The process of making Lomographs is just like painting itself. We choose what to shoot with our cameras, as well as the painter decides on what scene he'll make with his brush. Both Lomographer and painter are two artists that are aiming for one similar thing - to make beautiful pictures. And for this week, see how our Tipster chose to paint with light, literally.
Not All Smoking is Hazardous to Your Health by kylethefrench
You can smoke indoors with the right tools and cameras – make that smoke with light!
I have been enjoying the fun of fiber optic light toys for years but recently an idea hit me like a lightning bolt dead out of the sky. See, so I have had a couple different of these fiber optic toys over my life and every time the base of them are broken. This always made me sad and so I just thought that when the base lights burned out that they were done.
The brilliant idea though was, well, what if I just take the fiber optic bundle out of the toy and use a flashlight as the lighting instrument instead of the base? And you wouldn’t know it, but it actually worked! What is even better is that you can put a color gel between the flashlight and the base of the fiber optic bundle to make the bundle tinted with whatever shade you want. The possibilities are endless!
I love it best with a B setting camera in a darkened room. You could do this technique easily with a Holga 135BC, the Lomo LC-A, or with a Fisheye 2 and with just any kind of film camera that has B setting or long exposure function! So you take the fiber optic bundle and place it over the flashlight and gel. Now, it is good to get a glove to wear on the hand that you are using to hold the whole thing that way you can cover up the connection area real well so that flashlight’s light won’t escape and get into your picture. What this does is it gives you many tiny points of dim light instead of the one bright streak of light. You can move the fiber optic bundle around and everywhere it goes, it creates light in the image. For the very smoky effect, you should use your other gloveless hand to fan out the bundle of light points and always keep them moving in all different ways; this is the key to the smoke.
So anyways, I demand that you go and try this out for yourself. You can find low cost fiber optic bundles online when you by fiber optic toys or you can even go down to a urban junk store and buy one of those fiber optic flower arrangements for like 99 cents and just use the flower bundle, cut the flower petals out if you want, it’s up to you! And more importantly, you should be enjoying what you’re doing!
34 comments
mephisto19
congrats! well deserved!
kylethefrench
oh wow, i only submitted this one on wednesday or something, thanks scape! This is one of my favorite light writing tricks, i hope everyone likes it and tries it for themselves
panelomo
tipster madness - as always @kylethefrench :)
vicuna
crazy fantastic tipster and pictures!! :)
life_on_mars
congrats))))
lawypop
congrats !! :))
superlighter
f****ng clever!
minty
no. 4 is AMAZING. this is the best tipster in months.
breakphreak
coola-cool!
novakmisi
great, bravo for idea!!!
Leah
lomosexual_manboy
Yeah Frenchy...I'm going to a thrift store today to look for some goods. Thanks for the tipster son.
dogma
Impressive! congrats! that's a great tipster!
coca
congrats!! this effect is really amazing
j_robert
excellent
-a-l-b-e-r-t-o-
congrats to the light master kylethefrench
cubilas
supertipster!
@xiaohao89
herbert-4
Outstanding!!
ceduxi0n
*clicks "i like this" eleventy billion times*
brilliant!
rater
Aha, so that is your secret toy for those great pictures! Thanks for sharing it!
stouf
So that was the secret ! Amazing light coming out of your a** ! 8DDD
ahleng90
long live light painting! :D
leela_dark
uuuhh I love this crazy tipster, can´t wait to try it!!!
drehoh177
I've been wondering how you did this! thanks for the tipster
cinzinc
you you the man! like i said before, i bow down to my light painting master!
ucha07
nice info!
anarchy
SUUUUUUUUPER STUFF!!!!! Thanks for sharing and congrats =)))))
scede
by far one of the best tipsters i've ever read :) thanks!
blackbook_13
very cool !!!!!
jeaa
great! will be looking for fiber optic stuff then!haha!
meirshantir
kane
Amazing! Super effective!
Thanks for sharing
magmango
Thanks dude! That's very smart!