Day 4: Light Writing in the Dark

Welcome to Day 4! Surprise surprise, I actually had an idea in my head and it worked when I did it! Crrrazy. Today's post is about me playing in my bathroom in the dark. Wait... scratch that. I mean, yes technically that's what it's about, but not in a gross way, ya sickos. I thought it would be fun to see what happens when I control the light completely. In other words, I set the camera up in a completely dark room and then I decide where the light will go, for how long and in what direction. Wanna see what happened?

The first thing I did was set up my camera on the tripod and attached the remote shutter release. Now because I was starting the exposure in the dark, autofocus wouldn't work. So I set the lens to manual focus and set a roll of paper towels on the back of my toilet (Hey, I told you where this was taking place. It's your fault if you're still here!) so I could adjust the focus to the best of my ability. Then I moved the towels and took a test shot of my arm in full light, just to make sure it looked okay.

Once I had this set up, I was ready to go. The only thing that I still needed was a way to control the light from where I was. I didn't want to use the bathroom lights; I wanted something more focused and direct. So I used a flashlight. My mom got me this little plug in flashlight for Christmas and it worked perfectly. Plus it's blue light which ended up giving the images another quality altogether. It's called an Eco-I-Light. Not sure where she picked it up, but I'm guessing you can find it at most stores. I would highly recommend it. I plan on using mine a lot this year for picture taking, especially considering how well it worked for today's photos.

5 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100.
Light shone approx. 2 sec.
Click here for larger image.

So the first set of pictures I took were just of my arm. I don't know why, but I think it's kind of creepy to just see an arm in the dark, completely "unattached" from the body it belongs to. So I decided to try my hand at seeing how creepy of a picture I could come up with. Well, really neither of the two styles are particular creepy (but wait until we get to the faces. heh heh), but I still think they came out kind of cool. This first one is just a solid shot of my arm. I just set a long exposure then turned the flashlight on briefly during the exposure. I really like how you can't tell the difference between my fingers and the shadows of my fingers too. Again, not floored by how this came out, but still happy that it worked at all!

10 sec. exposure at F/7.1. ISO 100. Light shone
approx. 2 sec. per "on" cycle.
Click here for larger image.

The next picture is also of my arm, but this time I set a longer exposure and turned the flashlight on and off several times during the exposure. Each time I turned the exposure off I moved my arm into a different position. This created a really neat "ghosting" effect. I think this type of effect has a ton of potential, and I definitely want to try it again in the near future. I don't think this pictures are really the best I can do with it. But (again), the biggest thing I'm taking away from today is the fact that I thought of trying something and it actually worked the way I wanted it to. Can't you just give me that at least?!



The last set of photos I took using the same techniques described above. For the first one I used the off/on technique and just moved my head during each "off" and for the second I just used a single "on" during the exposure. I think the first photo is pretty creepy just because of the multiple faces happening. The second one just looks neat. I give credit for that one to light. Using a regular flashlight (white or yellow light) wouldn't have given this photos the same tone that they have with the blue light. It definitely gives them a darker feel in my opinion.

13 sec. exposure at F/6.3. ISO 100. Light shone
approx. 2 sec. per "on" cycle.
Click here for larger image.

13 sec. exposure at F/6.3.
Light shone approx. 4 sec.
Click here for larger image.

Welp, that does it for today. This gives me hope for the rest of the year. Let me know if you have any other "light-play" suggestions for me. I'd really love to try them out, especially with how easy these were to do. It's a really simple technique that can add some style and pizazz to your photos. Not that I have any cred to actually say that yet, but it was really simple and these have pizazz, right? Ugh. See you tomorrow.