In light painting photography, the light is a paintbrush and the camera sensor the canvas. Drawing with light opens up endless possibilities for adding to an existing scene or even creating art from scratch on a black canvas. But, with endless possibilities comes little room for error. Just like painters need to master holding a brush, photographers need to master the techniques. By mastering the How to, light painting photography opens up a new real of possibility for photographers.

What you’ll need for light painting photography

The craft of light painting requires three basic things: a camera, a tripod, and a light source. The first is obvious. The second keeps your camera in place so that the only blur is the blur that you want.

But, that third item on the must-have list leaves lots of room for creativity. You’ll need something that emits light that’s portable enough to wave around. But, there are lots of different kinds of portable light sources, including but not limited to glow sticks, flashlights, battery-operated string lights, LED balls, sparklers, steel wool, video light wands, drone lights and more.

As you consider what light source to use, think about color and size. The color of the light source will be the color of the final painting, unless you do some dramatic editing. The size is important too. Smaller light sources offer more control, but may take longer to create more elaborate paintings.

Light painting can also be done with existing light that’s already in the scene, such as headlights or even fireflies. The difference with this type of light painting is that you can’t control what the light does — you just see what the light is doing already and capture it.

What camera settings are best for light painting photography?

Light painting is a form of long exposure photography. Once you decide what to shoot, you’ll mount the camera on a tripod and use either shutter priority or manual mode in order to keep the shutter open for as long as it takes to finish the light painting. Turn on the timer or use a remote or camera app to trigger the photo if you will be both taking the photo and painting with the light source.

There’s no magic number for where to set the shutter speed for light painting. Simple light paintings may only be a few seconds long. More elaborate light paintings will require more time. If you’re unsure, try setting the exposure for 10 seconds, give the light painting a try and add or reduce the time from there. If you didn’t have time to finish the painting, the exposure was too short. If the light is too bright, the exposure was too long.

If you need more than 30 seconds to finish your light painting, you’ll need to set the shutter to bulb. This shutter mode starts the photo when you first press the shutter release, then ends the exposure when you press the button a second time. Along with achieving shutter speeds longer than the 30 second limit on most cameras, this is also an option for when you don’t know how long the light painting will take. You can simply start the photo, paint, then end the photo.

What about the rest of the camera settings? Keep the ISO low, such as 100, to avoid noise. Set the aperture low, such as f1.8, if you want to blur the background, higher if you want more of the image to be sharp, such as f8.

With a proper exposure, your light source should still retain color. If your light is a pure white blob, the photo is overexposed and needs a shorter shutter speed, narrower aperture, or higher ISO.

What are the best light painting techniques?

Like painting with, well, actual paint, how you hold the light matters. There are two different types of light painting. The first is using the light source in the photo itself to draw in the air. The second is holding the light source off-camera and using it to add light to the subject. These two methods can also be combined, creating light drawings while the subject is still well lit.

Avoid pointing the light directly at the camera lens, or you’ll get an overexposed photograph — especially when working with something like a flashlight. Keep your movement fluid. Hesitations will become hot spots in the final image so move at a consistent speed.

Unlike painting with paint, you have a 3D canvas with light painting. Yes, the final image will be in 2D. But, keep in mind that you can move the light closer or farther from the camera and that you can also weave the light behind and in front of objects. Don’t limit yourself to just writing in one direction.

When drawing with a light source, be careful to hold the light so that it doesn’t light anything that you don’t want visible in the image. If the light is too close to the background or the person holding the light, then those things will no longer blend into the black background. While some of this can be corrected with editing using the shadows, blacks, highlights and whites sliders as well as dodging and burning, getting it right in camera is always easiest

How do you stay invisible when light painting?

How you hold the light also plays a role in whether or not you (or the person holding the light) actually end up visible in the final image. Hold the light away from your body and don’t point the light directly at yourself.

Another trick to disappearing in a light painting photograph is to wear dark clothing and sometimes even black gloves. Depending on what you are photographing, it’s often possible to hide by standing directly behind the subject.

If the painter rather than just the light is still showing up in the final image, then it’s likely that either the shutter speed is too fast, or the painter is moving too slow. The longer the shutter speed is, the easier it is to disappear from the photograph by moving quickly. Another common issue is not moving fast enough — if your movements are too slow, you’ll be caught on the camera instead of disappearing into the dark background.

How to: Light painting photography with a phone

While a dedicated camera typically delivers the best results, it is possible to create light paintings with a phone camera. You’ll still need a tripod and you’ll also need a camera app that allows for long exposures, such as Slow Shutter Cam or Shutter Stop. Many of the camera apps that have manual exposure settings will also allow photographers to take long exposures.

Of course, just like holding your phone in the air creates a light for concerts, the phone screen itself could also be used to paint with. Just display a photo on the screen that has the colors that you are looking for. Or, use an app designed for light painting such as ColorX.

Collier Schorr, Angel Zinovieff (Felt, Fingers, Socks), 2021

Schorr collaborated with Angel Zinovieff, who writes: ‘When I look at you with the camera in your hand looking at me, there is a difference between that and what I see when the camera is not present. It is different because the camera is a third presence, a witness.’ In Angel Z, the two artists work together to explore the traditions of the muse along with intimacy, visibility and performance’

Photograph: Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York

‘If I had known how much work was involved, perhaps I never would have started.” Belgian photographer Barbara Iweins is thinking about the decision she made six years ago to photograph every object she owned. The project took four years and 12,795 photos later, her task was complete. Now her work is on show at the Cortona on the Move photography festival in Tuscany.

The decision came after a divorce and having to move house for the 11th time. “I was exhausted to have all these objects to pack once again. I really wanted to see what it was like – a houseful of objects. I decided to photograph room by room and drawer by drawer. I was putting Post-its on the drawers because I was scared of photographing the same thing again.”

The result is an extraordinary inventory of the commonplace, the personal, the irreplaceable and the intimate. No object was too mundane for inclusion – safety pins, clingfilm, screws, hooks, toilet rolls, hangers, keys, socks, pants and plates all made the cut.

The brand names are similarly quotidian – Vanish, Pledge, Cif, Bic, Sudocrem, Dove, Playmobil and Lego. Among so much domestic flotsam are precious items with personal significance, such as a Goldorak toy she was obsessed with as a child, and objects usually kept out of sight in her bedside table – lubricant, condoms and antidepressants.

The cumulative effect of viewing Iweins’ anodyne product shots can be overwhelming, and suggestive of an unchecked consumerism. She concedes that she and her three children are “extremely messy”, and that she has been a collector with an interest in vintage clothing in particular, but she describes her buying habits as otherwise normal. She is probably not the only parent of three children who aspires to a more minimalist lifestyle.

Besides her desire to get a measure of just how much stuff she possessed, Iweins was pursuing an interest in consumption and instant gratification. She saw her project as a counter to social media users “posting pictures of their ideal life – what they’re buying, what they’re eating”.

“I wanted to play with it and I thought: ‘I’m not going to show this ideal recto of an ideal life, I’m going to show the verso, the holes in underwear and stuff like that.’”

Her commitment to the fullest disclosure introduced difficulties. She had to resist the urge to discard, unphotographed, a vibrator. And it was only with reluctance that she included what she feels is her most unlovable object: “a mould of my teeth. I don’t especially like my teeth, it’s extremely personal, and it’s a horrible mould. But I had to be honest.”

Clothes, too, presented problems, especially those she had bought and then forgotten. “We are hiding stuff that we are buying,” she laments. “Everything is in closets – that’s the thing.” Perhaps transparent wardrobes might be a solution. “I was rediscovering skirts and thinking: ‘I haven’t worn this – it’s really quite nice. Now I’m going to use it and use it.’”

As her photographic evidence accumulated, Iweins organised and classified her pictures, including by colour, material and frequency of use. She can field her own array of idiosyncratic – and not always impressive – statistics: 21% of bathroom objects are metallic, 43% are plastic; 1% of her clothes are purple, a colour she hates.

“I noted that 37% of our Playmobil figures are bald. I never used or moved 56% of the objects. I think I’m the only person who knows – well it’s not very important – that the dominant colour in my house is blue.”

Most significantly, she says, she came to realise that “only 1% of these objects are important: 99% I could get rid of. Most of the objects I really care for are the things I cannot replace.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, once finished, Iweins was able to throw away full bin bags. Similarly, her shopping habits cooled. “The thing that changed most are the clothes. I think recently is the first time I’ve bought clothes in four years.”

Her most treasured belonging is a dahlia, at once delicate and invulnerable, preserved in a jar of formalin. She had seen it in a shop in Amsterdam and her cousin later bought it for her. She is drawn to its permanence. “I’ve had a divorce and I’ve lost a boyfriend to cancer. These objects – the 1% that are important to me and my children – I know they are going to be there. I realised – it’s pathetic, I know – that you can rely on things.”

Accumulating objects, she says, “was my therapy. There’s so much chaos in the world, and in my head, that the inertia of things – they are my reference. I know what I am saying is sad, but it’s true.”

As an unanticipated benefit of her work, now published as a book called Katalog, Iweins is enjoying a new security. “It structured my thoughts, organising all the chaos. Before, I was scared that something terrible would happen in my life. Now that there is the book, everything can catch fire and at least I will have this reminder that it existed, that it was there. This project was a consolation in a way.”

At the beginning of the process, she says, “I thought it was about overconsumption. And actually, I realised it was more a project about myself.”

East Harlem-native Kenneth “C.J.” Bazemore has been visually capturing Harlem and hip-hophistory for several decades. He has been instrumental in photographing the local New York hip-hop music scene, and documenting the genre more broadly. 

“I always wanted to be a photographer,” he said. “God put the camera in my hand to get off the streets. Photography saved my life.” 

He bought his first camera, a Canon 81, out of a local pawn shop during the early 1990s, and hasn’t stopped since. He developed his craft as a means to avoid the many pitfalls which surrounded him, and just started taking photos of his neighbors in Wagner Houses and charging $2 per flick.“Not for the money, just to develop the pictures,” he explained. He became well known locally and soon was asked to cover events like weddings, and Sweet 16s. His photographer friend, T.C., from nearby Lincoln Houses started bringing him to the Apollo Theater to take pictures of celebrities.  Bernard worked at the Apollo and gave us access,”Bazemore added. And when Spike Lee was filming  “Malcolm X”  Third Ave. in the early 1990s, Bazemore started to capture some of the actors, and develop his craft.Soon thereafter, he began heading to various video shoots with his camera to flex his lens, and make contacts.  A video shoot for a song off Jay Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and Big Pun’s funeral were memorable moments for him.“I’d go and take pictures of the bodyguards with the celebrities and tell them it’s for their portfolios,” Bazemore explains.“Then I’d give them the pictures and they would grant me access to events.”Several of his photos from Puns funeral were prominently featured in The Source Magazine the following issue, opening many doors for him.  Bazemore’s photos have also been featured in F.E.D.S. Magazine, Felon Magazine, and High Times, and the and Amsterdam News.   Bazemore recalled bumping into the iconic lens man, Gordon Parks, early in his career and asking him for some advice.“He said, ‘Just shoot what you love,’”Bazemore began.“At first I didn’t get it, but as time went on I understood what he meant.”His finger got trigger happy and he began shooting many prominent artists of that era onward.  “Name them and I got them:Jay Z,Busta Rhymes,Black Rob,Kanye,Grandmaster Caz,DJ Hollywood,Crash Crew,Rakim, Cam’ron, Ma$e  Dip Set, Puffy,Biggie,Red Alert. I got them all!”Bazemore also mentioned recently doing a shoot with Grandmaster Melle Mel, the importance of inspiring younger generations, and never forgetting where you came from.“It’s not even work.  It’s an opportunity to have fun,”Bazemore said  “The camera took me to places I never thought I’d be. Hip-hop should be documented cuz it changed a lot of people’s lives.We were able to tell our story and it’s important to document it.  I give back with photography.”

When you develop a mental picture of a modern photographer’s studio, the first thing that comes to mind is likely a cyclorama—the large, concave and usually white-painted wall that makes the subject look like they’re floating in a blank void. If that’s what you want, then sure, Photo Bang Bang studio, owned and operated by inventive portrait photographer Curtis Joe Walker, can set you up with one. But in order to access it, you’ll need to walk through a Victorian era-inspired parlor, a dungeon, a boiler room that can double as a mad scientist’s lab and a steampunk-like clock tower, all stacked with nearly every prop imaginable. The studio’s website describes it, altogether fittingly, as a “photographic theme park.”

“Some stuff in here I’ve had for 30 years or more,” Walker says, gesturing around the space at various items—furnishings he inherited from his grandmother, a recently acquired phone booth, a medical chair dating back to 1906 and, oh yeah, a spinning torture wheel. “It’s one of our signature products. Everybody wants to ride on this thing.”

Photo Bang Bang is regularly rented for commercial shoots, music videos and—perhaps unsurprisingly for a place with a dungeon—by the adult film industry, whose business Walker values highly. (“They usually give me whole-day rentals. Music videos are just two to three hours.”) But it’s also open to hobbyists, who show up in numbers for Photo Jam, a five-hour, $25 event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every month. “They don’t have to have a specific reason to come to the studio; they can just come hang out, and that’s been pretty fun,” he says. “People sometimes come up with pretty cool stuff [using the sets]. It’s a good time for me to work with people I wouldn’t work with otherwise.” 

1.

Every inch of Photo Bang Bang is maximized for use. When Walker took over this New Orleans Square space, he plotted it meticulously using an iPhone app. Take a step back from this clock tower set, and you’re standing in the dungeon. When a set isn’t being used, Walker stacks it with props, and entire walls can be moved to further transform spaces. “It’s like stagecraft. … Photography is 90% moving furniture,” Walker says. By the way: The spiral stairs to the right don’t lead anywhere. They just add to the vibe.

2.

Walker builds some of his props, but acquires most of the others from private sales. This taxidermy bobcat belonged to a man who lost interest in it after “his dog chewed the ear off,” Walker says. “The guy was so disgusted by it. It sat in his garage for a time.”

3.

These 1980s-era television and camcorders represent Walker’s love of old tech. He speaks affectionately and knowledgeably about old cameras, classic video game systems and vintage cars.

4.

These are some of Walker’s cameras, minus the mirrorless Nikon that’s his workhorse. The Lomography Instant Wide on the bottom is a favorite; he takes it to the Telluride Film Festival to shoot celebrities. “It gives me carte blanche, because it looks old, and anybody who is into cameras feels like they should know what it is,” adding that director Werner Herzog loves the camera:.“I harass him every single year. He knows me as a Polaroid guy; it’s like he’d be sad if I wasn’t there. [The Lomo Wide] is a good conversation piece.”

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