I recently bought myself a cheap fractal filter which conveniently has the same thread size as my Sony 24-105mm lens with it's long zoom range. Perfect for a spot of zoom pulling.
Zoom pulling is a technique where the lens is zoomed in or out during a long exposure and to be honest it can be quite addictive! I can be stood in the dark for hours zooming in and out and trying different effects.
I've also combined the following shots with my new RGB LED lights. Instead of using Godox AD200 strobes, I've started to experiment with continuous light sources.
I've hesitated till now to buy continuous lights because it wasn't possible without spending thousands to remotely trigger the lights. Shooting in often tricky terrain, having to move back and forth in the dark to switch lights on or off isn't the most convenient thing to do. Not to mention dangerous stumbling around in the dark trying to prevent stray lights hitting the sensor! I could replace the lens cap to prevent light from hitting the sensor but it's definitely more convenient to remote control the lights.
So last night, @fadetoblack and I ventured out in to the Derbyshire Peak District to see what we could get with the lights.
Zooming the kiln
I set up the two Neewer 660 RGB lights on the floor. I usually mount the lights higher up on a light stand but last night I was already carrying way too much gear!
This shot is a simple zoom pull from out to in using a fractal filter. I found that shooting a smaller aperture worked best and here I've used f8 so as to prevent overexposure.
It's certainly handy when you can remotely change the colours but here I'm not too sure about the colour choice!
Zombies
This is a shorter zoom pull from out to in but I left the lens zoomed out a little longer before I moved the zoom ring. There's many ways to be creative with a zoom lens and a fractal filter.
Marmite
This is arguably the best shot of the evening and as Tim described it, the classy lightpainting shot.
It was a straightforward zoom pull but the dark areas where filled by Tim using an EL wire (electro-luminescent coloured wire) waved in a 90's rave style. (Tim still suffering flashbacks from his clubbing days in the 90's it seems).
Rotating with RGB LED lights
Totally off topic for this post, I couldn't help but throw another camera rotated image in to the mix.
For this shot, I set the colours remotely to red and blue and shot Tim at 180 degree increments set at 45 degrees off vertical. I then changed the colours to pink and green on the opposing angles.
It's interesting to see the colours blending and the results are not always predictable.
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/
Lightpainting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. Nothing is added or removed in post processing.
If you would like to see more lightpainting please give the Lightpainters United Community a follow and you will be introduced into the illuminating world of light painting!
If you want to see more examples of lightpainting, feel free to check out these guys:
Mafu Fuma | Oddballgraphics | FadetoBlack | DAWN | Mart Barras | Stefan Stepke | Nikolay Trebukhin | Lee Todd | Stabeu Light | Maxime Pateau | Stephen Sampson | lightandlense | Neil Rushby | L.A.C.E.
Join us at Discord
Quality set fell. Not a bad night's work for a couple of hours between us. Happy days.
Yup, definitely felt productive :-)
I meant to play with the zoom sooooo often and then the night is over before I can blink ... need to make it a zoom night .. great stuff inspiring and motivating .. next time i will have to do more zoooooming
Haha, having a 24-105 helps, it's a longer zooooooooooom range :-)
I have that one ;-) ust not really utilized just yet .. sooo many lenses sitting here .. it's on!
Cool shots.