over the lens I couldn't avoid them appearing in the shot!
Mistake 3
Sometimes you have a bright idea in your mind and you just can't make the damn thing work. This is a camera rotation image but the surroundings looked way more complicated than I was expecting. I settled for this one, the least complicated of the many attempts!
Mistake 4
Worth getting your feet wet for. Stood in a cave waving a home made lightpainting tool around in the dark and then repeatedly messing up the beam or point of light. I must have taken 30 shots and eventually gave up and settled for this one!
Mistake 5
Lightpainting orbs is something which are actually quite hard to do. Especially for me with three left feet. On some nights I can nail a good orb right away and on other nights, my pseudo OCD kicks in and I fail miserably. This night was a bust and this was the best orb I got:
Mistake 6
This wasn't actually a mistake but every other photographer I know thinks it was! I deliberately asked the model to look in to the studio light with eyes firmly closed and I fired the strobe just bright enough to over expose her face. I thought I'd nailed the shot but it's never gone down well with the underappreciating social media crowd but I don't care, I like it! And for the record, the model still has use of her eyes!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
WHAT IS LIGHTPAINTING?
Lightpainting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. Nothing is added or removed in post processing.
Single exposure Light Art Photography - no layers - no tricks - no photoshop
If you would like to see more lightpainting please give the Lightpainters United Community a follow and you will be introduced into the illuminating world of light painting!
If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys:
Mafu Fuma | Oddballgraphics | FadetoBlack | DAWN | Mart Barras | Stefan Stepke | Nikolay Trebukhin | Lee Todd | Stabeu Light | Maxime Pateau | Stephen Sampson | lightandlense | Neil Rushby | L.A.C.E.
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