Last weekend while we were baking Christmas cookies with friends (it’s very common to do these baking sessions here in Austria!), we had fun doing some light paintings with the Belair X 6-12! Here’s how I shot the photos…
To do the light paintings, I had different flashlights and bike lights (the red one on the pictures) and my brother has this great LED light strip that changes color (he got that from Ikea – if you want one for your own light painting parties, you can check it out here).
We used a Belair X 6-12 City Slicker with the 6×9 frame and a roll of Lomography Color Negative 100 ISO 120 film. To avoid shaky pictures we fixed the Belair X 6-12 camera on a little tripod that we placed on a box placed on the top of a chair (very home-made). It’s better to clear the space a bit to not have to stand just in front of the back wall (this avoids that the flash reflects on the back of the room).
Then we set the Belair X 6-12 camera on Bulb mode (using the little wheel on the side) and set the distance to the photographed model (we were at about 2.5m to 3m distance). Most of the shots were made using the Fritz the Blitz flash (sometimes with color cover). We didn’t fix it to the camera as we wanted to flash whenever was best for us and be able to flash from any angle. For most of the pictures one of us flashed the model from the front/side. (on some shots the models were even holding it and flashing themselves). To get the cool light effects we turned or lifted the LED light strip and drew or wrote things with flashlights.
We used different techniques: Usually the model was in place, we pressed the shutter, then flashed the person and moved the light to paint the desired shape. We did not really pay attention to the exposure time; I would say that most pictures were exposed between 5 and 15 seconds.
My best advice: don’t think too much, just have fun!
13 comments
dida
great article :)
adi_totp
wooow! great shots!
robotto_dawad
hahahah great!
ihave2pillows
very cool :-)
134340
nice work!!
headlock
How do you get the persons in the picture so sharp? I've tried it a few times, but the persons in my picture always end up blurry. I use a Diana F+, could that maybe be the difference?
saidseni
This is my type of party! :D
mhsix
mrmaart
lekker bezig @marlenes !
tracyvmoore
@headlock holding and activating a flash free hand brings the subject into clarity...and it also allows you the freedom to try the flash from different positions and distances. If you try light painting without a flash...you will get light streaks...but no clear subject. Hope that helps.
alexandradanielle
marlenes
stonerfairy
Such a good read!