9

CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / Light Painting

Sparklers

Sparklers are great for painting with light and can

create great images. However, they are also dan-

gerous. I have included them here because of how

nicely they work, but I cannot stress this enough:

You need to be very careful when you use them

because no matter how safe they seem, sparklers

are burning at an extremely high temperature and

can cause burns or ignite clothing and other

materials. That warning aside, with some practice

and some luck, you can use them to create fun

images, like the heart in Figure 9-8.

You should follow some precautions when using

sparklers to create light painting:

    ■   Don’t let young children play with the spar-

klers, especially if they don’t understand that

they can cause burns.

    ■   Make sure there are no flammable items in

spark range, especially clothing items.

    ■   Use outdoors, but make sure that the area is

not too dry, as you do not want to start a fire.

    ■   Make sure that they are legal in your area

before using them; it isn’t worth breaking the

law to get the image.

Sparklers make great tools for writing or drawing

with light, where the light trail is the actual

subject. It is possible to use them to illuminate

another subject, but because the sparklers are

really bright, they work best as the subject of the

image. However, if you want to use them to illu-

minate a different subject, it is best to outline the

subject with the sparklers and make sure that the

subject isn’t flammable. Just trace the edges of

the subject while the shutter is open, and if it is

a big subject, then use a friend with another spar-

kler to help. While you outline one part, have

them outline another at the same time, but again,

be careful; the sparklers are extremely hot.

As you start to experiment with light painting,
using a variety of different flashlights is not
uncommon. For example, the image in Figure 9-7
was created with three different flashlights; first I
used a bigger light to paint in some of the back-
ground, and then I used two different flashlights
to paint in the subject. These two flashlights had
slightly different colors due to the different bulbs,
creating different colors in the image.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO A Fender leaning up against a wooden
fence made for an interesting subject. A powerful LED flashlight illumi-
nated the fence, while the guitar body was painted with a pair of smaller
flashlights to control the light. Taken at 18 seconds, f/18, and ISO 100.

9-7