With us all being locked up in our homes to prevent us from getting some sort of virus you may have heard of, I started to practice the art of lightpainting indoors. I spend evenings stood in my kitchen with all the lights turned off waving lights at various objects including circuit boards. It's also useful to be creative when it's raining outside as it often does in my part of the world.
I've acquired many circuit boards from various sources including one from the scrap bin at my head office. Dressed in a suit and diving in to a bin when I see a nice looking board must make me look crazy to my co-workers. I don't really worry about things like what people think of me because hey, I got another circuit board!
The process of shooting boards in the dark involves setting up lights behind and to the sides of the board. Different circuit boards have different arrangements where some may have tiny holes where a chip was once attached for example. Or sometimes a piece of the board blocks the side light so some modification with a pair of pliers is necessary.
Shooting a circuit board by itself could end up being boring after a while so I've added other elements as part of the composition.
Circuit demon
I started off shooting boards by arranging them square on or parallel to the camera. While I was faffing aligning the board I noticed one half of the board was nicely out of focus. So I explored this and composed the dark chip to appear on the top right hand third of the frame.
I found that the surface of the main chip was picking up stray light so I added a piece of black electrical tape over the chip making it appear darker and unexposed.
To make the final image, first I shot the board. Then without ending the exposure, I swapped the camera to another tripod and switched lenses in the dark. All while the camera is still exposing.
The skull is an image I found where I set it up on an pre-arranged iPad and panned the camera across the frame. Job done all in one exposure!
The Zoom Pull
I'm a fan of all things kinetic in lightpainting photography and for this I started off by first shooting the board with a zoom pull where the focal length is changed whilst the board is lit with continuous lighting.
The same process applies as the above shot where I swapped lenses and tripods to a pre-arranged Ikea Gamsebo bulb and pan across.
These images can take a few attempts to nail the alignment but that's all part of the fun!
Handjob
Probably a click baity title but this is my own hand located on a light box.
This is a three part process. First I shoot a silhouette of my hand. Then I swap to another tripod and lens then shoot the backlit board. And finally swap to yet another tripod and lens to shoot the Gamsebo bulb with a kinetic pan of the camera.
Sounds rather complicated but I do like a challenge!
Evasive Maneuvres
One of the really great things about the world pf lightpainting is being able to collaborate with other lightpainters in the dark. This shot was created out in the wilds rather than my kitchen.
I first bagged the circuit board shot then changed lenses again with the camera still running and shot @fadetoblack stood in front of a gelled strobe pointed at the tunnel wall. The colour on the wall was created by using a gadget over the strobe to split the light output in to four quadrants each with it's own colour.
Kinetic Nights
This was a shot where I spent ages trying different things with the lighting and angles on the board. I couldn't think of anything to add to the board itself then a Eureka moment hit me where I've simply moved the Ikea Gamsebo bulb across the frame to leave a trail.
Paranoia
This is probably my favourite attempt at shooting a circuit board in the dark.
For this one, I've zoom pulled on the central chip then added an eye in the black, unexposed space left behind. I shot this around the time when the Huawei spy story was breaking and who knows who can see what in my digital life? Paranoia is what that is!
Orb in my Chip
This is another Ikea Gamsebo bulb briefly exposed and lined up to appear in the middle of the chip. I must admit this took a few attempts to line up because I do like to be precise!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys: @fadetoblack, @mafufuma, @stepko, @gunnarheilmann, @lichtkunstfoto, @yo-hoho, @oddballgraphics, @lacelight and @martbarras
Follow the Hive Community Lightpainters United to be introduced into the world of light painting.
Great shots here. Reminds me to take a look in my box of PCBs.
All of these look like great album covers ;)
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Image by barbara-orenya
All of these are insaneeee. Wow so cool.