Light painting is a term that I had never heard of until a few days ago. I was looking at a few photos on a photo web site, and I must say that I am amazed at the quality of some of the photos that were exhibited there.
Especially interesting to me was a set of pictures taken by a photographer that had the look of the old world Dutch master painters. The Light painting is just fantastic and the end result is most appealing. You can view some examples at PhotoZoomy.com.
The execution of Light Painting is actually very simple, although getting good results maybe a bit more exacting. First, set up a table with a dark cloth backdrop. Next, arrange your still life objects. Set up your camera on a tripod and focus on your objects with all the lights on.
Turn the lights off after you set your shutter speed to around 20 seconds. Click the shutter. Shine a flashlight on different parts of your objects that you want to highlight for about 2 seconds on each spot.
After 20 seconds you will have your Light Painted photo. This is of course is a very simplistic explanation of Light Painting and you will probably have to take 20 or 30 pictures to get it right, but it gives you the basic idea of how it works.
Light Painting Examples
Photography Training Manual
