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Light painted still life

Started 2 months ago | Discussions thread
richj20 Forum Pro • Posts: 10,181
Re: Light painted still life

imnotmarvin wrote:

richj20 wrote:

A beautiful composition.

Would you explain your technique?

Thank you Richard. I take multiple exposures (2-3 seconds typically) where I paint a small part of the image with a small flashlight. I'll mix in light from multiple angles and a mix of hard and soft light using the bare flashlight and the flashlight with a homemade diffuser. I stack them all in photoshop and use masks to bring in the parts I want to be part of the final image.
I get asked a lot why I don't use strobes or constant light. One, I enjoy the process of making images the way I do. Two, not as evident in this image but I like to play with subtly surreal light with a mix of hard and soft shadows from multiple directions. I could probably do that with strobes/constant lights over fewer frames but again, I like the process. I'll post another image that's a little more "unnatural".

Very interesting technique. Thanks.

- Richard

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