My Light Painting Evolving

donnyburger said:
Really liking these. So many folk just do an orb, and don't put anywhere near as much thought into the final image as you have.

Great to see your progress. :)
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Scrubdog said:
Brilliant thread Matthew really enjoying your work.
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Thanks guys, yes I know what you mean about Orbs. I think they are pointless unless there is more to the image than just an orb, you can't just have one with a messy back drop with no content/interesting-ness to it :) That's my thoughts anyway, I have seen to many with a garden shed sitting half in and half out of shot ;)
 
Some cracking shots in here Matthew. I've done various bits of similar lightpainting over the past few years...

Have you heard on an iOS app called Holographium? It let's you 'write' 3D text and images into your long exposure shots... Here was one of mine from a couple of years back - Maybe it's something ou could add to your ever growing light painting arsenal!

5144019107_e7a410b9d6_d.jpg
 
You seem to be picking up a decent amount of stars at 100/200 ISO, I thought it was best to use a higher ISO, say around 800? Still loving your shots BTW (y)
 
Im Bald Ok said:
You seem to be picking up a decent amount of stars at 100/200 ISO, I thought it was best to use a higher ISO, say around 800? Still loving your shots BTW (y)
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Thanks, yea it all depends on lighting really. At iso 100/200 you need a longer shutter speed, this gives you star trails rather than dots. Higher iso's you can reduce shutter speeds and then get your stars as dots rather than trails. A full moon can then change everything so you can get shorter exposures that way add in a 2.8 lens and it can further reduce times. If you have any light pollution, that can destroy your skys and any chance of seeing good stars, I'm lucky that I live in a small place so can easily get away from any light.
 
Great thread. Really want to give this a go but somehow think my attempt would be a bit of a disaster. :/

Really love the swirly multicolour orb you posted. How on earth is that done? :D
 
I gotta say, my favourite ones are the ones without the orbs and stuff. The light painted landscapes are just phenomenal
 
D4nz0 said:
I gotta say, my favourite ones are the ones without the orbs and stuff. The light painted landscapes are just phenomenal
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Wow thanks, yes I have been moving slightly away from Orbs recently, well doing a lot less than I was anyway. Really am liking taking shots of the old buildings with a 'modern' twist to them, have a good few more planned for the next few trips I can get out.

Yanzi said:
Great thread. Really want to give this a go but somehow think my attempt would be a bit of a disaster. :/

Really love the swirly multicolour orb you posted. How on earth is that done? :D
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Glad you like, it is done with an LED Lenser V-24, unfortunatly they are discontinuded and are like hens teeth to get hold of, but the effect can be created with a Light Saber toy.
This is me holding my old single colout blue v-24 so you get teh jist :)

A Lenser Portrait by M+M Morrison, on Flickr
 
Have you, or will you make a how to on the light painting buildings landscapes at some point? Would be interesting to see you record a video of you taking the photo
 
Yes I will, been meaning to for ages, but haven't had the means to record :( got a video camera now though so will give it a go when I get out!
 
Subscribed and following with interest. Great to see your progress. Going to try and get into light painting this year myself.
 
Thanks for the comments guys! It's been far too long since I posted something new here, so got myself out last night. No moon meant it was torch time, no videos either :( think I''l keep that for a really good night.

So a few things have changed since the last post, my 500D is gone along with ALL my lenses, tonight was the first night out with my 5Dc :D At the moment I only have a 50mm 1.8 (MK1) along with no remote... so 30 seconds and a high iso was on the cards.

This was what came out of it:

All Lit Up by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

Pretty difficult to get focus right (no more live view) and the results on the LCD are hard to judge. However for an iso 1600 shot I was pretty impressed as noise reduction was at a minimum compared to the 500D would have been.

Now just waiting for my new remote to come, extra battery, CF cards and............... My 24-105L :D fun times ahead I think!
 
Being a Nikon man I do like how Cannon users aspire to the L ;)

Another interesting one. I like the red from inside, just looks a tad hot.

Any ideas how you could evolve your project further? No ideas from me, I'm afraid. Well, maybe including some people, bet you could get some eerie photographs, long exposures of people moving. I saw a cracker on Pinterest recently of a long exposure with people moving, wasn't lightpainted but it really appealed to me.

Regards.
 
Haha yea I know the 'Red Ring' and all that :D to be honest the only reason I am going for it is the versatility of the range, IS and hopefully IQ. My other option was to go Sigma, 24-70 2.8 non OS and add a 70-200 2.8 non OS, however at the moment I really don't use telephoto that often and if I did the wife has a 600D and my old 55-250.

Thanks, was good fun, huge walk though to get to them that nearly killed me (included a river jump...) yea being at iso 1600 which I forgot and popped two flashes at full power over did it, will remember for the next time haha.
I am think of new ways to further the thread, at the moment I will be just getting used to the new setup and exploring my Island more and more, it's a relatively small place with huge potential... I just have to find it first :)
 
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mata.morrison said:
Haha yea I know the 'Red Ring' and all that :D to be honest the only reason I am going for it is the versatility of the range, IS and hopefully IQ. My other option was to go Sigma, 24-70 2.8 non OS and add a 70-200 2.8 non OS, however at the moment I really don't use telephoto that often and if I did the wife has a 600D and my old 55-250.

Thanks, was good fun, huge walk though to get to them that nearly killed me (included a river jump...) yea being at iso 1600 which I forgot and popped two flashes at full power over did it, will remember for the next time haha.
I am think of new ways to further the thread, at the moment I will be just getting used to the new setup and exploring my Island more and more, it's a relatively small place with huge potential... I just have to find it first :)
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Just had a quick look at IoL and I have to say it's a beautiful place.
 
As mentioned above, the fact that I have to carry on evolving my project, I have slighty been moving away from the 'in your face' light painting. As the image above has no added colour to it at all, the only light added way from camera left give a bit more light to the face of the building and adding the shadow of the small porch.

This is another shot from the same night (I have quite a few but not getting the chance to get them online yet) again no added colour just a bit of fill light to the chimney stack again from camera left. If you light your subject from the camera it is bassically killing any good detail of your subect, kills all the shadows etc, you would be just as well using an on camera flash (with worse effects)

Blown away... by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

Here is another but from a trip last night to the Callanish Stones on Lewis. Again just a quick flash of the P7 to added slightly more detail to the stone itself and let the moon do the rest of the work.

Callanish Shadows by M+M Morrison, on Flickr
 
Some cracking detail in the latest 3. #3 is a cracker, great detail, loving the FG shadow and composition.

Looks like a cracking place...I envy you :D

Cheers.
 
Thanks muchy! I am finding the 5Dc a brilliant tool for this night time stuff so far, so much more captured than the 500D. Moving to full frame (even though the 5D is pushing 7/8 years now) is literally night and day from my crop sensor.

I've got more to come from the Pentland trip and the Callanish Stones trip, managed to get so many more keepers than normal haha.
 
Hi Matthew :wave:

Really liking your recent shots. Light painting that doesn't look like light painting seems to work well. A bit like flash portraits that look natural.

When looking at the callanish stones shot I was thinking it feels like years since I was there.

It's not a huge Island but it must cost you a fortune in fuel doing laps every night!
 
Hi Colin, thanks. Yea it really is different, less is more as thy say. In these there is quite minimal torch as the moon really does do a great job.

I know what you mean, it does feel like a good while since you were up, last May was it? Haha it does cost a bit, its worth it in the end... better than spending it on other pointless things haha.
 

Land Raider Rave by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

Orbing at the Stack by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

Stack Trails by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

Orbery at the Raiders by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

Talk about a photo dump! Well I have had great times already with my new setup... couldn't be happier, except for the 10 minute startrail above the stack was going to be 60 shots stacked over 30ish minutes but my new remote started playing up so had to settle for a single exposure. The quality of the image and colours the 5D produces compared to the 500D straight out are great, totally recommend!
 
Love the update, been following this thread for a while and only just got out to try some startrails with light-painting last week.
Only had one decent image (the rest were 'practicing'...). 100 30-second exposures stacked and I dusted the statue with a couple of sweeps from a £3 led torch from Aldi.

I've yet to try orbs and ribbons etc. but may have a bash next time I'm out, I rescued a battery powered LED device from the bin the other day when the wife was clearing out some stuff so I may put it to use.


Spey_bay_startrail by Ryan Milton, on Flickr
 
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spudey said:
Love the update, been following this thread for a while and only just got out to try some startrails with light-painting last week.
Only had one decent image (the rest were 'practicing'...). 100 30-second exposures stacked and I dusted the statue with a couple of sweeps from a £3 led torch from Aldi.

I've yet to try orbs and ribbons etc. but may have a bash next time I'm out, I rescued a battery powered LED device from the bin the other day when the wife was clearing out some stuff so I may put it to use.
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I recognized the Osprey immediately. I'll be up in your area in the next couple of weeks and I'll keep an eye out for orbs at tugnet.
 
Well last night marked 1 year since I took my first shot of Light Painting and it's nearly a year since I started this thread... can't believe it really! I have learned a lot on my journey and I have explored my Island more in a year than I have before. It's been so much fun and can't wait for the next year to see what I have come up with and where I go.

A big thanks to everyone here for the help and inspiration and also for your input in this thread. All your comments have made this thread keep going the way it has.

Here is the first shot again but with a slight 2013 revamp, as it was straight out of camera before it was rather messy and a bit off :)


One Year On by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

See you all soon after my next outing!
 
Well another short break from night outings and I'm back, not as a successful trip as I had hoped (batteries dieing, just not getting what I wanted etc) but the last shot before my second battery died I got exactly what I had hoped for :)


Deathly Haunt by M+M Morrison, on Flickr

If you have read The Black House by Peter May, this is the concrete boat shed from the prologue where the hanging occurred. If you haven't you should ;)

Lit by half moon camera right high, sodium street lights high camera left and red gelled strobe popped inside.

Until next time... hopefully the weekend :) cheers guys!
 
Some absolutely fantastic shots here... I really wouldn't know where to start and if I tried then my pockets would soon become very light!!
 
Higgy said:
Some absolutely fantastic shots here... I really wouldn't know where to start and if I tried then my pockets would soon become very light!!
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Thanks, well for the above shot and many of my shot's like this it's just standard stuff that's nice and cheap :) Camera, tripod, cable release (£10 from ebay) Flash (YN-467, £30 second hand, even a 460 would do) and quality street wrappers for the colours :)

On this shot I didn't need to use my torch, but you can pick up a really good LED torch for £20 and you good to go. Try it out, might take a wee bit to get it stop on but it's so much fun once you start getting the results!

Joeturner11 said:
Amazing Idea and set!
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Thanks!
 
Got a quick trip out last night to another location I've been wanting to visit for a while... so long in fact the caravan that was beside this small building has been blown down :( oh well haha. It was really windy, 2 degrees with a -4 wind chill but a real nice night :)


A Riverside Airidh by M+M Morrison, on Flickr
 
Another of the same Airidh but from the opposite side. This is the first time I have done a composite image, the sky was actually my high ISO test shot at 30 seconds, the lighting and ground area was 3 and a half minutes however the sky clouded over for a bit and greyed out the whole sky.


Lit Up in Barvas by M+M Morrison, on Flickr
 
Hi, Matthew, some more interesting places and compositions. I do like the red light in #2.

If I were to offer a personal opinion, I find the last few a tad light. I know it's dark because of th star trails.

The again, you do have to and are experimenting.

I've had a good look at IoL on Google and do like the place. Where abouts do you live on the Island?

Cheers.
 
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