D-SLR's Capturing light !

For this photography one needs:

1. Camera having long exposure or time value mode. In Canon cameras it is represented as  Tv.

2. Tripod ( some moveable stand or table will also serve the purpose for experimenting)

3. LED flash light.(now cheap chinese torches are available in street). Cover the face of the LED light with a black cellophane tape with a small hole so that pointed stream of light will come out. A projecter pointer can also be used instead of LED.

4. Dark room (It is better to do this during night). During night out door can also be used.

Place the camera in the tripod and focus towards a light shaded(white is better) wall of the room. Focus the wall in full light placing some object or with the help of some one else. Change the focus mode of lens to Manual.

Change the shutter speed of the cam to 20 or 30 seconds in time value mode.

Switch off the lights and using the LED light write what you need in the wall. Keep the light as close to the wall and keep yourself on one side so that you will not obstruct the subject from the lens.

Switch on the lights only after shutter is closed.

You might have seen this technique used in Eveready battery advertisement on television.

This technique is also used for selective lighting especially in ads. This is my try(It is not perfect though).

Now a photoshop technique.

The result should be like this.

Let us see how can we get this result of selective colouring using photoshop. Here the camera does not matter. Any image can be used.

Open the image in photoshop.

Now using the magnetic lasso tool select the area where you want to keep the colour as such.

After the selection is complete, right click over the selected part and click "Select inverse".

After that click 'Ctrl u'. The saturation tab will appear. Slide the saturation tab to -100. You can see the result.

On clicking Ok the final image is ready.

Post your results..

That was quite informative.

I was quite impressed with the LED light thingy. I did mention it to him offline.

The carwale logo done by your is quite quite good.

Feroz amazing pictures!

Have a concern with the above two statement. In the Tv mode only the shutter speed can be changed while the aperture(f-stop) is set by the camera.

by switching the lens focus mode to manual the f-stop will be set as at the time of mode change.

The work around for this would be to set the camera to Manual mode(M) and then change the lens mode to also to manual and use the manual focus ring on the lens to focus to infinity.

True that manual mode gives more options for long exposure photography.

But will it make any difference in this case?

Also there is a concern that when we set the lens to infinite focus, the image area cannot be framed as per our choice.

In Tv mode, the aperture value will be changed by the camera even after we change the lens to manual focus mode. It depends on the light.

In this case we are opening the shutter on dark and begins to lit LED only after it. So the aperture value will be minimum at the time of shutter opening which is desired for light painting.

These are only my observations without any expert back up. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I don't think that there's a relation between aperture and point of focus in a fully dark environment...

The advantage of using Tv mode is, after certain limit - say more that 2 seconds, Camera fits itself into the maximum aperture (F30) so it should not be a problem - this is the same thing you are going to do with Manual mode as well...

On the focus point - what I usually do is, switch on the light and manual focus the space where my light art would be... It gets little difficult if you use Auto-focus

Finally - if you have the BULB option in your camera, this is even easier - fix aperture at F30, put the shutter speed on BULB - Open the shutter (Click) - go the place where your art will be - complete it - go back and Close the shutter

Again - This is just my experience and knowledge - please correct me if I'm wrong  

Hey guys,

Excellent stuff.. I really liked all the photography.. Didnt expect such a thread here.. Thanks to Ami for referring me this one..

Well in case of photography I am just an amateur. I own a P&S sony T-20 cam.. Want to upgrade to a new one in some time though.

But as I am a designer and animator, I know about Adobe Photoshop.. So may be we can discuss about some effects or post production techniques as per your demand..

Regards
Gaurav

The aperture will be changed but there wont be focus(the D1000) does not have an inbody focus motor-the motor is in the lens. So the F stops will chage but the focus will be where the lens focus was at the time the switch was done to manual.

As Muthu has pointed out the bulb(in manual) is the best way for light art, but the apparent strain on the mirror box gives me the jitters.

@Gaurav-i guess your expertise would be very much needed here! Do start a new thread in this section on Photoshop and pictures editors(maybe the 'Digital darkroom' thread!), that way we can keep these two related but indeed different sections of photography separate and easier to archive and draw info from.

-So when do you plan the upgrade? Sony seems to be the new frontline players in d-SLRs now!

Thanks Binoy for the quick reply.. I have my expertise in Adobe Photoshop only, havent checked much image editors, as PS being the best in the market. But still, I can share my bit of knowledge.

I have my eye on Panasonic's Lumix FZ28 digicam. Its an amazing cam with HD video recordings. You can check the video samples at youtube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azAJ2T1r_Ew and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmNnYcvWBG8&feature=related

The only problem is that even Panasonic dealers here in Delhi are saying that it is out of stock and cant say when it will come.

Yesterday only while surfing the net I got to know that even FZ38 is in the line. But it is yet to be released. Have a look here http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/22670/panasonic-lumix-fz38-review/

P.S. - Binoy, can you create an appropriate thread for sharing Photoshop experience.

Thanks
Gaurav