Light painting...

[Woza]

Ok so i've now got my led torch - bought for 60p on ebay (bargain) it's got 6 little LED's and is pretty powerful, hoping it will be the ideal piece of kit!?

Now - whats the best hints/tips you can give me.

Should i look to set the iso high or set it at auto?

Obviously will be in shutter priority and play around with different timings, am hoping to maybe get some pictures of the car with the light underneath - cant remember what this is called (i wouldnt assume its called light painting?)

Thanks,

Woza.

[AndWhyNot]

Woza said:

Ok so i've now got my led torch - bought for 60p on ebay (bargain) it's got 6 little LED's and is pretty powerful, hoping it will be the ideal piece of kit!?

Now - whats the best hints/tips you can give me.

Should i look to set the iso high or set it at auto?

Obviously will be in shutter priority and play around with different timings, am hoping to maybe get some pictures of the car with the light underneath - cant remember what this is called (i wouldnt assume its called light painting?)

Thanks,

Woza.

Low ISO and if you find you're not getting enough light on your subject either widen the aperture (beware of depth-of-field issues) or move your light more slowly. Trouble with raising the ISO is you'll start getting ghosting appear where you spend a couple of seconds in one place. Depends what you're trying to achieve but I can light a car with a 3w torch in about 90sec ISO200 f/9. Other thing to bear in mind is whether there's any sky in your shot cos often that 's the determining factor- use those settings near an urban area on an overcast night and your sky will start to blow out in a pale orange colour; on a clear full moon night it'll look quite blue and when there's no moon you'll get a purpley-brown hue (assuming colour temp about 5000k). You can change this in PP but you'll also be affecting the tone of whatever you've lit with your torch.

Go fully manual, start with 15sec f/8 ISO200 and adjust accordingly after a couple of test shots.

[Woza]

heres my first attempts, i think the ones with the car is too light - the street lights dont help!

Woza.