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Website: The light source you choose to illuminate your subject during the hours of darkness is completely up to you, and it all depends on the type of effect you’re trying to create.Westcott Ice Light 2 Westcott Ice Light 2 at a glance: If you’re after some inspiration to get out with your camera under the cover of darkness, want to explore its true potential, and create some spectacular imagery to be proud of, you’ll be glad to know you’re in the right place.
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To tie in with this week’s topic of light painting, we’ve got our hands on three different light sources to give you an insight into how they work, why you might want to consider them and the type of effects you can expect from using them. Today’s era of LED light panels have been a game changer in the way we illuminate our subjects and paint with light, not only in terms of their high power output, but also in their energy efficiency. Some of these have been specially made with photography in mind, while others have been modified or adapted for the purpose of photography to create striking imagery and mesmerising results. In the past decade, we’ve seen some intriguing lighting devices enter the market. Light painting has advanced a long way since then, and today we find ourselves living in a world where there’s no shortage of light sources available to illuminate subjects. Some of the best known include Man Ray, Gjon Mili and Henri Matisse, all of whom experimented with light and long exposures in various ways between 19. Over the past 125 years or so, we’ve seen many famous photographers try their hand at painting with light. Little did he know at the time, this groundbreaking discovery of the way light is recorded as it moves through the frame would turn into one of the most popular techniques ever attempted by photographers. On our second outing we were joined by Jimmy’s stylist Katie and I was assisted by the fun and imaginative Sarah Savage.In 1889, artist Georges Demenÿ created the first known light-painting photograph, ‘Pathological Walk from in Front,’ by securing incandescent bulbs to his assistants’ clothing before asking them to move in front of a camera during a long exposure.
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Every photo used a technique that was different from the last, if it wasn’t tripod based 15 second exposures it was 5 flash set ups or Pixelstick waving. This gave me great outlet, post wedding season, to get my flashes, Pixelstick and coloured gels out and have a play. Due to the crazy weather this winter it wasn’t until January that we managed to get back out exploring the wastelands of post-industrial Cardiff Bay, areas that are this summer due for demolition. Our first attempt at the photos was back in October, before the costume and outfit had been fully finished, but it gave us both a good idea about what we had in mind. The images to accompany the release of this EP later this year would need to have the same feel dark and empty with minimal human elements. The music was spacey, intense, industrial and contained a minimal amount of human or acoustic sounds. Jimmy contacted me about his Midtide project last autumn and sent me a link to listen to some tracks that he was working on for his current project. Midtide – by Cardiff Music and Band Photographers
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