light painting

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alecras234

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Hi my name's Ash and i live in north wales. I'm disabled and use a wheelchair, i have limited movement and i can only use my left arm a little. I'm interested in Photography but I find most of the outdoors inaccessible for Photography because of access which is annoying. I want to have a go at light painting from indoors. I'm not sure what equipment i can use, i know to use glow sticks but what effects can i get with glow sticks? Can i use a small LED Hula hoop to spin it around slowly to get an orb effect? What other equipment can i use with one hand that isn't too big? How can i use a torch?
 
Anything that produces light can be used for light painting. Different things will produce different effects, along with different times they are exposed etc.

Torches, lasers, sparklers, even mobile phones can be used. Best bet is to try out different things, different movements, different shutter speeds. See what works well and what doesn‘t.
 
Simplest format. Turn the lights off so the rooms dark.
set your camera to expose for 10-20 seconds and then in front of the camera waving a light around. coloured phone screen can be interesting.
 
Cheap battery Christmas lights bundled up and taped together then twirled around work ok, I've used various led torches for painting items as well. I found most light sticks far too dim.
Check this book out for some ideas.
link
 
what about led lights wrapped around a ruler or a using a torch to get good effects? I wouldn't know what to do with a torch to get cool effects apart from waving it around. Could i make an orb by spinning a hula hoop? what else could i use to make an orb, something not as big as a hula hoop?
 
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alecras234 said:
what about led lights wrapped around a ruler or a using a torch to get good effects? I wouldn't know what to do with a torch to get cool effects apart from waving it around. Could i make an orb by spinning a hula hoop? what else could i use to make an orb, something not as big as a hula hoop?
Click to expand...
Orbs are generally made with a light on a string, easier to spin in continuous circles than a hoop.
 
I saw someone get a good effect by laying the camera on its back on the floor (wide angle lens) and dangling a small torch with coloured gel (sweet paper I think it was) on a bit of string over it and just setting it spinning gently, he got a sort of spiral-ish effect
This shot is just my Christmas tree lights (on the tree) with a slow exposure and move the camera about a bit.
IMG_0040s.jpg
 
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I created this effect last year using a hula hoop with some lights wrapped around it but i was wandering do they do smaller hula hoops that have led lights instead of having to wrap lights around the hoop?
 

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I have bought some glow sticks but what else can i do with them besides waving them about, i want to get nice effects, like smoke and such.
 
If you want an indoor project you can do on a table top, how about use the glow sticks to light something simple and make it look interesting. Perhaps hang a couple of glow sticks on a piece of string and have it spin round a wine bottle or even pair of scissors. Reflective objects always work well. Experiment with movement and exposure times and see what you get. Start small and have fun learning.
 
I have seen where the camera has been set on a long exposure time on a subject and a small bright light source has been used to trace the outline several time during the exposure (sometimes with different coloured light sources. Done right it can look good.
 
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