How to:

This guide details how to have a bit of fun with light and a long shutter speed. For this photo I used a series one Mood Beam, they are perfect as they have a colour transform setting.

A room that is perfectly dark when the lights are off will be needed because on a 30 second shutter speed any light sources (even tiny led lights) will show. I used thick black card behind the toys and on the floor, matt black card worked well because it didn’t reflect too much light from the toys but maybe try experiment with the reflections and different surfaces.

Here is a step by step:

1. Set up camera on a tripod. ISO: 100 and 30 sec shutter speed.
2. Mark the left and right sides of the view so you know where the photo will start and end.
3. Set the camera on a timer, turn the toy onto colour transform mode and position on the right side of the photo area.
4. When the shutter goes down slowly nudge the toy from right to left moving on every colour change. Try to keep equal distance between the nudges and use the full photo area.

Don’t worry about your hand or arm getting in the photo, just keep it moving and behind the toy.

Here are a few more I took while experimenting with the mood beams:

Try some other shots and have fun.