We recently visited the Salt Flats of Uyuni in southwest Bolivia for the fourth time, having previously visited in 2015, 2017, and 2018. What a big surprise! We were not expecting to see the colors that we did.
Australia-based photographer Denis Smith uses light painting techniques to create incredible, dynamic works of art. His latest project, DUALITY, is still built upon light painting but it represents a marked stylistic departure for Smith.
A new "Light Photography" colorway of Nike Air Max Plus sneakers looks like it is heavily inspired by light painting photography.
French visual artist Jadikan has long been passionate about photography. Since 2005, he has integrated light painting into his photography, and the technique is heavily utilized throughout Jadikan's impressive portfolio.
Light painting has become a popular technique in the age of digital photography. If you have always wondered how to do light painting photography yourself, you've come to the right place.
Photographer and light painter Darren Pearson has been meticulously crafting his colorful photos of a ghostly skeleton band in various locations over the course of the last several years.
Originally, the geometric chuck was a device to make ornate patterns on a lathe. Invented in the 1860s, the device could have up to 8 layers—each driven by a central shaft.
It was the late-eighties. I had been working at Galoob Toys as a designer on the Micro Machines line, creating cars and playsets for several years. A dream job, drawing and painting cars and roadside architecture for a living, but I also craved something different that I could do for personal work.
Photographer Reuben Wu is best known for his pioneering outdoor light-painting projects, including lighting nighttime landscapes using LED-laden drones. Now he's back with a new series called EX STASIS that's a collection of four timelapse/motion audiovisual pieces created entirely with light-painting.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy is known for getting creative with his craft, capturing awe-inspiring photos of celestial bodies from in and around his backyard in Sacramento. For his latest idea, he decided to combine light painting and astrophotography into this unusual, dazzling photo of the Moon.
Photographer Dan Roberts recently collaborated on an "intercontinental light painting." Using a projector and the power of the Internet, he and Frodo Alvarez captured a light-painting portrait in real time from across the world: Frodo's light from Spain ended up on Dan's camera in Denver.
Photographer Arjun Menon loved watching the highly-acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series growing up, and he recently recreated an iconic shot from the opening sequence using an action figure, household items, and light painting.
Automotive photographer Dave Cox (AKA ShootingDave) recently put together a handy step-by-step tutorial that shows you exactly how he uses light painting to capture dramatic car photos when working in a tight space like a workshop. By combining six exposures into one, he's able to capture a beautiful and surprisingly natural looking photo.
Here's a simple, maybe even obvious, run-and-gun lighting tip for beginners from the YouTube Channel Run N Gun. If you find yourself using your smartphone for portrait lighting in a pinch, don't turn it around and use the flashlight—download an app or solid color image instead, and use your phone's display as a small LED panel.
I'm light-painting photographer Russell Klimas, and in this article I'll share how I do top-down light painting in a room. I was originally inspired to do this technique because when I had done it with a drone I had a troll complain that the images weren’t clear enough.
It's Halloween, and I couldn't be happier. As a light-painter, this might be one of my favorite times of year. Does every photographer have a ton of creative ideas around this holiday or is it just me?
Light-painting photographer Denis Smith is perhaps best known for creating giant spheres of light in photos. For his latest series, titled "Liquid Light," Smith brought his light tools into waist-deep water for beautiful photos of light bursting forth from the surface.
After our flight to NYC got canceled last summer, we got stuck in Chicago for one night with no light painting tubes, no dress, no tripods, and no battery chargers. During the shuttle ride to the hotel, we started joking about using a bed sheet to fake a dress and to use whatever we could find in the hotel room as a light-painting tool.
What do you get when you combine a pixelstick with a drone? Makers Ivan Miranda and Tom Stanton recently decided to show all of us by creating a custom light stick drone that can be used to shoot light-painting photos in the sky.
A group of 50 light painting photographers around the world have recreated the famous Van Gogh painting The Starry Night as a mosaic comprised entirely of 456 individual light painting photos.
The Fotorgear Magilight is a new all-in-one light painting stick that aims to be "the easiest and most professional tool to improve your light painting photography." Incredibly, the project blew past its $30,000 funding goal on IndieGoGo within just 2 hours of launching on the website.
Light painting photography is increasingly popular these days. Applying the concepts to video, however, isn't as straightforward. This 2-minute tutorial by light painter Eric Paré shows one way to do it in Adobe Premiere.
Here's a neat idea for light painting photos: if you build a custom light tube using a certain type of reflective metallic material, your photos will look like they're filled with rainbows.
Photographer Felix Hernandez just shot a series of car photos featuring the time-traveling DeLorean from the Back to the Future film series. Instead of using a real car and Photoshop, he decided to get small and practical: he used a tiny toy car, a studio tabletop, fire, and light painting.
Buried within the 2016 Superintendent’s Compendium for Grand Tetons National Park & John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway is a small, pesky provision that disallows the use of strobes or other artificial light from dusk til dawn.
Photographer Derek VanAlthuis took his light painting photography to fiery new heights last week when he captured this photo. In it, his model is flying away on wings created by light painting with actual fire. In fact, that fire is the only light used in the shot.
A couple of weekends ago I was playing about with some ideas for a new portfolio shot involving a wall clock. Now, this clock happens to look a bit like a pocket watch, and a pocket watch normally has a chain (see where I'm going with this?). So I figured: "what if instead of a chain, I use some wispy light trails?"
Starting in December of each year, Finland's northern region has a period of about 50 days in which the Sun never rises above the horizon. Photographer Hannu Huhtamo embraces the prolonged darkness of this "polar night," turning it into the canvas for his beautiful light-painting long-exposure photos.
If you're using a smartphone to capture light painting photos, the phone is usually IN the photo as a light source. But the new Pablo app lets you actually use your iPhone as the camera, capturing light trails that mimic traditional long exposure shots.
Light painting has been a basic technique in my photography ever since I learned how to really play with it. I started by just doing the usual of writing names and doing swirls but then I learned how to use it for my professional work.
"HoloPainting" is a newly invented technique that combines light painting, stop motion, and hyperlapse to create animated, 3D holograms consisting of pure light.
We just found out about a really neat piece of software for Canon DSLRs. Called LooZ, it lets you see and record what you're light painting as you light paint it, taking the guesswork out of complex light painting creations and letting you share the final process in video form.
In this post, I'll be sharing how I shoot light painting photos using a 4-foot fluorescent tube protector. The technique is quite simple and can lead to very interesting results.
One of my favourite places to light paint is inside tunnels, waterways and other curved structures. These structures are perfect for creating spirograph light paintings.
What do you think of when you hear the words "light painting"? Colorful and squiggly lines over a dark background? An explosion of glowing sparks?
Did you know that you can also add photo-realistic images to your long-exposure photos by painting them in with light?
An iconic shipwrecked fishing boat in Point Reyes, California, was severely damaged by a fire yesterday, and it may have been caused by a photographer's long-exposure light-painting photo involving sparks from burning steel wool.
German drone manufacturer Ascending Technologies is celebrating Christmas season this year by doing some light painting photography. Each of the photos they've made was painted by an automated drone that was programmed to follow waypoints in the sky.
The company believes this is the first drone light painting project of this kind.
A spirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces beautiful mathematical curves by rolling a smaller circle inside a bigger circle. You can create similar patterns using light painting.
PRENAV is a company aimed at developing extremely sophisticated automation systems for small aerial drones. Recently, the company announced that they had acquired $1.2 million to help make their drone technology smarter. So, what better to do with a bit of the seed money than fly drones around, create precise light patterns for light painting, and photograph them?
Want a light stick for light painting but don't want to spend a lot buying a commercial product? Light painting photographer Eric Pare recently discovered a cheap and easy solution: tube guards (also known as lamp guards).