First Attempt at Light Painting

BenA

BenA

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Ben
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After wanting to try this for a long time but never had the subject, my first attempt is done and dusted. I decided to light each part of the bike in a different exposure and then put them all together in photoshop later on.

The final image is made up from 16 different photos, would be more but I accidentally knocked the front wheel while lighting it and meant all the photos of the front wheel did not fit with the rest of the bike.


First attempt at light painting by Ben Allen Photo, on Flickr

Very pleased with it as a first attempt, with hopefully better things to come(y)(y)
 
Not bad for a first attempt Ben, not sure why you had to do multi exposures

i think it would be better had you add the spokes/front cog fully lit, and if the front wheel was at a different angle to be honest, and it looks a bit jagged if that make sense sure someone whos in the know will be along to advise, but I think you need light every part of it not just missing out parrts like the underside of parts, and I dont like the ground area, I think if you did a bite of light going through the spokes as they look disconnected to cast a spokes shape on the ground that would/may work, as is the wheels not connected to the frame if that makes sense

anyway saying all that I have no experience in this area so my be well off the mark

its a good start but needs work perfecting it
 
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Well - I'd have preferred to see the bike from the drive-side, to be honest - Chain on the Big ring, towards the smallre cogs on the block at the back. Can't see the valves/tyre labels on this shot (iirc Willers have their own branded Cheng Shin Tyres with only a small detail label, but that should be centred on the valve-stem as well), but i'd also ensure that they were at the bottom of the wheels - colour coded valve-caps of course ;)

Yes, I do have a OCD side to me, when it comes to photographing bikes, I'm afraid.
 
Forgot to say try one exposure low ISO, F18/22, looking at that environment you can do the whole thing taking your time about 2 mins

what light source are you using
 
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I agree with what you both have said and hopefully next time things shall improve.

With the spokes, I think I had getting on for twenty attempts at these allow. Whatever I did was not working so gave up.. not the best thing to have done :LOL:

I shall try some with just one long exposure next time and see the results (y) and the light source was a little torch found in the cupboard.

Thank you for taking time to give constructive criticism (y)
 
Oh - one more thing...

It looks a lovely bike - don't waste time photographing it, get it out on the road and get some miles in on it :LOL: Wish I wasn't still too fat for carbon frames...
 
BenA said:
I agree with what you both have said and hopefully next time things shall improve.

With the spokes, I think I had getting on for twenty attempts at these allow. Whatever I did was not working so gave up.. not the best thing to have done :LOL:

I shall try some with just one long exposure next time and see the results (y) and the light source was a little torch found in the cupboard.

Thank you for taking time to give constructive criticism (y)
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Hiya Ben as said i havent got experience in this area but 1 long ex is the best way to go, try low ISO high F stop to give you extra time, Id say about say 2 mins, as suggested have the big cog wheel and chain in shot, try to get some spoke detail so the rims dont look discon, try lots of things youll see what works, I wouldnt do the stacking its not needed really, try shinning the light wider to cover what you want quicker, Ive pmd Matt for you to look and to help (y)
 
Still life light painting is something that I've done a lot of and for a first attempt I would say that you've done a really nice job but it need to be refined further, Mark raises a very good point about thinking about the position of the bike to the camera (y)

Also as Dave has said there is no reason that this could not have been done in a single exposure, what light source are you using to do the light painting? and what settings are you using?

The basic principle to light painting is to keep your movements nice and smooth and to remember that your responsible to highlighting the areas that need it, so take the tyres to make them jump out from the background you will need to give them a lot more light than you will the frame..

I hope that this has helped (y)

Matt
MWHCVT
 
MWHCVT said:
Still life light painting is something that I've done a lot of and for a first attempt I would say that you've done a really nice job but it need to be refined further, Mark raises a very good point about thinking about the position of the bike to the camera (y)

Also as Dave has said there is no reason that this could not have been done in a single exposure, what light source are you using to do the light painting? and what settings are you using?

The basic principle to light painting is to keep your movements nice and smooth and to remember that your responsible to highlighting the areas that need it, so take the tyres to make them jump out from the background you will need to give them a lot more light than you will the frame..

I hope that this has helped (y)

Matt
MWHCVT
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I had the impression that if I did one long exposure the parts that had been covered by the torch would become unexposed and therefore went with the separate exposures. Next time I will try one long exposure for the whole bike!

The light source was a mini maglite, and I used 8 second exposures at f13.

Thanks for the advice (y)
Ben
 
BenA said:
I had the impression that if I did one long exposure the parts that had been covered by the torch would become unexposed and therefore went with the separate exposures. Next time I will try one long exposure for the whole bike!

The light source was a mini maglite, and I used 8 second exposures at f13.

Thanks for the advice (y)
Ben
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I can understand why you would think that but that's not the way it works once exposed it stays exposed (y)

I use a mini mag myself and they're brilliant for light painting smaller stuff (y)

Matt
 
Some good composition advice there but i'm going to throw a spanner in the works re technique/ settings.

The depth of blacks in the background suggests you could extend the exposure by a minimum 2-3 stops. Exif says Iso100, f/13, 13 secs so narrow down the exposure also and you're looking at the 2 mins f/18 mentioned above.

But looking at the lighting it's inconsistent and unfinished. Sure that assessment is on the harsh side but you want it to look even and complete, right?

On that basis I'd be inclined to stick with the multiple layers approach but open the aperture up and take a step back. Each stop more light via aperture (or iso, if you're concerned about DoF) allows you to double the distance between your subject and your lightsource. That's where the smoothness is going to come from- as you step back your light becomes more diffuse and thus more forgiving.

To get the light on the spokes you need to get behind the bike so make sure there's space for that in your composition. The advantage of layering here is that if some stray light creeps into frame at this point you can mask it out in post.
 
AndWhyNot said:
True, but longer exposures gather the ambient light which can gradually neutralise any light you've added.
Click to expand...

Very true, the reason why I always do my still life light painting in pitch black (y)
 
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