2/12/2018 2 Comments Photo 4 ~ Light PaintingInspired by my childhood obsession with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, I attempted light painting this weekend. This required quite a bit of set-up beforehand: securing the camera to the tripod, and fitting it with a long exposure; closing the curtains and removing any light sources; and finally positioning my sisters in front of the wall (and that's not to mention the 20 minutes spent rummaging around in the junk drawer for a flashlight). While I manned the camera, my dad manned the flashlight. We tried two different techniques: 1) Having my sisters pose, and painting around their silhouettes, and 2) Painting lines of light coming from their fingers, like magic Aperture: f 10.0 ISO: 100 Shutter Speed: 15 secs Editing: upped the brightness by just a bit to make her hand more visible The first technique, we quickly realized, wasn't all that successful. My dad couldn't see well in the dark, so our outlines were shaky, crooked, and often half-obscured by my sister's body. Holding a pose for so long was difficult, which led to motion blur and warped faces in certain snaps. And, finally, we battled lighting issues. Several times, my dad forgot to cover the flashlight when he exited the frame, leaving a meandering ray of light across the shot. We also didn't have his camera set correctly. As it was, the flash was firing at the beginning of the shot, immediately illuminating my sister and capturing our dad's form/shadow in the process. The camera instead needed to flash at the exposure's end, and irradiate my sister after our dad had ducked out of view. This was, my dad taught me, an easy adjustment: simply a matter of shifting from 1st to 2nd curtain flash.
With that new setting in place, we moved on to the second technique. This one was simpler, as there wasn't a specific shape to adhere to, and the final products reflected this. Looking at the photos now, I love the bursts of light at my sister's fingertips, followed by the slightly more faded beams wrapping around her. Although this assignment pushed me out of my comfort zone, I thoroughly enjoyed shooting it. Not only was fumbling around in the dark hysterical, but I've actually come to love tinkering with the camera's settings: it's almost like solving a puzzle.
2 Comments
Olivia B
2/13/2018 05:34:13 am
I liked how you did the light pantings! I did not see anything that was wrong or that I would change!
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