NHT · Night & Astro
Light Painting: A Beginner's Guide to Drawing with Light
During a long exposure you can walk into the frame with a torch and draw. Here is how to do it without blowing out the picture.
Diagrams
Light painting is exactly what it sounds like: you open the shutter for several seconds or minutes and move a light source through the scene, and the camera records its path as a bright line. It needs a dark environment, a tripod, and something to light with — a small LED torch, a string of fairy lights, glow sticks, or steel wool on a whisk for sparks. You also need full manual control and ideally a remote release that can lock the shutter open in Bulb mode.
Start with an exposure of f/8 to f/11 at ISO 100 to 200, which keeps ambient light out and gives you time to move. A shutter speed of 10 to 30 seconds suits simple trails; use Bulb for anything more elaborate. Two rules matter for your own visibility. First, wear dark clothing and keep moving, because a stationary figure during a 20-second exposure will appear as a ghost. Second, keep your body between the torch and the lens whenever you are not deliberately drawing. If a person must appear in the frame, focus on them first with a torch aimed at their face, then switch the lens to manual focus so it cannot hunt when the lights go off.
The craft divides into two skills. Light trails means moving the light itself — sweeping arcs, writing words in the air, spinning a burning steel-wool whisk. Painting means standing off to the side and sweeping a torch across an object to reveal it, and here the inverse square law is your enemy: a torch held close burns a hotspot, so keep it at a consistent distance and keep it moving in smooth, overlapping strokes. A dim torch used patiently almost always looks better than a bright one used carelessly.
Finally, shoot and check, because the rear screen lies at night. Take a test frame, look at it, and adjust exposure time rather than ISO. Add a coloured gel or a flash fired manually for a single pop of accent. The common failures are a torch that is far too bright, an accidental light source such as a phone screen, ambient light pollution from a nearby road, and standing still for too long — all of which a quick test frame will reveal.
Key points
- Shoot at f/8 to f/11 and ISO 100-200 with a 10 to 30 second exposure, or Bulb mode for longer drawings.
- Wear dark clothing and keep moving; a stationary figure appears as a ghost during the exposure.
- For painting, keep the torch at a constant distance and sweep in smooth strokes — a near torch creates hotspots.
- Always take a test frame: it reveals over-bright torches, phone screens and ambient light pollution you missed.
