De-fracted Forest and getting back on the lightpainter's horse

Sometimes life and work in the pursuit of wealth and happiness gets in the way of the real fun. It's only been a couple of weeks since I shot a lightpainting image but it feels much longer! Tonight it was time to get back on the lightpainting horse!

I've been travelling around the UK quite a lot lately and this evening I wasn't keen to drive any more than a mile or two. I am lucky to live only half a mile from the edge of Sherwood Forest and need only drive for 3 minutes and I'm in the thick of it! The place we chose to shoot is great for symmetrical rows of plantation trees, perfect for lightpainting.

These are the results from tonight's shenanigans:

De-fracted Forest

This was actually the last shot of the evening but probably my favourite.

This image involved the use of a fractal filter over the lens. To start off, I fired the flash to light the surroundings. Then, without ending the exposure, I moved behind the model, in this case, @neilru75, and spun an orb tool knowing the fractal filter would multiply in the image.

And again before ending the exposure, I removed the fractal filter and panned the camera across the frame making a light trail. I timed it so I stopped panning before I reached the edge of the frame which isn't easy but here I nailed it first time! If I tried this again, I would most likely have messed it up!

Tiny but Mighty!

This was a test of a new torch or flashlight, the Sofirn IF25A. It's a tiny little monster kicking out 3800 lumens of warmish light. This shot was made by using a lightpainting adaptor attached to the torch with two different colours. All shot in one exposure with me stumbling around in the dark trying not to trip over a tree stump!

The Sofirn IF25A

This little beast only cost £39 on Amazon but my oh my does this kick out some light! Great for lighting larger areas with a fairly wide beam and slightly warm in tone. Love it!!

Apologies for not being in focus, I was so excited to get out with this thing! (I must be weird getting excited by a torch!)

Pan the Night Away

Another tilt and pan shot. I've done a few of these now and I'm looking for ways to extend this idea. Something will occur eventually!

Rotation Fail!

Sometimes not every shot works out as planned. This was a massive fail where I thought I'd ended the exposure and walked back to the camera with a headtorch on, polluting the image! A "noob" move but even I make mistakes sometimes!

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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