Light graffiti (also often known as light painting or light drawing) is a fantastic and creative way to express your artistic side, ‘draw’ silly shapes, or doing something you can enjoy with your mates. It needs to be dark when you do this, but essentially it can be done anywhere; at home, in the garden, or out in the wilds. The principles of light graffiti are not that far removed from waving a sparkler around on bonfire night to make swirling shapes; the only difference is that you are capturing the pattern or light trail on camera. You have complete control of the light source (try and think of torches like brushes with an endless supply of paint coming from them.)

There are some basic things you need to get you started:

• A camera (ideally a digital SLR) capable of taking long exposures
• A tripod
• At least one standard torch
• A dark space to create your masterpiece

Mount the camera on a tripod, then using the control dial, switch it to manual mode. Shutter speed can be set to 15-30 seconds, or if you have a remote cable release, switch the camera to Bulb mode which will allow you to take exposures lasting a lot longer. For the aperture setting, anything between f8-f11 is a good start. Choose ISO between 100-200.

Next step is to ensure your images are not blurry. One way to do this is to take the lens off auto setting and manually turn the focus ring, taking a few test shots as you go, or ask someone to hold a light source in frame and auto focus off the bright spot.

When you’re ready, hit the shutter button or cable release, step into frame, turn on the torch and start creating! If you do not have a cable release or you’re doing this on your own, you may wish to use the camera’s timer control, allowing you that extra few seconds to step into frame before you hear the ‘click’ as the camera starts exposing.

When you’ve finished painting with your torch, turn it off, return to the camera and finish the exposure.

Here are some basic examples to get you in the mood:

Once you’ve got the hang of it, take things a lot further by using different torches and try your hand at more elaborate shapes, There are no limits, so push your imagination. Most of all have fun!

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Via The Online Photographer

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I was browsing a web forum dedicated to photography and there was a comment regarding the new purchase that someone had made. They’d upgraded from a Nikon D40 to a D200, quite a jump and to a very capable camera, a good learning step. However, a comment from someone made me think, this person was looking forward to what they’d produce with this camera, almost as if they would suddenly improve. I know what they meant, a better more capable camera gets in the way less, so you can perform better, however, as a photographer it is not the camera that is important and often we are not better with a new camera as it means a change to how we work,  so what did this person mean and why, to an extent, were they right?

Well, I remember a review of a new camera in the early(ish) days of the DSLR revolution* and the reviewer made a reference to receiving the boxed camera, which he came back to at the end of the review. The best part about new gear, they said is “opening the box”. The joy you have at getting  the camera out and using it. Yes, we can never recapture that, but the reviewer made a great point. Put your main camera away in its box, use another for a while. Your backup camera if you have one (and it is different to your main camera), if not break out the old film cameras (or spend a little to get one). Once you have done thatfor a while go back and get your main camera out, you will be surprised at how you feel with it in your hands.

The difference it will make will be quite surprising. If it is a camera which you have not used in a while, you will be amazed at how comfy it feels and what memories it brings back… yes it will have its flaws, perhaps be slower but with it comes some good memories and that lovely sense of nostalgia. If it is a new ( but old) camera then with it comes a period of discovery, tinged with expectation. What does this key into? Well it taps into that “love” that we have for making pictures.  That sense of joy and fun, either from an old friend or finding  anew one. Reusing an old camera reminds us why we liked it in the first place and re-invigorates our desire to make pictures. On top of this you feel refreshed when you go back to your main camera. It becomes new again and a welcome return.

This re-invigorsation for your love of taking and making pictures will always show in your images. Technicality aside, if you are loving the process, in tune with yourself and the subject then there will always be the making of a good picture in there somewhere. That desire and joy will shine through, so go pack up your main camera for a while, pick up a different one and go shoot.  Once you have finished open the box, and revel in the return of your main camera, as if it was new. If you are lucky you will enjoy both aspects of this challenge, at the very least you will enjoy getting your main camera back and so will have a renewed interest/appreciation of it, at best you get enjoyment out of both aspects. What’s to lose? Box it up and have fun, embrace the love and joy of picture taking.

*I wish i could remember who the reviewer was and which camera it was, if you know drop a line in the comments.

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I like the variable image ratios, 3:2, 4:3, 16:9 and 1:1 such as on the Panasonic LX3, I’m glad they kept this. I must admit I am quite excited about this, and I’m hoping it is what I wanted the EP-1 to be! Come on Panasonic, don’t let me down.  This is one camera that I defintely want to try out, hmm now to get Panasonic to lend me one for a while!

Oh and as Leica have an announcement coming on the 09/09/09 I should think they will be launching a version of this camera then… probably for an extra £999!

*EDIT:

Manual focus is performed using the focus ring on the lens. If you’ve activated the MF assist function the image will be magnified to 5x or 10x as soon as you turn the focus ring. It’s surprisingly usable.

This is from the DPREVIEW preview, and so looks as though you can operate the MF without the “assist” automatically kicking in, thank you Panasonic! (though my bank balance may not thank you).

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Tilt-Shift Lens from James Burns on Vimeo.

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So what seminar did I go for? It was the three day workshop with David A Williams and his ‘Almost Alone’ sessions. Why this course you may ask, well I knew I needed to work on posing groups and couples for portrait sessions and it would be relevant to wedding photography. It also gave me the chance to meet one of the most wonderful and respected photographers. All I can say is that I was not disappointed with my investment in any way, being a hands on course, with posing sessions as well as talks about several areas of posing groups, couples and individuals, it went further and demonstrated  lighting (both available and flash), telling the story of wedding days and even into album design. All this was offered up by the most energetic and caring person I have had the pleasure to meet, David Williams, he also has a wicked sense of humour. One of the highlights was the one on one critique session, it was a great experience and not one negative in there, all the feedback was positively re-inforced to encourage learning and self improvement.

So have I improved following on from the course? I know I have, but I’ve not stopped yet… every day is a new chance to learn and improve, one of the key things that I took away with me, was that now matter what skill level you are at, you can always learn something new and improve yourself. All this without buying any new kit!

So go on, treat yourself to a workshop, course or seminar.

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I had such a weekend in Jersey where I shot about 400 shots of random stuff in 4 days,  mainly in boozers or walking between them. Getting anything that’s meaningful from that is more of a challenge than any dedicated weekend in the lakes with your kit bag and 20 hours a day. All I had was a 5D, 24-105, 3stop ND Grad and a lensbaby with the pinhole adaptor fitted (by accident, thought it had the normal optic in – arse!). 

I think you need to try to tell a story where possible, avoid posing everone, look for moments to arise naturally rather than force them into action and gradually people will just accept that you’re taking shots and act naturally. Avoid flashes too, just attracts attention and blinds people, may even set off a fit if you’re not careful. 

So I got the shots back and just cropped and used some actions that I happened up on once – one grainy mono, one Grunge Rock – no more, not much point in doing too much processing as I was story telling, not trying to get an award in some photo magazine or anything… 

Here’s a few I quite like anyway

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For those of you who don’t know what a Zone Plate is, look no further than here.  

So the effect of a pinhole camera is pretty well known, really small aperture (F177) which has no optics, creates a dreamy yet recognisable image on your sensor. I found that you could just about hand hold in bright sunshine at ISO1600, but you really needed something like the sun in shot to use as a compositional aide. You can see less through this baby than an IR filter.

But the results are a beauty, faded colours, ideal for those card manufacturer’s that like pastel images for smoochy cards, or maybe for a bored photographer looking for a new edge.. albeit a blurred edge

I tried out the optic on some bull rushes and on a field of yellow oil seed rape. Here are some nice images for you…

So the Zone plate

As you can see, the effect is basically “abstract watercolour”! It’s very dreamy and gives a really warped effect on reality. I can see it being useful for flower shots in good light, you’d end up with lots of stronger colours making a nice blobby thing. It’s F19 and you can see outlines of things when looking through the view finder and it’s definitely hand holdable in good light. It’s pretty far from a traditional photo, I’m not sure I’d be using it at a wedding or anything like that, but for still life or generally getting something totally bizarre, it’s quite good fun. 

Probably more of a fine art tool than a traditional photographic lens – but that’s just it, it’s not a lens! It’s a zone plate and that uses diffraction rather than refraction

Just awaiting my 21mm ultra wide adaptor and I’ve got everything I need for my lensbaby

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Well this weekend, I had the first shoot for this project and the sitter is a “Horticultural Education Officer” The uniform is quite minimal consisting of branded t-shirts and fleeces, but I do want a range of people and outfits. Anyway enough waffle, here are a couple of shots from the session.

oh and if you wear a uniform, use special gear for work or a pastime, and fancy being part of the series… get in touch via the comments.

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