Light Painting

Of all the techniques I use, this has to be one of the most fun....and if you happen to have kids along on your shoot, it's a great way for them to get involved. Light painting is just what it sounds like: Painting a subject with light. This technique comes in handy for a number of different scenes but my favorite application is shooting a subject at night while trying to capture the starry sky in the background. Stars don't give off a lot of light so shooting them typically means setting your camera to a high ISO (making it more sensitive to light) and shooting with a long exposure on a tripod. Nonetheless, even with the camera set up this way, subjects in the foreground are often left underexposed. To solve this, I use a flashlight to periodically "paint" the subject with light during the course of the long exposure. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, the results can be stunning.

I recently shot these lighthouse ruins near the southern coast of Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean. When initially shot, the stars looked great but the building was underexposed. "Painting" it with a flashlight during the long exposure did the trick.

I recently shot these lighthouse ruins near the southern coast of Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean. When initially shot, the stars looked great but the building was underexposed. "Painting" it with a flashlight during the long exposure did the trick.