Illuminate the World with Light Painting

Red Man

Light painting is perhaps right up there as one of the most magical, memorable and fun activities that we can do together along with our art students and also with our colleagues. Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. It is easy to learn and does not necessarily require expensive camera equipment. All you need is a dark space, a tripod or place to hold your camera steady, a digital point and shoot camera capable of long exposure settings of 10 – 15 seconds or an SLR (single lens reflex) camera on “bulb” mode, a variety of lights (big and small flash, led’s, glow lights etc) and (if desired) props!

In the Neighborhood

Essential Questions:

·      How do we transform the ordinary to the extraordinary with our cameras?

·      Once you do, why not share the results with others?

·      Why is collaborating with other students and teachers beyond our classroom meaningful? What impact does sharing students ideas, work and feedback have on student learning and engagement when teachers and students from different schools collaborate and share?

History

The beginnings of light painting began as research in 1914 when Frank Gilbreth and his wife Lillian, used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. They were going for efficiency in the factory not an artistic product! In 1935 Man Ray was the first known art photographer to use the technique with his series that he called "Space Writing.”

Shiva

How to Make a Light Painting

To create a light painting you need a dark space and a tripod or place to hold your camera steady. When using a digital point and shoot camera set it on program mode and put it on a long exposure setting of 10 – 15 seconds. Using a SLR (single lens reflex) camera set it on Manual and then put it on “bulb” mode or set to long exposure 10 -20 seconds. Set the ISO to 100 and the f stop to around 8. A remote for your camera is inexpensive and prevents camera shake. Use a variety of lights (big and small flash, led’s, glow lights) and (if desired) props!

Collaboration and Sharing

When working together in small groups it is astounding what creative results people come up with in a short amount of time. Experimentation and collaboration are key and “play” is the operative word when learning to light paint. The possibilities are limitless and Flickr, You Tube and Pinterest all have considerable light painting resources to further inspire exploration after the first session is over. Sharing within and beyond the classroom gives authenticity to what you are doing so upload your edited images onto a photo site like Flickr that can beam your work near and far. It is also easy to make a video of your light paintings by getting an educators license and creating one on Animoto.

Ghosting

My own introduction to light painting came when David Gran, my Shanghai international art teacher colleague, visited the International School of Beijing back in 2009. I had seen some of his student’s light paintings on his school photo Ning, The Lens. I asked if he’d take some time to show my digital imagery group how to do it.

In that short 60-minute period we learned enough to begin and to create right away. The results were immediate and my students were hooked. The response from students and faculty and the world has kept us exploring. I immediately uploaded our very first light paintings onto ArtEd 2.0 and ARARTE.

These connections got us all sorts of responses, press and encouragement to continue. At the end of that school year several of our images were selected for the Student Creative’s first Blurb book (where all profits went to the Jacaranda School for aids orphans in Malawi), “Paint the World with Light.” Our last Flickr light painting set has had over 5200 views. Because of the possibilities for creativity, collaboration, authenticity and mastery, light painting has become a permanent part of our photography curriculum.

Light Painting with Teachers

Last spring I presented light painting techniques to over 55 art educators from around Asia at EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Schools) in Shanghai. To facilitate learning I set the workshop up in a modified Project Based Learning fashion. First I asked the question “How do we create magic and inspire curiosity in the everyday?” Then I gave a bit of history about our program’s own light painting experiences. I showed a video of work we had done at ISB and then a brief video introducing the process.

Conversations with Self

I posted a link to a light painting Wiki site I created for teachers and students to refer to in order to expand upon their knowledge and understanding once they had given it a try. I then divided up the teachers into groups of 4-5, passed out the tripods/ cameras/ and lights and let them all at it. The energy in the room was electric. There were shouts and laughter everywhere. We then posted our responses onto the light painting Wiki site for everyone to enjoy and made a very cool video using Animoto. Just try it and see for yourself!

by Kendra Farrell, an art teacher at the International School of Beijing and founder of the Ning site, Asia Region Art Educators, Arate.ning.com. kfarrell@isb.bj.edu.cn This article was published in the April 2014 SchoolArts Magazine.

Orb