How to:

This guide will discuss how to capture light drawings/traces with your DSLR camera. You will need the items shown in the kit list, a few spare hours and a good imagination!

It’’s important you use a fairly large room that is pitch black because on a 30 second shutter speed any light sources (even tiny led lights) will show in your images. You can use glow sticks to draw with but I find small LED torches work best. This is the one I used: key torch.

Set your tripod up at around head height and with the lights on get your friend to stand around 5-6 meters away. Place markers on the floor so you both know where the photo frame starts and ends, it will also help to make sure she/he doesn”t move out of frame or focus when drawing. You want to focus the camera on them and then set it to manual so you don’t lose that focus when the lights go off. Set your camera to around a 30 second shutter speed and ISO at 100. I have a remote for my camera which is really useful in this situation but if you don’t set the camera to use a 10-15 second timer. Now you’re ready to hit the lights.

With the lights off, press the shutter and carefully move behind your friend when the camera fires begin to slowly trace your friend with the torch, keeping your body behind the light. The camera will capture all the movements you make with the light during the 30 seconds. Some other light trace ideas:

*Light tracing/drawing ideas from Flickr

That’s pretty much all there is to it. If the light is not showing try increasing the ISO or make slower/quicker movement with the torch or it maybe that the torch you are using just isn’t bright enough. Here is a quick step by step recap:

1. Position camera on tripod, set your floor markers and focus the camera
2. Use a 30 second shutter speed and ISO 100
3. Set the camera to 10-15 second timer, hit the lights and take the photo
4. With the shutter down draw/trace with the torch/glow stick

It can take a bit of time to master but keep playing and have some fun, maybe try tracing outdoors or using multiple shots of the same location to draw in more detail. Don’t forget to share your results in the discussion section!