Project – Writing with Light

Hello everyone.

I thought it was time to start a new project.YYaayy!! A couple of weeks ago I started one that has been done by many people before (and so much better I must add), but I simply wanted to try it out myself and see how I get along and whether it is worth pursuing further.

So I had started to research a bit about “Writing or drawing with light”. I thought that was a brilliant project. A friend of mine actually does it in a very very cool way, in front of a lit city skyline. Oh well will get there sometime. These are just the first initial trials and hopefully, will be able to find a lovely location and try it again in more detail and with more interesting backgrounds.

But the weather in the UK is simply shocking in the last couple of months, that there was no chance to really get out and about. But I remain positive that the sun will come out at some point… <positive thinking>

Most of you might know how to do the “drawing or writing with light”, but I just thought for those that haven’t tried it themselves yet, here is a short summary of what equipment is needed and what you need to do to your camera.

1) A flashlight. Best is a flashlight that you can switch on and off very easily. That way you can write separate letters or draw more accurately, because you won’t have the misleading light trails when you want to start a new letter…

2) If you want to have different colours for the light, the easiest for this is just taking some coloured translucent paper or similar. I use foil that I once bought to put over my external camera flash, to have different effects on images. So I can just tape it onto the flashlight to have i.e. red light trails.

3) Your camera, a tripod and a remote control (either wired or wireless) :-) So stick your camera on a tripod. Focus onto the point where you would stand in the image. Once focused, set it to manual focus, because otherwise the camera will re-focus every time you try to take an image. Then best is to use manual mode for your camera settings or shutter priority. Set the shutter speed to “bulb” and use the remote to start the exposure and close the shutter once image is finished.

So, here are some very basic examples of what I’ve done. If you are drawing, it needs practice as you can see…. When you try it at first you will always end up at different points than you have started at. So you always have to remember where you started.

In my examples I was standing in the dark. That is why you won’t see me in the background at all. When the background is more lit, depending on how long you expose, you will always see a ghosted person in the background. But you don’t want to expose too long if your background is lighter otherwise it might be overexposed. Just try and see where you get to.

Well have fun in trying and simply enjoy the results!

I would love to see some of your work, let me know your tips and trick that you have discovered on the go. Just let me know what your experiences are! Just curious, really

Looking forward to hear from you all out there!

Magdalena

- The Photographer inside