Learn How to Indoor Light Paint with Some Simple Tips.

Light painting may seem daunting at first but it’s easier than you think. My set ups were just on table tops in a cabin living room.  First you’ll a good flash light. You’ll need to set your shutter for a long exposure time, I did mine for about 15 seconds. Close down your aperature to around f/13 if you want a blacked out background or keep it open to have some spill off. Keep your ISO low around 100 or 200. You’ll want it completely dark in the room so that you will be the one lighting the scene. A 10 second timer or remote is recommend to avoid any camera shake. Once the shutter opens use your flashlight to paint in the parts you want to expose. Dark areas will need extra exposure with the flash light while lighter areas just barely spill it over. When learning how to light paint, it may take some tries till you get a photo you like. Stay patient and switch around your scene if needed

Extra tip: Creating a Faux Bokeh (blurred background shown above)
When learning how to indoor light paint, getting a blurred background may seem impossible. Sometimes you’ve just got to find a different way to do so. This technique I learned from my professor Caryn Esplin. What you do is manually focus your camera and then when the shutter goes, light only the part you want in focus. Then quickly shut off your flash light, flip your focus ring out of focus and now light only the background you want blurred. Ta Da faux Bokeh!

Try Some Macro shots too!

John Hartman is a cool photographer to check out for some more light painting! Save

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