[Ken Lee]

Midnight Confrontation

I thought I would post this here. Hopefully this is the right place. I wanted to highlight (haha!) a technique that I absolutely love, "light painting". This is done during a long exposure when it is dark. You may choose what to illuminate and what to keep in shadow.

AND it's very flexible because since it's a long exposure, you can walk through the scene without registering if it's an exposure as long as this one. I use a handheld light. You can use any decent LED flashlight.

The K-1 is fantastic for this sort of night photography for a variety of reasons, including its Live View with focus peaking. Sure, it's dark, but shine a flashlight and you can see quite a bit, and it reveals some even though its a little fuzzy when it's dark.

(Plate 7182) Pentax K-1/28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. 10 minutes total "stacked"; Each photo 2 minutes f/8 ISO 200. April 2022.

I write about light painting quite a lot in Photofocus as well if you want to check out more about that, night photography, Pentax cameras, and a bunch of other stuff.


You can get really creative with the colors if you wish as well.
Pentax K-1/28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. 2 minutes f/7.1 ISO 200. February 2022.

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Last edited by Ken Lee; 06-15-2022 at 11:41 AM.

[UncleVanya]

Every time I see shots like these I get immediately interested in this type of shooting. And then I forget to do it! I really like the one above with the plane. What was the gear/exposure on that one?

[MikeNArk]

That is my first view of the plane image. That image is stunning. I'd guess you used the 15-30 for that shot. That's got a lot of "wow" factor.

[Mooncatt]

Light painting is probably my main focus (anyone else hear a couple of drums and a cymbal falling off a cliff?), but do a mix of ambient and direct painting. By ambient, I mean similar to these photos where you don't see the direct light source. With direct painting, you see the light source itself, only typically blurred across the frame like in this photo. I shoot a k3 mk II and my go to lens for that is the DA 15mm f4 Limited. It's a sharp, light painting beast, especially if you like starbursts. You have all the time in the world, so a slow lens isn't a problem at all.

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[Ken Lee]

Every time I see shots like these I get immediately interested in this type of shooting. And then I forget to do it! I really like the one above with the plane. What was the gear/exposure on that one?

Since this is about light painting, I threw in some earlier photos, and as much as I hate to say it, now that I am thinking about it, that was pre-Pentax. Nikon D610/Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens. 12 photos "stacked". each photo 15 seconds f/2.4 ISO 5000. I guess this is okay since we're talking about photographic technique and the first two are Pentax. Didn't realize it when I did that because I'm so used to my photos using the Pentax now. This one is actually the cover for my first book.

---------- Post added 06-03-22 at 09:07 AM ----------

That is my first view of the plane image. That image is stunning. I'd guess you used the 15-30 for that shot. That's got a lot of "wow" factor.

Actually as it turns out, no (see above)...although I certainly could have. With the Pentax/15-30mm, it would have come out a little better most likely since the K-1 is a superior camera. Really, though, as long as the camera is a good quality modern camera that is roughly equivalent, an image is going to come out really well regardless. Anyway, thanks! Greatly appreciated!! And this one is actually the cover for my first book.

[UncleVanya]

Since this is about light painting, I threw in some earlier photos, and as much as I hate to say it, now that I am thinking about it, that was pre-Pentax. Nikon D610/Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens. 12 photos "stacked". each photo 15 seconds f/2.4 ISO 5000. I guess this is okay since we're talking about photographic technique and the first two are Pentax. Didn't realize it when I did that because I'm so used to my photos using the Pentax now.

Ken - in any area other than camera or lens specific pentax gear areas it is fine to talk about other gear. The main question was what lens and that helps set the perspective. I have a Pentax APSC only 14mm f2.8 and a 15mm f4 as well as the lovely 11-18 which works on FF around 15mm and longer. My DA 10-17 is also about FF around 17mm so these all give me ideas albeit slower lenses. I have a Sony A7R3 with a FE 28 that has two add on lenses for 21mm f2.8 or 16mm fisheye f3.5 that I can play with as well.

Now to find a subject so I can try this. I know of a decommissioned Huey Cobra parked nearby... (less than 30 mins away) but I think it is lighted at night.

[Ken Lee]

Light painting is probably my main focus (anyone else hear a couple of drums and a cymbal falling off a cliff?), but do a mix of ambient and direct painting. By ambient, I mean similar to these photos where you don't see the direct light source. With direct painting, you see the light source itself, only typically blurred across the frame like in this photo. I shoot a k3 mk II and my go to lens for that is the DA 15mm f4 Limited. It's a sharp, light painting beast, especially if you like starbursts. You have all the time in the world, so a slow lens isn't a problem at all.

I love to use the moon (full moon, half moon) for that ambient light.

Many of us who do light painting often refer to directly shining the light into the camera purposefully as "light drawing" while describing illuminating objects as "light painting".

Yes, you can use a very slow lens. For most of the photos except for the airplane one shown above, I use an aperture of f/8 because there's enough ambient light that I can photograph at f/8 ISO 200 for two minutes or more. So using f/4 or whatever is fantastic. At that point, if there's lots of ambient light, stopping down is actually a bonus because lenses are typically sharpest at their middle apertures (f/8-f/11 on most lenses).

Here's some more images with light painting...y'know, because light painting just kinda is super fantastic. I can talk about night photography/light painting all day (along with music and food and traveling....). I have a lot of night photos of abandoned things in part because I have a series of books on abandoned things that weave in history, vivid experiences, and night photos of these areas.


This required a ton of running back and forth to get proper light painting angles, so I was literally sprinting to get to my spots. These things are enormous!!


Abandoned cafe along Route 66. Pentax K-1/15-30mm f/2.8.

---------- Post added 06-03-22 at 09:32 AM ----------

Ken - in any area other than camera or lens specific pentax gear areas it is fine to talk about other gear. The main question was what lens and that helps set the perspective. I have a Pentax APSC only 14mm f2.8 and a 15mm f4 as well as the lovely 11-18 which works on FF around 15mm and longer. My DA 10-17 is also about FF around 17mm so these all give me ideas albeit slower lenses. I have a Sony A7R3 with a FE 28 that has two add on lenses for 21mm f2.8 or 16mm fisheye f3.5 that I can play with as well.

Now to find a subject so I can try this. I know of a decommissioned Huey Cobra parked nearby... (less than 30 mins away) but I think it is lighted at night.

Slower lenses are great for light painting if you are light painting with some moonlight. I frequently photograph using f/8!!

There's a lot of things that can be used for light painting, including abandoned stuff, cool looking things, nature, or whatever. I LOVE light painting in nature.

Speaking of decommissioned Hueys....


Pentax K-1/15-30mm f/2.8.


Nature! Super great for light painting subjects as well. Also Pentax K-1/15-30mm f/2.8. I photograph tons of nature too, although these don't make it into my books. I just do it because I love it.

[Mooncatt]

Since this is about light painting, I threw in some earlier photos, and as much as I hate to say it, now that I am thinking about it, that was pre-Pentax. Nikon D610/Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens. 12 photos "stacked". each photo 15 seconds f/2.4 ISO 5000. I guess this is okay since we're talking about photographic technique and the first two are Pentax. Didn't realize it when I did that because I'm so used to my photos using the Pentax now.

I actually got interested in light painting before I got my first dedicated camera. These were all shot on my smartphone years ago. The big drawback with phones is you are typically limited to 20-30 second exposures. There is no bulb mode for multi-minute exposures, so you can't get very complex with them.

[Ken Lee]

I actually got interested in light painting before I got my first dedicated camera. These were all shot on my smartphone years ago. The big drawback with phones is you are typically limited to 20-30 second exposures. There is no bulb mode for multi-minute exposures, so you can't get very complex with them.

Those are really good given that it's a smartphone, even more impressive since they're a few years old.

Are there apps that allow you to extend the range beyond 20 or 30 seconds or is that basically it?

[UncleVanya]

I actually got interested in light painting before I got my first dedicated camera. These were all shot on my smartphone years ago. The big drawback with phones is you are typically limited to 20-30 second exposures. There is no bulb mode for multi-minute exposures, so you can't get very complex with them.

You could stack if you have the phone mounted on a holder I’d assume.

[Ken Lee]

You could stack if you have the phone mounted on a holder I’d assume.

Good point, especially if you can somehow not touch the phone (i.e., if there's a continuous burst function on the app or whatever).

[Crooski]

Last week I attended a light paint course led by Mike Muizebelt (Pentax ambassador Holland)
The model here standing on the coast in the water

[UncleVanya]

Last week I attended a light paint course led by Mike Muizebelt (Pentax ambassador Holland)
The model here standing on the coast in the water

That is exceptionally good.

[Mooncatt]

Those are really good given that it's a smartphone, even more impressive since they're a few years old.

Are there apps that allow you to extend the range beyond 20 or 30 seconds or is that basically it?

Thanks. Those were from an LG V20, and that line was the pinnacle for smartphone cameras if you wanted manual controls out of the box. I never bought into all the AI gimmicks of other brands.

The time limit seems to be hard coded in the firmware, because I haven't seen an app that can reliably go beyond that. I've noticed that time limit can also differ between lenses within the same phone. I think there are some that claim longer exposures via an automated intervolometer and stacking, but then you run the risk of having unwanted breaks in the light, and possible buildup of sensor noise (and phones are already bad at that). Thankfully their screens are sensitive enough that you could manually restart another exposure without risking knocking the camera out of alignment, then manually stack them yourself. I moved on to DSLR's before I got that deep into light paintings, so I'm not sure how well that technique would work. I would think you could make it work with some practice.

For Android phones without stock manual controls, I would look at the Camera FV-5 app (there's a paid and limited resolution free version). It was designed to mimic DSLR type controls, but it'll still be subject to firmware limits. I.e. The software allows up to 30 sec. exposures, but I've had other phones that still cut it at 20 sec.

[Ash]

Well done, Ken.
The crisp results with beautifully balanced fill-lighting in this series is awesome.