I have never tried light painting with my Professional Digital camera before, however, I was ready to set my self a challenge to create light painting photographs with my Huawei Peacock Blue mobile phone. The mobile phone has standard features such as; AR Lens, Night, Portrait, Photo, Video and More. See the images below, please note that these images are screen shots of my phone.
Under the 'More' function, the phone has 11 extra settings (see image below of the functions on the mobile phone Please note that these images are screen shots of my phone).
I chose the 'Light Painting' function, which is further divided into 4 more functions, (see image below, these images are screen shots of my phone).
All of the below photographs are taken using the 'Light Painting' mode on the mobile phone.
For the shot below, I set mobile phone on 'Light Graffiti', the phone was mounted on a selfie stick which also can be converted into a mini tripod. The shot below was taken on my kitchen counter, no backdrop was used. The lights were switched off in the kitchen, prior to that the shot was focused and locked in on the face.
I used a battery operated candle to create light the image. The mobile phone on light painting mode has a ''live view' which means I could see the image being created and knew when to stop the exposure on my shot. I used the candle to light the front of the image, starting with the face, shoulders, then moving the candle around to light the whole image. While doing this, I had to keep a very close eye on the camera as it was creating the image and making sure that the light does not create any unwanted shapes or glares. The total exposure for this image was around 5 minutes.
For the shot below, the same technique as above was used. This image was lit from the back of the bottle, again keeping in mind to add no unwanted glares added to the image. I also added light to the front of the perfume bottle using a small LED torch. The torch was covered with a piece of white tissue to diffuse the light. The exposure for this shot was just over 4 minutes. I quite like the way the use of the torch has added a blue effect on the lid of the bottle. This is because the candle has a warm temperature at 1500 Kelvin and a LED torch on average is 4000/6000 Kelvin, a cooler light temperature.
This image is of a jelly candle and was lit using a battery operated candle from behind, moving the candle up and down slowly. Again, I kept an eye on the view finder to see that the image was not over exposed or casing any glares. The total exposure for this image was roughly 4 minutes.
This is an image of a house plant shot in 'Light Graffiti' mode, lit with a battery operated candle. Each part of the plant was lit in sections.
This image of the perfume bottle was shot using the 'Light Graffiti' mode and was lit using the LED torch and battery operated candle. The swirls were created using the candle.
The next two photographs were also taken using the mobile phone on 'Light Graffiti' mode. Both images below are of fairy lights. The phone was hand held and moved in various directions to create interesting patterns. I must have taken several photographs as I got carried away taking photographs around the house in the middle of the night. Again, keep an eye on the view finder as the image can easily be overexposed. The exposure time range from 10 seconds to a minute.
This image was taken in the garden of the stars. The phone was mounted on the mini tripod and pointed up towards the sky. The phone was set on 'Star Trails' mode. The phone was left in the garden for 45 minutes on the mini tripod. I took this shot in May around 9.15 pm. If you are taking photographs of the stars, it is best to set up when there is still some colour in the sky and on a clear night.
The last two photographs were taken through my bedroom window. It was dark outside - the light from the moon and the windows created an atmospheric scene. This was photographed on 'Night' mode on the phone.
This image is of the same scene, I just moved my phone up and down to capture the light in an abstract form.
Bhupinder Ghatahora ABIPP, ARPS, ASWPP
Ghatahora Photography
info@ghatahora.co.uk
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