# Light Graffiti



## Uglulyx Takes Photos Too (May 26, 2008)

http://www.digitalpicturezone.com/digital-pictures/25-amazing-light-graffiti-pictures/

Anyone even try this?? Any tips?


----------



## Rogan (May 26, 2008)

ive troied playing with lights in this way

but jeeez these must have taken some skill,

i cudnt even write someones name properly!


EDIT**

just looked at them all properly. these are truly amazing :|


----------



## KOrmechea (May 26, 2008)

All you need is a long shutter speed, a small light source (flashlight, LED, etc), and some time to mess around/experiment.


----------



## Joves (May 26, 2008)

I can do maybe some circles and straight lines. I admire people who can do those shots.


----------



## elemental (May 26, 2008)

> Sometimes this tagging is not even possible with spray paints.





> You need to set your camera with faster shutter speed


Great pictures, but the article makes no sense.

I have messed around with this type of thing, but nothing this ambitious. I like experimenting with the textures and things in a more abstract way, which I guess is different. This is the kind of thing I played around with a little when it was too cold to go outside for night pictures:









At what point does "light painting" become "light graffiti?" When it's trendy?


----------



## KOrmechea (May 26, 2008)

I like the examples on THIS page.  

Pretty cool stuff.


----------



## PhilGarber (May 27, 2008)

aww.. All this time I thought I was original:greenpbl:

I've tried writing the letter 'P'..


----------



## PhilGarber (May 27, 2008)

WoW! Just looked at the actual photos...those are amazing!:hail::cheer::cheer:


----------



## ir0n_ma1den (May 27, 2008)

Hehe, I just posted some 'light graffiti' pictures. http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124723

These were random though, I would really like to plan 'em out, looks very cool. Mine were very simple also, All i did was take 30 second shots at 10:00PM while in a car moving the camera around.


----------



## chrisburke (May 28, 2008)

so I've never tried this until tonight, when i read this post... maybe someone can tell me how to fix this.... I put the camera on Aperture mode.. and i set the f to 22 (highest it will go) i take the picture, and the light works fine... i'm able to do the drawing.. however, my face is all blury... now.. I looked in the mirror, and i don't seem to have a blury face.. so it's obvously something i'm doing wrong...


----------



## Uglulyx Takes Photos Too (May 28, 2008)

Wow that's a cool shot. I really got to try this some time. But I'm also hoping for a thunder storm so I can take some lightning pictures.


----------



## McQueen278 (May 28, 2008)

My contributions.


----------



## ir0n_ma1den (May 28, 2008)

anyone want to give specific directions on this?

When I try it It gets quit noisy.


----------



## McQueen278 (May 28, 2008)

Use the lowest ISO you have then.  I used 400 on mine and it worked well enough, but you may want to use 100.  Use f/22 aperture, and somewhere north of 10 second shutter speed.  Also the 10 sec timer is quite useful here.


----------



## ir0n_ma1den (May 28, 2008)

should i do it in complete darkness?

what kind of light are u using, LED?


----------



## chrisburke (May 28, 2008)

it's crazy simple... i just set my camera to aperture priority... and f22.... ISO at 200 (lowest it will go) take the picture, then start to draw with your light (i'd imagine LED works best) http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ioiMlDhC_IU


----------



## McQueen278 (May 28, 2008)

I did it in low light, but far from complete darkness.


----------



## ir0n_ma1den (May 28, 2008)

thanks for the help.

one more question, how do you focus on the subject (probably yourself). I mean, its too dark for my camera to focus so i have to guess using MF.


----------



## McQueen278 (May 28, 2008)

infinity is your friend


----------



## Atreus (May 28, 2008)

my little take on it. however it was at f3.5+10s


----------



## Sidewinder (May 29, 2008)

Really amazing!
Still, not my kind of photography.
But it's cool what people come up with...and I think getting it right really takes a lot of skill, at least the things those people on these websites do!


----------



## chrisburke (May 29, 2008)

yea... its not really for me... i just like trying new cool things... I'm sure I can also find ways to use it in my job (i'm a youth minister kids love weird stuff like this)


----------



## SBlanca (May 29, 2008)

i was actually giving it a shot the other day...


----------



## Uglulyx Takes Photos Too (May 29, 2008)

Ya it's gonna be tricky for me because unless I do it in almost pitch black I'll have to B (what does that stand for anyway?), meaning that someone else will have to do the writing.

(Semi Automatic Camera)


----------



## ir0n_ma1den (May 29, 2008)

Nice Atreus!

How were you able to keep the camera from recording your body movements??


The only guess I have is that you took 2 shots, one will the lighting and one w/ u standing there... not too sure though...


----------



## chrisburke (May 29, 2008)

atreus... i too would like to know how you kept it from getting your body movements


----------



## SBlanca (May 29, 2008)

Uglulyx Takes Photos Too said:


> Ya it's gonna be tricky for me because unless I do it in almost pitch black *I'll have to B* (what does that stand for anyway?), meaning that someone else will have to do the writing.
> 
> (Semi Automatic Camera)



sorry?


----------



## Coldow91 (May 29, 2008)

I have fooled around with it. It is a lot of fun, and cool with different colored lights


----------



## KOrmechea (May 29, 2008)

Uglulyx Takes Photos Too said:


> Ya it's gonna be tricky for me because unless I do it in almost pitch black I'll have to B (what does that stand for anyway?), meaning that someone else will have to do the writing.



It stands for "Bulb."


----------



## chrisburke (May 29, 2008)

i've been messing around with this again tonight... i've found some other things... you can do it with lights on... but the darker the better, as the brighter it is the less of your light (tag) will show up... I've also found that if i put my flash on "Rear" it makes me less blurry... I dont know what its called on your camera, but basically, what it does is when i first hit the button, the shutter closes... i write my tag, i get into position, THEN the flash goes... i think i have mine on 30 seconds... it seems to make some of a difference


----------



## rdompor (May 30, 2008)

I've played around with this quite a bit.













The trick is to draw in complete darkness so there is no light bouncing off of you while you draw whatever it is that you're drawing.  Then, once you're ready.  Have an off camera flash manually fired at whomever is in the shot.  This freezes them, elminating blur.  While you're at it, have the subject in the shot move to a different location and hit them with another flash of light during the same exposure.  This will give you a few images of the same person in the single shot.  This does get tricky though since you have to kind of "aim" the flash at where they are standing to avoid spilling light onto where there are about to go.  If it's not completely mastered, some ghosting will occur.  I don't have any examples of the second trick up online just yet, but I'll put them up once I do.


----------



## chrisburke (May 30, 2008)

awesome rdompor!! and thank you for sharing how you get the no blur!!! i'll have to give it a try does it have to be an off camera flash, or can i just set my on camera to flash at the end of the exposure instead of the beginning?


----------



## Uglulyx Takes Photos Too (May 30, 2008)

Wow these are cool.


----------



## rdompor (Jun 2, 2008)

These were done with a small flashlight, 30+ second exposure, and a snooted sunpak 383 super.












I kind of missed his face with the flash on the next one. =\








These last two are just examples of the multiple flash technique i described in my earlier post...Sorry I didn't combine them with the "light graffiti".

A bit to the right.....







Improper aiming + Dying Flash batteries = 






I hope you enjoy...


----------



## seancoia (Jun 10, 2008)

i have been meaning to do a more legit one, but this was just messing around one time with it. oh, and it took like 20 tries for each image to come out drawn that well.


----------



## Ejazzle (Jun 12, 2008)

these are sick! that website is awesome! i love soing light grafitti its so much fun!


----------



## reg (Jun 12, 2008)

rdompor said:


>


----------



## Bifurcator (Jun 12, 2008)

Uglulyx Takes Photos Too said:


> Ya it's gonna be tricky for me because unless I do it in almost pitch black I'll have to B (what does that stand for anyway?), meaning that someone else will have to do the writing.
> 
> (Semi Automatic Camera)



If you need to use B but don't have or can't use a cable release on your model camera some tape and a marble (or pencil eraser) work great! Honest!


----------



## trinovid (Jun 13, 2008)

yer we had todo some fo this for college work i dont have any on my home computer tho which sucks but there ya go, some of them are really good


----------

