Festival of Lights
By Cathy Immordino
18 May 2009
I often have the privilege to shoot at rave festivals. At these parties, there are lots of beautiful neon lights all around. The best way I have found to capture this sort of environment in a photograph was through lights. I mean how else can one capture heavy hallucinating drugs in a photograph?
I know you're probably saying to yourself, "When will I ever have the chance to shoot at one of these awesome parties you keep talking about?" Well have no fear because painting in photography can be done with all the fascinating lights around you. Still stumped on ideas? Try some of these handy suggestions: An open shutter with cars flying by at night (or even during the day can be fun. Put a glow stick on your favorite pet and photograph them as they run around the house. Leave the shutter open and shoot a bird fluttering their wings (day or night doesn't really matter). How about grabbing a light pen and drawing pictures on the wall? You can even practice writing in cursive! Oh and let's not forget FIREWORKS. Do I really need to tell you what to do with those? Just experiment and find what you light and stick to it! ;)
I, personally, set my camera in BULB mode (ISO is not as important but I keep it as low as possible, so the shot looks like butter instead of fried fragments). Sometimes I like to capture people dancing with glow sticks and other times I capture the environment. Once I tried capturing a group of ravers with just a glowing maraca lighting them (we could never get this image to look perfect, but I will try it again with things that don't move as much). A few times, I even found something I considered boring and had a long exposure while moving my lense in and out and a made a masterpiece out of that.
I have found that the best captures of light are colorful and have some empty space. I recommend experimenting with a light pen or glow stick and then moving on to something a bit more challenging.
Now it's your turn! Show me what you got ;)
4 responses
-
Rey mos gave props (20 May 2009):
another carnival scene! Yeah i like movement or motion to be shot, including the colourful lights.
-
Rey mos added a link (20 May 2009):
By random, i found this before i read your essay! what a coincidence. (jpgmag.com)
-
Lacy Bender gave props (20 May 2009):
Very beautiful! Amazing colors!!
-
Seth Winner said (27 May 2009):
So Cathy You too work lights and rather well I see, Got My Vote, take a Look See at My Legions Of Light Story if you have the Time.
An Adduce: "Moan like an autumn wind high in the lonesome tree-tops, moan soft like you wanted somebody terrible." Carl Sandburg - Jazz Fantasia
Smile, SethT
More How To Stories
Joining Royalty Free Stock sites
By Brian Meeks — 2 Dec 2009
A brief introduction into making money with Royalty Free Stock photography sites.
