Septembers theme is titled Painting with Light - the basic premise is the creative use of light to paint a picture. This of course could be achieved by the use of light painting techniques, the use of ambient light or the creative application of controllable light sources (speedlights, etc.). The theme is deliberately quite broad so as to allow everyone to submit a picture regardless of the equipment and level of experience they have. Following is a description with links to tutorials and sample pictures of light painting to give you some ideas for the months theme.
Tutorials:
http://digital-photography-school.co...he-photography
http://www.diyphotography.net/taxonomy/term/176
Some excellent examples:
http://digital-photography-school.co...ainting-images
http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpainting/
The key thing to remember with light is that you are really only limited by having a camera that can shoot on Bulb setting (which will be virtually all SLR/DSLRs and many compact cameras) and of course your imagination.
As mentioned this months theme is not limited to light painting and other techniques such as second curtain sync flash photography might be more your gig. Do a quick Google search (or your preferred search engine) for second curtain sync and you should find they kind of images that are possible using alternative lighting techniques.
Whilst being mindful that this will push some people out of their comfort zone, this is a big part of participating in a photo of the month event you want to get out of your comfort zone, learn new skills and push your creative boundaries (at least I do and I hope you will too).
My advice if you havent done this before is to start simple - use a tripod if you have one (or other sturdy surface), mark out on the floor a spot that you have pre-focused your camera to (remember to turn autofocus off!), set the camera to Bulb (or even a long exposure will do), set your self-timer if you dont have a remote, press the shutter release, turn out the lights and use a torch/flashlight/strobe/glowstick/etc/etc. to make some simple patterns. Youll be surprised how quickly you get a handle on the technique and youll have fun fine tuning and learning as you go!
Best of luck to everyone entering this month and have fun
Tutorials:
http://digital-photography-school.co...he-photography
http://www.diyphotography.net/taxonomy/term/176
Some excellent examples:
http://digital-photography-school.co...ainting-images
http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpainting/
The key thing to remember with light is that you are really only limited by having a camera that can shoot on Bulb setting (which will be virtually all SLR/DSLRs and many compact cameras) and of course your imagination.
As mentioned this months theme is not limited to light painting and other techniques such as second curtain sync flash photography might be more your gig. Do a quick Google search (or your preferred search engine) for second curtain sync and you should find they kind of images that are possible using alternative lighting techniques.
Whilst being mindful that this will push some people out of their comfort zone, this is a big part of participating in a photo of the month event you want to get out of your comfort zone, learn new skills and push your creative boundaries (at least I do and I hope you will too).
My advice if you havent done this before is to start simple - use a tripod if you have one (or other sturdy surface), mark out on the floor a spot that you have pre-focused your camera to (remember to turn autofocus off!), set the camera to Bulb (or even a long exposure will do), set your self-timer if you dont have a remote, press the shutter release, turn out the lights and use a torch/flashlight/strobe/glowstick/etc/etc. to make some simple patterns. Youll be surprised how quickly you get a handle on the technique and youll have fun fine tuning and learning as you go!
Best of luck to everyone entering this month and have fun
). The background swirl was added later with a photo program. The exposure was about a minute for this one I think, part of which was spent fumbling around with the lights in the dark. No matter what I did though, I could not maintain sharpness in this image every time I tried reducing it's size for posting. Never had that issue before, and wonder if it's because of the lighting sources I chose.
