How I mild painted and photographed a flock of seagulls at night time with minimal tools

How I light painted and photographed a flock of seagulls at night

I’ve been mild portray for a few years now. It’s one thing I take pleasure in immensely. For me, it’s a nice pairing between being outdoor in nature and utilizing images as a artistic outlet. With mild portray, you may really create something you may think about, and I benefit from the problem of doing every thing in a single publicity.

I needed to strive one thing totally different from the same old mild portray topics like stars and hearts. As a volunteer for animal and environmental safety who lives on the coast, I got here up with the concept to make use of seagulls in my image. Right here, I want to share with you ways I created this picture. You will note that it’s not tough, it simply requires a little bit persistence and a few trial and error.

How I light painted and photographed a flock of seagulls at night

The ultimate picture, shot in a single publicity.

To seize the picture, I solely wanted a number of items of kit: an Olympus digital camera with a 7mm wide-angle lens (equal to 14mm full body), a flash, a stamp, a flashlight, and a tripod. DIYP lined tips on how to create a lighting portray stamp some time again intimately.

How I light painted and photographed a flock of seagulls at night

The ocean gull mild stamp I created

To get the proper shot, I began with an publicity of aperture f/7.0, ISO 100, and 225 seconds in reside time mode. Then, I walked in the direction of the digital camera from about ten meters away, flashing the stamp each few meters. After that, I used a flashlight so as to add character to the scene.

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The largest problem was making the swarm of seagulls look pure, which took me ten makes an attempt to get proper. In the event you’re new to mild portray, begin with a smaller stamp and use a flashlight as a substitute of a flash.

I extremely advocate making an attempt mild portray, with or with out a stamp. It’s plenty of enjoyable and permits for infinite creativity. I solely thought of myself notably artistic as soon as I began doing mild work two years in the past.

Concerning the Writer

Torsten Frerichs is a lightweight portray fanatic based mostly in Jever, Germany. He was gracious sufficient to share how he created this picture with DIYPhotography readers.