Week 3 - Light Painting

This week I am continuing to experiment with the techniques Light Painting, Motion Photography and Chronophotography. I am also looking into motion tracking to record a pattern.

Experiment:

Last week I tested the camera settings to see if this technique of light painting would work. As that was successful, this week I am testing light painting again but recording habits instead of random movements.

I used a DSLR as well as a hand held/point and shoot camera to capture the movement of myself walking. I used manual mode for both cameras.

I recorded the movement of both my hand/arm and foot. I also tried with different light sources: my phone torch and my phone screen at different brightness levels.

Test One:

This series was done with a DSLR - Canon 1100D Crop Sensor Camera.

SET ONE Settings: 2" F4.5 ISO 100 Motion: Hand held Light: Phone screen, brightest level. SET TWO Settings: 5" F4.5 ISO 100 Motion: Hand held Light: Phone screen, brightest level, on screen is white page (memos)

SET THREE Settings: 5" F4.5 ISO 100 Motion: Hand held Light: Phone Torch. SET FOUR Settings: 5" F4.5 ISO 100 (ISO 200 - IMG 100-1663) Motion: In Sock (Foot Movement) Light: Phone Torch

SET FIVE Settings: 5" F4.5 ISO 100 (ISO 200 - IMG 100-1667) Motion: Hand held Light: Phone screen, brightest level, memo page Blue Light Filter is ON: IMG 100-1664 and 65 Blue Light Filter is OFF: IMG 100-1666 and 67

SET SIX Settings: 5" F4.5 (ISO 400 - IMG 100-1668 and 69) (ISO 200 - IMG 100-1670 to 72) Motion: Hand held and In Sock Light: Phone screen, brightest level, memo page, Blue Light Filter Off

SET SEVEN Settings: 5" F4.5 (ISO 400 - IMG 100-1674 and 75) (ISO 200 - IMG 100-1673 and 76) Motion: Hand held and In Sock Light: Phone Torch

Reflection:

Compared to last week, recording movement from further away allows for longer movement across the image but makes the light seem thinner. However this may be useful if I want to combine the images to show the hand and foot movement at the same time.

I also tested more technical camera settings again this week as I was using a new camera. This allowed me to see what settings produce the best results. I found that using the phone screen as the light source meant that you can see the different screen colours as it moves, as opposed to using the torch where everything is white and brighter.

By making the ISO higher it made the light source brighter but it also meant the room was lit slightly also. However this could be edited in post or fixed by recording in a studio. As the phone screen was not as bright as the torch the ISO could be raised higher without lighting the background, but when using the torch the ISO needs to be lower to stop this.

The phone torch made thinner lines than the phone screen which makes it look more precise with the small movements instead of the movement, especially when recording the hand movement. It also made interesting patterns by lighting the ground when the foot was not moving. This gives a bit more perspective and context to the environment.

Also for some reason light at the start of the movements in all the photos seems dimmer. I'm not sure what caused this. It could have been the way I started walking or something to do with the camera/wide lens. However if it was the camera I would have expected the same dim result on both sides.

Test Two:

This series was done with a Canon PowerShot SX260 HS (point ad shoot camera with manual settings).

SET ONE Settings: 5" F3.5 ISO 100 Motion: Hand held and In Sock (foot movement) Light: Phone Torch

SET TWO Settings: 5" F3.5 ISO 100 Motion: Hand held Light: Phone screen, on screen is white page (memos) *Brightness: High - IMG 138-16838 Middle - IMG 138-16839 Low - IMG 138-16840 SET THREE Settings: 5" F3.5 ISO 100 Motion: In Sock (foot movement) Light: Phone screen, on screen is white page (memos) *Brightness: Middle - IMG 138-16841 High - IMG 138-16842

Reflection:

Using this camera did not have a wide lens so I wasn't able to record as much movement.

This camera also made the light sources seem brighter but also lit the background even with low ISO when using the torch. It also did not record the different colours in the phone screen. all the light sources were seen as white, more so than with the DSLR. The light also seems thicker than before which could make it more obvious but the movements aren't as precise.

Conclusion:

Light painting is a good way to record the movement over time without focussing on other things such as body poses. This way I can just observe how I move through space. Overall I think either a DSLR or the Hand held camera can work to record light. There are many options for camera settings that can work depending on the results I would want.

I think I will continue to experiment with this technique but I will try to put multiple recordings (e.g. hand, foot and head) into one image so it shows the whole movement of that action. I will also record more habitual movements other than just walking (e.g. sitting, writing, typing or making dinner).