Light painting photography is a type of long exposure photography that gives the impression of dynamic movement and glowing contrast. Here’s our complete guide, including what it is, how to nail this dynamic technique, and the equipment you’ll need to achieve the effect.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Clockwise from top-left: License these images via Katrina Brown, COLSON FABRICE, and Stefano Ferrarini.
What Is Light Painting Photography?
What does painting with light mean in photography? Light painting photography is a long exposure photography technique that gives the impression of a ‘painted’ light trail.
The camera is set with long exposure times, and a light source is moved through the scene to create an artistic light trail.
How Does Light Painting Work?
Essentially long exposure photography, light art photography allows the photographer to create a drawing with light as the light source moves from A to B.
The camera shutter is opened for a long period of time, creating a glowing image of the light source’s trail in the camera lens.
Light painting photos can either use existing light sources, such as car headlights or starlight (in the case of astrophotography), or introduced light sources, like flashlights, illuminated tubes, or flame torches.
Almost any light source can be used, as long as it moves during the course of the exposure.
License this image via Artur_Nyk.
What Do I Need for Light Painting Photography?
Creative light painting photography requires a little planning and foresight from the photographer. Whether it’s buying a colored light source to achieve a particular effect, finding the perfect dramatic location for the shot, or timing the photography to take place at just the right time (while late dusk, or Blue Hour, offers a great balance of natural light and enough darkness to make the light painting pop, blackout nighttime can be harder to work with), light painting photography does require some consideration before shooting.
If you think you’d like to try drawing with lights in your own photos, read on to discover essential equipment advice and execution tips to make your own dramatic light photography.
Essential Tools for Light Painting Photos
Painting with light photography requires a few essential items of equipment and gear to achieve a light trail effect and to help you keep the camera stable while you shoot.
Keep in mind that even the slightest movement of the camera while shooting could blur the photograph, so a good tripod and remote shutter release are essential.
What lights to use for light painting photography? While any light source set against a darker background will suffice to create a light painting, the brighter and more colorful your light source, the better.
Neon tube lighting works incredibly well, as it is available in different colors and produces a broad brushstroke effect that can give a really strong, graphic result.
Smaller light sources—such as flashlights—will produce a more delicate, ethereal light trail that looks like fireflies, making them a good fit for magical natural settings, such as woodlands or seashores.
To create your own light painting photography, you will need the following essentials:
- A DSLR or mirrorless camera with ideally a high ISO performance, although light painting can still be achieved with a mid-to-low ISO.
- A sturdy tripod, which will minimize movement and, therefore, blurring in the final shot.
- A stopwatch can be helpful—if you’re moving the light sources yourself—to time your movements.
- A remote shutter release that allows you to not touch the camera when taking your photo.
- A natural or artificial light source, such as car headlights, a flashlight, or tube lighting.
- Color gels, which can be placed over the lens of your camera, are an optional extra for producing a particular colored light effect.
The Best Camera Settings for Light Drawing Photos
Before you capture your image, you will need to optimize your camera settings to lengthen the exposure, allowing as much light as possible to enter the camera lens.
Try the settings below to ensure best results:
- Set the mode to manual or bulb.
- Set the shutter speed to between 10 and 30 seconds, depending on how long you’ll need to create your light painting shot.
- Use a narrow aperture, around f/11.
- Use a low ISO, between 100 and 200.
- Set the camera to Daylight White Balance to maintain the colors of your original light source.
Clockwise from top-left: License these images via wertinio, Geobor, and Balamurugan veerabathiran.
How to Light Paint for Beginners
Now that you have the right camera equipment and settings on hand, you’re ready to start experimenting with light painting! So, how do you do light painting photography?
Use this simple guide as a starting point if you’re new to painting with light photography.
Begin by Choosing the Setting for Your Photo
What kind of effect are you hoping to achieve in the final image? Perhaps you want to create more of a bold, graphic effect, in which case an urban setting with geometric shapes and a moody, concrete backdrop might work well. You can also then take advantage of existing light sources, such as car headlights, trains, or bike lights.
For more dreamlike light art photography, you might want to opt for a natural setting, such as a park, forest, or open field. See below for more light painting ideas before you commit to a location.
License these images via Katrina Brown and Wirestock Creators.
Shoot at Blue Hour
You can shoot light painting photography in an indoor (ideally studio) environment, where you can control the level of lighting. However, creative light painting photography is often shot outdoors, where the light trails can be dramatically contrasted against an urban or natural setting.
What is the best time to do light painting photography? The short window of time just after sunset, called the Blue Hour, is perfect for light painting, as it is dark enough for light trails to glow while there is still just enough natural light to reveal some of the details of the scene.
To shoot at Blue Hour, you will need to plan ahead and closely observe sunset times—and the payoff is well worth the extra effort. Blue Hour photos have a distinctly enigmatic quality, with a magical blue or purple sky in the backdrop.
Get Creative with Light Painting!
Light painting can produce such immersive, dynamic imagery, but the most creative light painting photography does take a bit of imagination.
It can be worth storyboarding your light painting ideas before you shoot, so you can make the most of the Blue Hour window. But, also keep in mind that much of the joy of light painting is the unexpected results!
Dive in, start experimenting, and try to keep a note of the settings that produced the best results for your camera and location.
Looking for creative and easy light painting photography ideas? Discover 5 creative light painting photography ideas to try below.
License this image via Nelia L.
5 Light Painting Ideas
These five creative light painting ideas will hopefully provide you with inspiration for planning and executing your own light painting shoots.
1. Write a Message
Remember using sparklers as a kid to write your own name? This light painting idea taps into that same childlike state, but you can get even more creative by writing secret messages, marriage proposals, brand logos, you name it!
This light trail effect is best achieved with a small, handheld light source, such as a torch or flashlight. Simply stand firmly in the one spot and write the message.
Of course, the message will be backwards if you’re facing the shot, so you can either turn your back to the camera and raise the light source above your head to write, or flip the light message in post-editing.
2. Use Cars, Trains, or Bikes
You don’t need to invest in lighting gear to create light painting photos. Using existing light sources with plenty of movement is a great way to learn how to light paint before you buy your own light sources.
Simply set up your tripod next to a railway line (caution, not too near!) or a vantage point overlooking a busy road, vary your exposure length according to the speed of the object, and use a remote shutter release to keep the camera steady as you capture.
3. Spin Some Steel Wool
This light painting technique is not one for the faint-hearted, and it should be advised that you SHOULD NOT attempt using steel wool in light painting without sufficient protective gear (fire-proof gloves and thick googles) and an experienced watcher alongside.
Steel wool is highly flammable, and can be contained in a cage or mesh at the end of a wire. When this is spun around, the resulting light art looks like a circle of fire, shooting out sparks.
While this effect looks really cool, DO NOT attempt it unless you are confident and experienced in light painting.
4. Use a Glow Stick to Outline Your Body
Create a border, frame, or archway around the subject’s body to ‘contain’ them in a graphic glowing outline. Long light tubes are often better for achieving this effect, as the light path will be wider and stronger, framing the subject beautifully.
5. Make an Orb
Light orbs photography looks so cool, and is surprisingly simple to do! You’ll need a light source on the end of a string, with LED fairy lights being a cheap and simple option.
Stand in the center of the scene, hold one end of the string centrally to your body, letting the end with the light source trail downwards just shy of the ground.
Now, start spinning the string around in a circular movement, tracing a circle around your body. Gradually turn around, keeping your feet on the same spot, spinning the string as you go. When you’ve completed a full circle, your orb is complete.
It might take a little experimentation to get the perfect orb, but the results are well worth it.
How to Edit Light Painting Photos in Post-Processing
Creating light painting compositions in editing software like Adobe Photoshop can sometimes be frowned upon by purist light painting photographers, but the results can be so mesmerizing that there’s no real reason why this should be the case.
One of the simplest things you can do in post-processing is to create composite light art photography. What this means is blending two images, one with heavy long exposure that has produced an abstract light painting effect, and another that is a still image of the same scene.
By creating a composite of these two images, you can introduce both movement and stillness into the same shot, which gives a really magical quality to a light painting photo.
So, let’s say you are starting with something more abstract, like the image below:
Or, perhaps you have a shot where the background of the image is extremely dark, like in the woodland photo below. If you want to introduce surreal stillness into the final image, you should also take a shot of the same scene without the light painting present.
You could have a still shot of trees in a forest, or position a person at the start of the light trail to connect the moving light trail to a still subject.
License this image via Stefano Ferrarini.
Open the image with the abstract light trail in Photoshop.
Now File > Place the still, lighter shot above this image. You might need to bring the transparency of this layer down for a minute, and negotiate the scale and position of it to align with the image below as much as possible.
Create a Layer Mask, and choose a large, soft brush from the Brush Tool (B) options. Working on the mask, gradually brush over where the light trails roughly sit, bringing them into the image on top.
Eventually, you will have a composite image that combines the qualities of both shots.
License this image via Stefano Ferrarini.
Conclusion: Paint Your Photos with Light
Light painting photography is such a beautiful technique. And, while you’ll often see light art photography in gallery exhibitions, light painting is not actually difficult to accomplish with the tips above in-hand.
The real beauty of painting with light photography is the unexpected results, which are sometimes much more interesting than what you had planned for in the first place. The best advice is to prepare your equipment and timings as much as possible, but also to be open to adjusting your strategies as you shoot, to maximize the best results.
For more photography tips and lighting tutorials, you won’t want to miss:
License this cover image via Sergiy Katyshkin.
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