If Picasso can do it, so can you.

Now today, instead of diving headfirst into my usual style of a long drawn out rambling introduction on how awesome it would be to use lights to spruce up your crappy long exposures and how terribly cool and 'avant garde' you'll become amongst your friends and peers, I figured I'd just skip a step or two and go straight for the balls on this one.... because let's face it, you're not even reading this, you're still sitting there staring gobsmacked at the image at the top of the page and wondering whether or not Paul looks like he's wearing shoes.
You are, admit it.

So no talk, no new crap, just TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS!

Let's get right to it shall we?

You'll need:

• A camera, preferably one with a Manual setting or that allows exposures of 10+ seconds
• A tripod or a solid flat surface on which to stand said camera
• A Speedlite (or Flash to you laymans out there)
• A flashlight or torch, or any form of light emitting object - ie. pen light, mobile phone, mp3 player, LEDs, sparklers, cat on fire.. you name it
• Nighttime
• The urge to look like a right git to random passers by

How to do it:

This, kiddies, is largely based on trial and error and on personal preference as to what sort of image and effect you're after, so let me set up a potential situation for you.
Say you want to be all cute and emo for your girlfriend and show her how much you wanna get in her pants... I mean love and respect her - what do you do? You take a picture of yourself drawing the word 'love' in the air.

On 3: awwwwww....

First, wait for nightfall, pick your location and set up your tripod/solid flat perch.

You want to make sure it's on a sturdy surface and not near anything that might destroy your camera if the damn thing falls over. Point the camera in your direction and decide whether you want a landscape or portrait image. Assuming you want your shot to be in focus, it helps having something to stick in front of the camera at the position you want to be in so the camera can focus on the object until you get your butt in view. This could be your friend, a rock, that random hobo who's pawing through your backpack... HEY!

Then, set your camera to Manual and adjust your ISO and Aperture. Yes, Manual. M-A-N-U-A-L, you Auto-whore.

Since it's dark you'll need a higher ISO or a lower aperture to make up for the lack of light. Start with 400ISO and maybe f5.6 and go from there, adjusting depending on how much of the shot you want to have sharp, how bright you want the light, and how grainy... er... noisey you want the final image to be. This is where half your trial and error ends up being spent.

Set your shutter speed to anything ranging from about 10 seconds through to, hell, an hour if you can! Film buffs will be happy to remember the brilliance of having cameras that stay open as long as you damn well want with the beauty of a shutter release that allows you to lock it down and walk away so you can keep your lens open for hours if needed. F64 on 50ISO for 2 hours? Yes PLEASE!

But I digress.

Generally the longer the shutter stays open, the more light gets in and the more time you have to make an ass of yourself with your glowsticks. This is where another portion of your trial and error factor comes into play - figuring out the best exposure time. Too much time/light might pick up the ghost of the person holding the light source or bleed out into white blur, and not enough and you get a crap photo, plain and simple.

Then, once everything is set to go, you pop your camera on timer OR lock it down with your remote shutter release and RUN LIKE HELL to the spot you picked, shove the hobo out of the way and begin the magic Pink Floyd laser show that is your photo, drawing shapes, words, dancing and twirling and making a mockery of yourself, all the while making sure the light source is pointed directly at the camera for the best result.... that is, until you hear that magic click that says get over here and have a look, you hack!

You might just end up with something like this...

Or something crazy like our good pal Pablo here (with the help of a burst from a nearby flash to help illuminate the scene)....

THEN, if you wanna get reeeeal trippy, you can start outlining objects with your light source to give them a glowing 'on fire' look, like so:

(TIP: Sparklers are awesome for this particular style of light painting)

And then you can pretty much go nuts from there! Combine several forms of light, be it flash, moonlight, mobile phone, glowsticks, sparklers, you name it and see what happens! Let the imagination run wild!

Go toward the light, my son!

For more illuminating inspiration, check out these links: here and here.

- Harmony
 

Images and Info sourced via: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and PC World.