Sometimes when it’s cold and wet outside, or I simply can’t think of a good location I can be bothered with, I look around the house for something to photograph. I found this big teddy bear staring at me from the corner of the bedroom and decided to try something I’d seen done.
Light Painted Teddy Bear
OBJECTIVE:
I’d seen objects lit up with various lighting sources using long exposures so I wanted to try to get some cool result using that method. This bear (which stands about 1 metre or 3 foot tall) is totally white so I figured he’d make a good subject.
COMPOSITION:
The composition is simple as I was just trying to learn this technique. I simply placed Yogi there on a black bar chair (seeing as black doesn’t reflect so well) and that was about it. How he sat was what I had in terms of composition.
SETUP & SETTINGS:
20 secs – f20.0 – ISO 100. 32mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod. No Flash.
This was at night so darkness wasn’t an issue. The ISO of 100 was chosen to help reduce any noise from the long exposure.
To shoot this I first focused on Boo Boo with the light on and using manual focus.
For the lighting I used a red (has an orange strip as well) rear bike light, just the usual LED type you get these days in a decent bike shop. I set that to on solid, not flash. I then simply traced around the outside of the bear while using the camera timer. I could have just used the bulb setting and walked over in the dark to turn it off but figured a timer can do that for me and I won’t trip over anything that way.
POST PROCESSING:
Nothing I remember. I may have saturated the colour slightly but that’s all.
END RESULT:
I think I got a cool result with the light creating some strong shadows in the bears fur and the light ‘trace’ forming a frame around him. Something different to play with anyhow.
Good choice with the red bike lights, very cool.