To light paint you must have a slow shutter speed on your camera. Most pictures are taken with a very fast shutter speed (only a fraction of a second) so that the image is crisp and not blurry. But to light paint, the shutter must be several seconds long to capture the light source as it moves. Some digital cameras have a Manual (M) setting that can slow the shutter speed down enough to light paint. Most of our pictures were taken for 15 seconds.
This is the backdrop we use in the photo booth, it's comprised of various colourful puppets we worked on in the spring term. The background changes from week to week as the puppets are moved around.
We use an overhead projector to shine light onto the backdrop.
A number of different coloured transparencies allow us to change the colour of the light coming from the projector, and thus the colour of the background itself.
In addition to the colour transparencies, we use assorted objects including beads, doilies, paper cutouts, lace, fabric etc. to create unique shadow patterns to be projected onto the backdrop.
All of this is placed onto the projector to create a wide variety of backgrounds.
When we are all done setting up the projector we turn it on and project the colours and patterns onto the backdrop. This backdrop is made up of a blue colour transparency, a doily, and someone’s hand.
We usually use a tripod to hold the camera in place, as the slightest movement of the camera will cause everything else in the picture to blur because of the slow shutter speed. Other options include setting the camera down on a table or the floor.
We use flashlights as our primary light source. The ends are covered with multiple layers of coloured tissue paper to change the colour of the light.
Once everything is set up, someone stands in front of the backdrop and shines their flashlight in the direction of the camera. While the camera is exposing, they move their flashlight around. At this point they can literally write or draw in mid air. The camera will capture the movement of the flashlight which will appear as streaks of light in the final picture:
In the above picture the person holding the flashlight is invisible as they did not stay still long enough for the camera to capture them.
The people posing in the following pictures are clear as they stood very still for the entire 15 seconds. Sometimes people will appear transparent or blurry if they stood still just long enough to be partially captured but not long enough to be clearly visible.
Black stencils or cut outs can be used to shine the light through and around, here are some letters we created using this technique:
A letter T stencil, made with a hole punch.
A black paper cut out letter B.
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