Lightwriting and Lightpainting

Lightwriting and Lightpainting

Source: http://lighthauscamera.blogspot.de/2011/07/light-writing.html

Lightwriting has become more and more popular over the past months. The advertisement uses lightwriting and the internet’s full with many talented lightpainting artists.

Lightpainting, Lightwriting? The Terms: 

Lightpainting is often used as a generic term for Lightwriting. In English-speaking countries the term "Lightpainting" is more of a household word than in Germany.

I have concocted the terms for me as follows, they are neither binding nor standard.

Lightpainting refers to the painting or coloring of objects by source of lights.
Lightwriting means the writing of words by light as source (words, letters, tags, numbers, etc.).
Light graffiti denots the graffiti spraying with sources of lights. Classic graffiti styles were adapted with light.
Moreover light graffiti is legal in contrast to other graffiti styles.

Tutorial:

With this tutorial we want to give you an understanding of today's lightwriting. We hope you'll like it!

You can create lightwriting on your own but it's surely more fun if you're more than one person. You need these items if you want to write a lightwriting:

1.       Camera with bulb exposure function

2.       A tripod

3.       A light source (mobile phone, glow stick, flashlight etc.)

4.       Darkness

Preparation:

Wait until it's dark or dim the light in your room, as a consequence the source of light does shine out more. Attach your camera to the tripod and setup your camera for time exposure. Moreover you have to check out the aperture. Make sure that you stop down your lens (reduce the aperture) if it's dark and you still want to see all your surroundings.

Next, setup your camera on exposure and aperture. You can setup the exposure up to 30 seconds or longer with good cameras. Digital consumer cameras often offer the “night photograph” or "night shot." That's okay for Lightwriting but watch out since you have limited time!

Furthermore you can check out this link to get more information about how to setup your camera.

As next step, check out whether you have plenty of room, meaning that one person is looking through the camera lens while the other person is checking out the area with his/her light source (mobile phone, glow stick, torch, etc.) in hand. The person behind the camera can exactly spot when the lightwriter isn't in the shot anymore. Visual thinking is required, now!

After you throw focus, you can start. Do this while the light writer raises his hand with the light source, direction being your camera. Throw the focus on this light point and as a consequence you will achieve the best result.

You can almost start now! Think of a theme which is painted mirror-inverted, practice, skill and a good visual thinking are necessary. So don't worry if it doesn’t work at the first try because after some practice you should get better. Light writing is definitely a lot of fun!

Tips: 

If your light graffiti still doesn't work even after some practice, I have some awesome tips for you:

1.       The mirror-inverted writing gets easier when you turn your back to the camera and hold your light source behind your back (not like usually in front of you). After that you can write normal without mirror-inverted writing.

2.       With strong lighting conditions you should increase your aperture.

3.       Move as fast as you can and wear dark clothes so it is more likely that you won't be visible on the photo.

4.       When you use digital cameras you can see your result immediately. Thus you can discover a defect and improve yourself for the next attempt.