IN subject photography and when shooting still lifes, photographers quite often resort to such an interesting technique as the light brush technique. The essence of this technique is that the photographer, using a narrow beam of constant light, highlights or “draws” with light the necessary areas and details of the image. Each object or detail is illuminated separately, while the light source is constantly moving in the hands of the photographer. As a result of this approach, the photo acquires an original light pattern that cannot be reproduced by any other means or software. From this article you will learn how to use this technique and what are its main features.
What it takes to implement the light brush technique
First, let's decide what you need to implement the photography technique using a light brush. Here are the main points:
- dark room
You will need to draw with light in the dark, so any darkened room is suitable for shooting. In a city apartment, this can be a bathroom if you are shooting in the summer, or an ordinary room if you are shooting in the winter. For indoor shooting, it is best to use a table against the wall. It will be possible to place the corresponding objects or the composition that you want to shoot on it. To fix the background, any sheet of plywood will do.
- Camera and tripod
When shooting various subjects or still lifes, using a tripod is a common thing. Shooting with a light brush is no exception here, and you will also need a tripod as you will be working with slow shutter speeds of a few seconds. As for the camera, the main requirement for it is the ability to use manual settings and manual focus.
Although you can shoot with an old film camera, it is still recommended to use a digital camera equipped with a good LCD display. After all, on the LCD screen, you can visually review each captured frame immediately after shooting, in order to immediately correct your mistakes and change settings to achieve more interesting results. If your digital camera has a USB connector, you can connect it to your computer to view your shots on a much larger display that allows you to see even the smallest details.
- fast lens
Must have at your disposal fast lens, because you, we remind you, will have to work with rather long shutter speeds. Using a lens with a high aperture will save an extra second or seconds, which is important, because each such second can significantly add digital noise to the image. The focal length of the lens can be different, but most often for subject shooting optics are selected focal length 85 mm.
This is the most important tool you will use when shooting subjects or still life. Professional light brushes are sold today in photo shops, but, unfortunately, they are not cheap. The undoubted advantages of such devices include the fact that they are characterized by a constant color temperature (in the region of 5500 K), plus they provide the ability to use a variety of attachments and filters, providing the photographer with additional creative options. However, again, special professional light brushes are expensive, and therefore there is no point in buying them for amateur photographers. Moreover, you can make the simplest light brush with your own hands at home.
An expensive device can be replaced with ordinary cheap flashlights, which are sold almost everywhere. Ways to make a light brush can be very diverse. For example, you take an ordinary LED flashlight, install it in a tube, while the outlet to limit the light beam can be adjusted using the aperture from the lens. The tube can be made from plain black paper by rolling it into a tube. With such an improvised light brush of your own making, you can use, for example, color filters and other accessories.
It is important to choose the right flashlight for the light brush. It must necessarily be single-lamp or with one bright LED, since several LEDs can produce well-defined light spots. You also need to keep in mind that flashlights can produce light with different color temperatures. In particular, daylight flashlights (DayLight), flashlights that give yellow light or create hard shadows.
For various shooting situations, it is best to purchase a whole set of inexpensive flashlights that differ in different color temperatures of light. For example, flashlights with hard shadows will allow you to add more drama to the picture, and a flashlight with yellow light is useful in situations where the subject being shot needs to be artificially aged in the image. By the way, to soften hard shadows and scatter light, you can apply some colorless cream (for face or body) directly to the flashlight when shooting.
You can shoot a wide variety of objects using the light brush technique. Here you are absolutely free in your choice and at first, until you hone your skills, you can photograph everything that comes to hand - from a crystal vase to musical instruments.
Camera settings
Before you start shooting, you will need to understand the camera settings. Immediately switch the camera to manual mode(M). The optimal parameters, most likely, will have to be selected experimentally, since much will depend on the power of the flashlight you use. The shutter speed is determined based on many factors, including the capabilities digital camera, lens speed, etc. The shutter speed can be set from about seven seconds to a minute. Do not forget that every extra second plays an important role and can lead to additional digital noise, which completely ruins the picture.
Set the aperture based on the depth of field you need. When using very slow shutter speeds, it is recommended to set a low sensitivity, for example, 100 ISO units. In any case, it is recommended not to set the sensitivity higher than ISO 160, so that unpleasant noise does not appear in the photo image.
If the possible maximum shutter speed on your camera is not enough to create a light pattern and realize a certain idea, then it makes sense to take a photo in several exposures, and then combine these frames into one using software tools. Use a shutter release delay timer, or a cable release or remote control remote control. This way you will have time to approach the still life or the object being photographed and pick up a light brush.
In LiveView mode, focus on the desired point, and then be sure to turn off autofocus. If you use the autofocus system, then the camera in the dark will start looking for a target for a long time, it will try to aim, which, ultimately, will simply kill an interesting shot. After you have decided on the settings and prepared the camera, you can actually start shooting.
Shooting
The shooting process begins with the fact that you turn off all the lights in the room. It is necessary to completely exclude the influence of extraneous sources, making the room really dark. Cover any objects with a glare surface in the vicinity, as they may reflect the reflected light from the brush into the photo. Next, you pick up a light brush and, with the beginning of the exposure, begin to “draw” the necessary details with light. Moreover, it is desirable to first highlight the background and, in general, use more postero-lateral light.
Then you can already go to the objects themselves, drawing with a brush individual objects, details and plot important elements compositions. When lighting from the front, it is recommended to use a wider beam of light by simply sliding the tube on the flashlight. What should, according to your plan, turn out brighter in the photo image, illuminate longer. By moving the light brush away from the object, you will get a soft blurry spot. Conversely, to get a bright spot with sharp edges in a photo, you need to move the light brush closer to the subject.
The main thing when operating with a light brush is not to stagnate for a long time and not to keep the beam of light at one point for too long. The light brush should move. You can return to the right places several times to better draw them. At the end of the exposure, you can give a little fill light by brushing over the object so that the light spot covers the entire object, or, conversely, give hard shadows by holding the brush in the same position motionless.
It is clear that the exposure time is very limited and you will have to act as quickly and accurately as possible. Sometimes, even in a few tens of seconds, you just can’t draw the composition, as you originally intended. But, firstly, you can do an unlimited number of takes, marking the mistakes on the screen and trying to repeat the brush strokes again. Secondly, since the camera is mounted on a tripod, you can shoot several frames, carefully working through the sections of the image you need, and then take the most successful places from each frame in a graphic editor.
The light brush technique is certainly great because it gives the photographer unlimited creative possibilities. You can experiment with camera settings, choose a wide variety of subjects for shooting and, of course, use various manipulations with a light brush to embody the most daring, unexpected ideas. For beginner photography enthusiasts, this technique is good because it does not require the use of expensive studio equipment. Interesting and vivid photos can also be created at home by making light brushes from improvised means on your own. For beginners, the main thing is to be patient, since the first few shots are likely to be unsuccessful. But gradually, by analyzing your mistakes and looking at each frame in detail, you can significantly improve your results and, in the end, learn how to create unique, unusual compositions.
Learn how to create spectacular photos with the light brush technique! The OPEN FOTO master class will take place on January 26, 2019 at the VDNH Crafts Library.
The "light brush" technique produces an unusual light pattern that cannot be obtained using other shooting methods. A light brush is a point beam of light that the photographer controls during shooting to highlight the objects he needs in the frame and place accents in the picture as the idea requires. The light brush is primarily used for still life and product photography.
This technique is available to everyone. To take a photo using the light brush technique, you will need a camera that has a manual (manual) shooting mode, a tripod and a flashlight. Of course, there are specialized devices - professional light brushes, which are very expensive. But, believe me, a flashlight will allow you to achieve an amazing effect. And how much pleasure the process of shooting brings!
The program of the practical master class "The ordinary miracle of photography, or the Light brush"
- The basic principles of creating photographs using the "light brush" technique.
- Demonstration of the technology of the process of creating such images.
- Analysis of common errors.
- How to do without a tripod when shooting using the “light brush” technique if you don’t have one.
- How to use the light brush for technical shooting of the "subject" in cases where other methods of shooting are too complicated.
- Practice shooting using the "light brush" technique in the studio.
To participate in the practical part of the master class, you must bring with you:
- camera,
- tripod,
- a flashlight (if you don't have a flashlight, a flashlight built into your smartphone will do; this is less convenient, but possible),
- a few small items that you will shoot; you can compose a composition from them or shoot each separately - at your discretion.
The master class is held as part of the VDNH Winter Educational Program.
Master class date: January 26, 2019.
Start: at 18.00.
Duration: 3 hours.
Location: VDNKh Crafts Library (119 Mira Ave., building 47, pavilion 47 - House of Crafts).
Author and presenter of the master class:, founder of the OPEN FOTO School of Photography.
Library of crafts on the map of VDNKh
Registration for the master class is closed. We invite you to the upcoming events of the OPEN FOTO School of Photography!
If you have any questions, please contact e-mail or by phone +7 977 835-93-53.
All photos in this article were created using the "light brush" technique. The author of the photographs is , the founder of the OPEN FOTO School of Photography.
Not many people know that the word “photography” means “drawing with light”. Using the light brush makes this expression literal.
The light brush is a tool that has a small size and can emit a constant beam of light with a sharp focus. The technique of photography is to transfer the image outlined by light in the picture.
The professional grade light brush has a light temperature of 5500 Kelvin. It allows you to use various attachments. The light of this brush corresponds to flash light or daylight. Nozzles and filters give extra space for creativity.
A professional light brush is not cheap. In addition, for digital photography the temperature of the light is not as important as for the film. Nozzles and filters are not used very often. That is why you can use a regular flashlight for familiarization. The main thing is that the spot of light from the flashlight should not be too wide. This will allow you to clearly outline objects. Flashlights with white LEDs are best suited.
How to start photography
The best way to shoot is with a digital camera. It allows you to view the result after each shot. On a small display, it is difficult to see the details, so it is better to immediately connect the camera to a computer. Almost all DSLRs and many compacts can output images directly to a computer monitor. After each frame, you should carefully study the picture and, if necessary, make corrections. If it is not possible to view each frame, then you should make short series and view several frames, studying them in detail.
Photographs should be taken at slow shutter speeds using a cable release or remote control. This will prevent the camera from shaking from pressing the shutter button. In the absence of such a possibility to control the camera, you should use the timer shutter release.
Sometimes it happens that the camera does not have the ability to shoot with a sufficiently slow shutter speed, which is necessary to create a normal frame. In this case, you can take several photos with different exposures and then combine them in a graphics editor.
How to take photos with a light brush? After setting the camera on a tripod, you should switch it to manual mode. Autofocus should be turned off. Manually focus. Turn off bright lights. If the subject has a reflective surface, keep other objects away from the subject as they may be reflected.
Light Brush Shooting Technique
When working with a light brush, the exposure has to be selected experimentally. The aperture is set so as to obtain sufficient depth of field. In most cases, a 1 minute exposure is sufficient. To prevent the appearance of noise, it is better to set the photosensitivity smaller. after the first frame, it will be possible to determine the shutter speed adjustment. It sometimes needs to be reduced or increased.
To illuminate an object, you should know some rules. You can highlight an object with light by holding a beam of light on it. To get a clear and bright spot of light, you need to shine from a closer distance. To get a more blurred spot of a large size, you need to highlight from a farther distance. At the very end, you should fill the scene with light a little. This can be done by highlighting the picture from such a distance that the beam of light illuminates the entire frame. If at the same time move the brush in a circle, the shadows will turn out blurry or will be absent altogether. To obtain clear shadows, the brush must be held motionless for some time. You can also make backlighting at the end with a backlight from behind. This will make the outlines clearer.
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When shooting with a light brush, you need to learn one rule. Before releasing the shutter, you need to clearly imagine the future photo. This habit will help not only when shooting with a light brush. Even before shooting, you need to clearly imagine what and how will be illuminated. You can even draw a lighting scheme on paper and indicate the duration of the brush delay at each point. According to this scheme, it is much easier to draw with a stopwatch.
Tricks when shooting with a light brush
A very interesting effect can be obtained using two different light brushes. One should be with an LED, and the second with an incandescent lamp. As you know, an incandescent lamp has a yellowish light. So by setting the white balance to between incandescent (2800K) and daylight (5500K), the photo will have yellow and bluish spots of light, which looks very nice. As you know, yellow and blue are complementary colors.
Using filters for a light brush, you can make drawings of various colors. not limited to yellow and blue.
Light filters can be made from almost anything. These can be filters from lenses, a color polymer film, which is used as a filter for studio light and for interior decoration. It can be found in craft stores and stationery stores. Unnoticed photographic film produces a pleasant amber light. It can also be used.
Separately, it should be said about shooting objects with a glare surface. Glare on such objects must be, because they convey the main form. But it is very important to remember that glare often makes overexposure, so you need to spend on such objects without delaying a beam of light on them. In addition, you need to remember the rule that the angle of incidence of the beam is equal to the angle of reflection. Make sure that the reflected light does not hit the lens with direct rays. You can do it differently. Shoot the scene with almost no glare and overlay them separately in Photoshop.
Photographing with a light brush is not an easy process, but the results can be amazing. Everything will not work out right away, so you need to be patient. Carefully study the shots taken, find errors and correct them. This is the way to get great results.
As you know, the word “photography” means “drawing with light”. The light brush gives this word a literal meaning.
A light brush is a tool and a photography technique in which this tool is used. The instrument is a small constant light source that produces a well focused narrow beam. The shooting technique is that each object is illuminated separately, “drawing” on the photograph with a moving light brush. The result is a unique light pattern that cannot be reproduced in other ways.
The professional light brush has a constant color temperature of around 5500K and allows you to use a variety of attachments and filters. Light of a strictly specified color temperature, corresponding to daylight or flash light, allows you to shoot with such a light brush on film without color-correcting filters. Attachments expand the capabilities of the tool, giving the photographer additional visual possibilities.
But a professional light brush is an expensive device. When shooting with a digital camera, color temperature is not of fundamental importance, and attachments are not always useful. Therefore, a simple flashlight can be used as a light brush for fact-finding and educational purposes. It is desirable that with this flashlight the light is focused by a lens, then the spot of light will not be too wide, and you will be able to accurately illuminate small objects. It is best to use a white LED flashlight as the light source. Its light almost exactly matches the daylight color temperature, and it is very economical on battery power.
WHAT IS NECESSARY
Shooting with a light brush is not as difficult as it might seem. If you do not have the skills of such shooting, then you will need a digital camera. It will give you the opportunity to immediately view the result and adjust your actions. It is very important to carefully review each frame immediately after shooting, while you still remember exactly the order of your actions with the light brush. The small display of the camera is not enough to study all the details of the photo, so it is advisable to connect the camera to a computer and take pictures with the image automatically displayed on the monitor. All DSLRs and many compact digital cameras have such an opportunity. This requires the camera to have a connector for connecting to a computer (usually USB, sometimes FireWire) and a special program, which is most often included in the kit. If you do not have such an opportunity, then it is recommended to shoot in small bursts with control on the camera's display, and then transfer them to a computer for a more detailed study.
If you do not have a cable release (remote) for the camera, then use the timer delay release mode. If there is, then set the manual shutter speed control mode (Bulb), and on the remote control, use the shutter button lock for the shutter speed. There are remotes with their own timer (for example, the Canon TC-80N3), which allow you to set the long exposure time and work it out automatically.
What to do if the maximum shutter speed of your camera is not enough to realize the idea, there is no cable release and there is no way to set the desired shutter speed in the program that controls shooting from the computer? In this case, you can take a photo in several exposures, and then combine the frames into one using a graphic editor.
Set the camera on a tripod, turn on the manual shooting mode. Point and focus the lens. If you used autofocus, turn it off. Turn off bright lights. Leave it low enough to clearly see the subject you are photographing. If you are shooting an object with a smooth, shiny surface, such as glass or metal, then try to remove or cover any objects with glare surfaces that are nearby - they can be hit by light from the light brush, and you will get their reflections in the photo.
SHOOTING
When working with a light brush, the exposure has to be selected experimentally. Set the aperture based on the depth of field you need. A shutter speed of 1 minute will be enough to illuminate a small object or a composition of several objects. To avoid noise at such a slow shutter speed, use a low ISO speed such as 100 ISO. If during the shooting you find that the shutter speed is not enough to create the planned light pattern, or, conversely, it is too long - adjust it as you need.
The principle of creating lighting is simple. First you need to highlight the desired fragments of the object. What you want to make brighter, light longer. If you need a bright spot of light with small dimensions and sharp edges, then hold the light brush closer to the object. On the contrary, if you want a blurry soft spot, then hold the light brush further. At the end of the exposure, give some fill light - move in an imaginary hemisphere over the object at such a distance that the entire object falls into the spot of light. You can just hold the light brush at such a distance motionless - then you get the shadows. You can also create a backlight - illuminate the object from the back, then the light will clearly outline the contours.
It should be especially noted that before opening the camera shutter, it is necessary to clearly imagine the future photo. This is generally a useful habit, and when shooting with a light brush, it is simply necessary. You must decide what and how you want to light, and imagine how to do it. For convenience, you can sketch a sketch of a future photo and designate on it a scheme for the movement of a light brush with the duration of illumination in each area. When shooting, it will be much easier for you to accurately work out all the movements according to this scheme and with a stopwatch in your hands than from memory and guided by an internal sense of time. In addition, you will not forget anything and make fewer takes.
Tricks
An interesting effect is the use of two different flashlights: LED and incandescent. An incandescent lamp gives light with a low color temperature (in other words, yellow). There are flashlights with a halogen bulb, their light has a higher color temperature (such flashlights are produced under famous brands Phillips, Energizer, etc.). The light of a flashlight on a white LED is almost indistinguishable from daylight. If you set the white balance on the camera (or for an already finished picture, in a graphic editor) in intermediate value between incandescent light (approximately 2800 K) and daylight (5500 K), then in the picture you will get a light pattern with a combination of yellow and blue colors. This combination looks beautiful because blue and yellow are complementary colors.
Instead of flashlights different types light sources, you can simply use filters. Then you will not be limited to only yellow and blue colors, but will be able to choose almost any color combination.
Color filters for lenses can be used as light filters. For example, red, orange, green and others. You can use a colored polymer film. Such a film is used as a light filter for studio lighting sources, as well as for design purposes. You can look for it in art supply stores, stationery stores, and packaging departments. A piece of unexposed and developed color film can also be used as a color filter, producing a pleasing amber light.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the shooting of objects with glare surfaces. In photographs of such objects, glare must be mandatory, because otherwise their surface will lose its shape and be lifeless black. But glare easily gives overexposure in the picture. To avoid this, light up shiny surfaces by brushing the beam of the light brush over them non-stop. In order for the reflection of the light source to hit the picture, remember that the angle of incidence of the beam on the surface is equal to the angle of reflection. To simplify the task, you can use the technique described above - to remove glare with a separate exposure and combine frames in a graphic editor.
Shooting with a light brush is a complex and exciting process. Not everything will work right away. Be patient - the first few shots will almost certainly fail. Carefully examining each frame, try to understand the cause of the errors and try to correct them the next time you try. As a result, the result will be better and better.
As you probably know, the very word "photography" in Greek means "light painting". It is about light painting in the literal sense that we will talk in this article.
A light brush is a technique for creating photographs, where a directed beam of light is used as a light source, with which an image is “manifested”.
A slow shutter speed allows you to "paint" with light on the subject, and as a brush, a flashlight is usually used.
Most often, a light brush is used when shooting still lifes. However, this shooting technique is also used in portrait, advertising and interior shooting. In interior photography, more powerful light sources are used instead of a flashlight.
What are the advantages of the light brush?
Before moving on to practical advice, I want to tell you what are the main advantages of working with a light brush.
Firstly, the light brush allows the photographer to “draw” light accents himself. That is, highlight important objects and emphasize secondary ones. This is something that many photographers tend to underestimate or, even worse, don't pay attention to at all.
Secondly, the light not only illuminates the picture, it directly affects the volume, texture and color saturation of the subject and the entire scene. Also, the light brush allows you to make mixes. I will talk about this below.
Thirdly, if your subject needs an unusual presentation, the light brush is the best solution.
Choice of technique
Camera
Of course, it is desirable to use a camera with a full frame sensor. Such a matrix does not make much noise on long exposures and has a large dynamic range that will allow you to adjust the exposure by 1-2 stops with minimal loss of quality.
In fairness, it should be noted that the latest models of semi-professional and even amateur cameras cope quite well with noise and give an acceptable picture.
Optics
As a rule, a still life is shot with a light brush, and in this genre, perspective distortion is very undesirable, so it is better to use optics with a focal length of 85 mm or more.
For shooting indoors, you need to find a compromise every time. Shooting a panorama from several frames with a light brush will not work.
Tripod
The tripod should be as stable as possible, even a few millimeters of offset will create big problems for you when merging shots.
As a result, the layers panel will look like this.
And the layered sandwich looks like this:
In the end, this whole sandwich is assembled into a finished picture.
Following the tips described above, you can easily make a still life of any complexity.
Everything is very simple, try, experiment. And post your work on our page
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