Light painting
Hi all,
Well it seems like ages since I posted in here, so I figured I'd get a couple posted from last night, along with a tutorial for anyone interested in how I achieved the images.
Equipment you'll need
1.. Some Electroluminescent wire (EL Wire). Available in a variety of colours, I got mine from amazon for the pricely sum of £9.29. This is what all the blue light is made with in the photos.
2.. Egg whisk
3.. Steel wool, there are various grades of this available, try to get grade 0, don't get anything above grade 1, again amazon is your friend here.
4.. Steel cable or chain. A metal dog leash will do, you may find it useful to get some clips at the end to let you connect the whisk to the end of it.
5.. 9V battery of a lighter (to light the wool).
So the first shot was done using just the EL wire
The ELWire is battery operated and comes with a switch for on/off/strobe mode. So setup your camera first, make sure you do a test shot first to see what aperture, iso etc you can use for about a minute exposure. This should give you (and your willing model) enough time to pose, switch off the wire and move to next spot in time.
Just get your model to stand still for about 20 seconds in one post, then just move the EL wire around them, I kept it to the back of my brother in this shot so it kept his sillhouette. Then after about 20-30 seconds I switched off the wire, he ran to next spot and I put the wire back on, drew the fireball trail and started the same again. It took a little trial and error to get right, but a great way to keep warm when it's -3 in the mountains around youThe important thing is you don't need a super fancy camera for this, yes I use my D800, but it was light enough by moonlight that I could really have used my RX100 or anything else that can get images at above iso 800 so don't think you need a load of equipment to pull it off, you don't.
The next one was the wire wool shot.
I've been meaning to try out some wire wool shots for a year or so now, just never got around to it. So last night I finally gave it a go (again, with some EL wire). A single 30 second exposure again, I just got my glamorous assistant to run across the frame with the EL Wire after about 10 seconds. To create the fireball it's really quite easy.
1.. Stuff the wire wool into the whisk, fluff it out as much as you can to fill it out a bit.
2.. Make sure you attach the metal cable or chain to the end of the whisk so you're able to swing it around in circles without the whisk coming flying off.
3.. Once happy, use a 9V battery or a lighter to ignite the wire wool, you'll notice a few small sparks.
4.. IN a safe area, away from dry grass + anything combustible of course, spin the cable in a circle, making sure to hold it at arms length to make sure you don't get any sparks in your eyes.
You may find it easier to leave your camera shooting all the time and just listen out for the clicks/beeps when it takes a photo so you know when to start. Also please don't leave the area for a good 5-10 minutes after using the wire wool, just to make sure something doesn't ignite
Anyway that was my first attempt at wire wool long exposures, so definitely loving it, got some ideas for some great locations I want to try this at in the future.
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