Enlighter Magazine

magazine Lighting Design and Light Art Magazine

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LIGHT PAINTING

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MESSAGE FROM

THE DESIGNER DESIGNER: Lisa Guhl

EMAIL: lisa_guhl@yahoo.com

BLOG: www.enlightermagazine.com/

A LIGHT SOURCE OF INFORMATION

FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS

Enlighter Magazine provides a high-quality and objective information service for the Lighting Design community. It is an up-to-date online magazine and we recently started to make our own print out aswell. We continuously publishe high quality work by the leading lighting designers and artists as well as emerging new talents in the field. Published projects range from delicate interventions to large scale installations. Amongst many other features we also regularly conduct interviews with leading designers, artists and educators in the field of

I really like the site. I visit it very regularly.

Koert Vermeulen, ACT Lighting Design Mindseye have been lucky to feature on Enlighter’s website a number of times now and we are delighted with the exposure and to be associated with such a professional, innovative on-line design magazine. Thank you for helping us to increase our profile across the globe.

Suzanne Wardley, PR/Marketing Manager for Mindseye

light and lighting.

We have been presented on many media and blogs and are continuously referenced as an inspiring and important news provider for Lighting Design Community.

Enlighter Magazine was founded in 2008 by Mitja Prelovsek.

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on our cover A light Painting- Still live portrait made from our Layout Desgner Lisa Guhl.

With steel wool in a glass, a bit fire and a long expusore this stunning picture got created.

LEARN HOW TO DO

LIGHT PAINTING

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magazine

CONTENTS MAY 2013 Image by: Sebastirn Panoulle shutterspeed: 1/60 aperture: f/2.8 ISO: 100

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Festival of Light in Lyon

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Image by: Lisa Guhl

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Long Exposure

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Learn how to do Light Painting

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THE LIGHT LAB

JONNY BAIN

“A rich variety of challenges for creating something beautiful with light�

We interviewed Jonny Bain, a project manager at The Light Lab from the UK, who spoke about their approach and concept of work.

Meet The Light Lab and read below about the diverse challenges, the team is facing.

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FESTIVAL OF LIGHT INTERVIEWER: Maja Aphin

We are glad to present you another creative lighting designer, whose passion is also photography. Please meet Sébastien Panouille and one of his favorite projects, Festival of Light.

The Festival of Lights is one of Lyon’s most famous Festivals to date. It broadcasts Lyon’s heritage and creates an immense buzz throughout the city. The Festival is spread over 4 days of pure magic. The city definitely lives up to its title as the city of lights and will not disappoint. It is innovative, intriguing and startling, and best of all free of charge Lyon Lighting Festival comes from an old tradition to express gratitude to Mary every year on December 8th. All the resident of the city place some candles outside of their windows that create an amazing effect in the city Street. Today, the traditional « thank you Mary » is also the place where artist, lighting designer, student and engineers show their best to enlighten the city for the public and tourist.

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Image by: Sebastien Panoulle As a lighting designer working also in Lyon, the Festival of Light is an annual event he enjoys to go. Lighting is also what makes him have an interest in photography, which is one way to share lighting experience with people.

night falls and lasts until 1-2am. Most of the pictures have been taken just after dark.

Architecture lighting was his first photographic intention, and the festival of light in Lyon a good time to practice. Each year is different; projects are more conceptual, technical and amazing. Some installations are interactive with public, some are very traditional but beautiful and simple and some other show the best and advance technique in the lighting industry.

They are areas in the city where student can practice their passion and have public to experiment they creativity with.

Every year new people are coming from all around the world as exhibitor or visitor and it is always interesting to see people reaction of light.

Festival of Light amazes Sebastien not only for artists playing with lighting, material and color but also for people who make things happen.

The programme promises four nights of enchantment, each night brings a different theme, color scheme and vibe.

Designers from all over the world partake in the wonderful event. Video, Music and Sound effects are used to accompany the vibrant images dotted around the city.

The exceptional spectacle showcases the city at its best and incorporates buildings, rivers and parks into the show. This enables tourists and locals alike to experience many different routes and areas throughout Lyon over the 4 day event.

The lighting festival takes place in December, just not too long before the shortest day of the year in winter. The festival is open usually when the

If you are still not convinced, what better to do then to experience the mayhem yourself, Lyon awaits your visit.

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LIGHT PAINTING

“Light painting is a technique I’ve had a lot of fun with over the years and is something that I try to encourage as many people as I can to try it aswell”

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Image by: Lisa Guhl

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Learn how to do

LIGHT PAINTING REPORTER: Alan Steadman

EMAIL: a.steadman@yahoo.com

PUT TOGETHER A BEGINNER’S Light Painting Kit If you’ve ever harbored interest in trying light painting, there’s no better time than now. Summer is here and the weather is perfect for you start messing around with lights in the late evening, but where do you get started? Luckily I’m here to help!

DON’T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT Light painting is a technique I’ve had a lot of fun with over the years and is something that I try to encourage as many people as I can to try it aswell. It’s really not hard to do and is a great way to impress your friends or, better yet, to have a great unique night with your friends while producing some stunning photos.

You’ll also learn a lot about light and different ways to use it in your regular photography, so really it’s win-win. In order to help you stop procrastinating and start playing I’ve put together this simple guide of the most bare bones light painting tools to get you started Camera If you’re on this site, there’s a good chance you probably already have a camera, so hopefully this isn’t an issue for you. If you don’t have a camera, well… it’s going to be really hard to start light painting.

Go get yourself a nice DSLR or at least something that has a Manual setting because without it you’ll really just be playing in the dark.

Also, bonus points if your camera has a flash, as that will help you place subjects in your photos (simply set the flash to go off once and place your subject, in this case lets say a human, when you take the photo the flash will go off and burn the subject/person into the image then they’re free to exit the frame of the photo but will still show up in the photo regardless, for the most part, of how long the shutter is set to stay open).

Tripod Despite what people may tell you this isn’t really necessary. I’ve included it because honestly you should own one but if you don’t have one you could always just find a nice level surface that’s stable and set your camera on it. I wouldn’t recommend going that route if you’re at all serious about this but if you’re super excited and simply can’t wait to try light painting you can certainly make due without a tripod. But seriously, go buy a tripod.

LED Flashlight The most basic of basics. You can literally disregard everything here except for your camera and a flashlight and you’ll still be able to have a good time. Granted, your experimentation will be severely limited but if you already have these two things around your house I implore you to mess around with them tonight, or better yet RIGHT NOW. If nothing else, it will get you motivated to run out and pick up the other items listed here so you can get started on your light painting adventures. Also at the very least you can learn how to write your name, like I did here during my very first test light painting so many years ago (And yes, I know I wasn’t very good at it but hopefully that just goes to show you there’s a lot of room to get better when you’re first starting).

Sparklers Sparklers are a corner stone of light painting and for a good reason.

They’re probably the tool on here you’ll have the most fun with. Sparklers can be used in similar ways to your flashlight but the inconsistency of their light creates a much more interesting and fun effect, as you’ll soon see.

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HAVE FUN AND NEVER FOGET TO JUST ENJOY WHAT YOU ARE DOING

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LIGHT PAINTING

Image by: Lisa Guhl

Getting STarted REPORTER: Darlene Hildebrandt

1. Set up your camera on tripod with remote attached or set up to fire the camera

2. Turn off any image stabilization (IS or VR) on your lens 3. Turn OFF “long exposure noise reduction” unless you have a lot of patience. What it does it takes a second exposure of equal length of just black, then merges it with your shot to get rid of the noise. But if you’re doing a 2 minute exposure, you have to wait another 2 minutes to review your image and be able shoot again. I don’t use it, and because we’re on a low

4. ISO noise shouldn’t be a big factor 5. ISO low – ideally 100 or 200 Aperture – start around f/5.6 - depending on your scene, then adjust from there if you want more or less depth of field. Keep in mind the smaller aperture you use, each stop you close down doubles the amount of time you need to be painting and exposing. So a 60 second exposure at f/5.6 becomes an 8 minute exposure at f/16!

6. Shutter speed – start around 60 seconds. I’ve done enough night photography to know that’ll get you pretty close for most moonlit scenes.

You may have to adjust faster (shorter exposure) or longer depending on whether it’s a full moon, or there’s some stray light in the scene, and how bright your flashlight is.

7. Focus using the flashlight – then lock your focus.

Adding the flashlight – tips for light painting

To keep yourself invisible, always make sure the flashlight is aimed at the subject, and that you do not light up yourself, dark clothing helps too. Also keep moving during the whole exposure.

Don’t stand in one place for more than a couple seconds or you will show up as a ghost in that spot.

Don’t aim the flashlight back towards the camera, unless you want what I call “light bugs”. Sometimes you can use that technique on purpose to create streaks of light and outline your subject, and that can work well also.

See the image of the little red wagon above for an example of light bugs. I believe I accidentally had my headlamp on while I painted and it made the light bugs – but I kind of liked it so I kept it. Happy accidents are great!

Keep the light moving the whole time so as not to create any harsh lines or bright spots. I like to make outlines of the shape of my subject or parts of it.

Discover what works for you.

For a more defined and abstract look to your light painting you must come in a REALLY close to the subject! By that I mean about 1-2 feet away from the subject. YES you are going to get right into the scene. But if you keep moving, and keep your light moving you will not show up in the photo. (see the b/w of the old shack above for an example of this look and technique).

Also make sure your flashlight beam is focused to a small area – that’s why I like the Maglites, they focus down to a small spot.

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EXPOSURE TIME

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“Illumination”

“Light Streaks”

Technique

Technique

Open your shutter and then run around your scene, stopping to shine your torch on the objects or areas that you want illuminated for a few seconds at a time. You might need to take a few exposures to help you judge exactly how long to shine the torch for, but try to give each object in the scene roughly the same illumination time so that they all show up well.

This time, rather than shining your light at objects, you want to keep it angled so that it is always visible by the camera. Keep it moving through your scene and be careful with the speed you move at because that will affect the light’s brightness in the final image.

You can either run randomly through your scene, weaving an interesting trail or outline an object.

Image by: Lisa Guhl

Image by: Lisa Guhl

This is difficult to judge, so needs some experimentation. A good starting point is to carry out a trial run, I f you have a lot of light painting to do, you may find that the illuminated areas come out too faint to make an impact. To get around this you’ll need to split your scene up into logical areas and take multiple shorter exposures. These can later be combined in a software package like Photoshop or GIMP.

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Image by: Lisa Guhl

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pollination makes perfect so keep practising that you become a master like mexican light painting artis Michael Bosanko

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THE LIGHT LAB INTERVIEW

ENLIGHTERMAGAZINE

INterview with THE LIGHT LAb INTERVIEWER: Maja Aphin

EMAIL: info@thelightlab.co.uk

1. What does The Light Lab do?

At The Light Lab we provide a range of lighting solutions, offering a full design and build service for specialist lighting features and installations & specialist lighting design; we also design & manufacture bespoke lighting products, keeping us at the forefront of new lighting technology. We can produce a bespoke lighting fitting to suit any application, from commercial projects, to residential, exterior, branding and signage. We offer a bespoke and personalised service, with one of our project managers working to project requirements from the initial design through to manufacture and installation. We believe this approach takes a certain amount of stress away from our clients and ensures design integrity and delivery.

2. So you offer the services of a typical lighting design studio, combined with manufacture and install?

We are not a traditional lighting design practice – rather we are able to provide the practical knowledge and design and build skills to assist lighting designers

BLOG: www.thelightlab.com

and architects in developing and then realising their design concepts. However we are very flexible in our level of involvement from project to project. We can offer lighting design services, producing drawings and mock ups, manufacturing fittings and features and our full team of specialist installers for glass, metal and electrical elements, whilst providing project management throughout the project, depending on project requirements. However there are cases when we will work just on the lighting design, or just the manufacture & install, which we believe gives our clients & project partners more flexibility.

3. Has the development of lighting technology in the past few years, had a strong effect on the projects you do?

When The Light Lab was originally founded, it worked primarily with fibre optics. However with the increasing development of new lighting technology over the past decade, we have progressed into working with many different materials and light sources such as LEDs, cold cathode etc. We have also seen an increase in interactive lighting installations and have worked on several projects such as these over the last few years.

One that stands out in particular is a project we worked

“We were asked to design & build an interactive lighting feature, to add a sense of fun to a public stairway ” JONNY BAIN

THE LIGHT LAB INTERVIEW

on with architect Allies & Morrison at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield. We were asked to design & build an interactive lighting feature, to add a sense of fun to a public stairway leading to a busy public square. Members of the public walk through a radar sensor, embedded into each step, which triggers an RGB LED, so as they climb the stairs, their path is mapped with an instant leading illumination on the side of the building and fading trail of light in their wake. The colour and functionality changes subtly throughout the evening (and from day to day on the lunar calendar), so a new individual experience is created every time.”

4. On the subject of technology, is there anything you feel the market is currently missing?

We believe there are always improvements to be made in lighting technology. For us it’s more about the small incremental improvements which will open more doors in terms of design possibilities. We feel that the light should take a more organic form, not just in light features but also in fittings with LEDs. Fortunately one of the beauties of our world is that new technologies continue to emerge allowing the boundaries to be expanded in an ever more efficient and magical way. Continuing interactivity and the arrival of OLEDs and light as a material, whilst still in its infancy, will open up wide new avenues for designers to explore and it’s exciting for us to help provide the pathway to realising their design ideas.

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“We feel that the light should take a more organic form, not just in light features but also in fittings with LEDs” JONNY BAIN

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Long Exposure

Source: www.exposureguide.com/long-exposure-photography-tips.htm

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photographing the ferris wheel To photograph a Ferris wheel at night, move close and use a wide-angle lens to get as much detail as possible. Place your camera on a tripod and frame the image. Because we want all the elements to be sharp, choose a small aperture between f/11-f/32. Set your camera to either Manual or TV (Shutter Priority) mode and choose a shutter speed according to the speed of the lighted Ferris wheel, and the style you are after (anywhere between 1-30 seconds). You should take the image using the camera’s self timer or a cable release so that you avoid touching and jiggling the camera. The image captured will be full of light trails against a black sky, yet the center beams that hold the wheel will be sharp.

Images by: Daniel Padavona

MAKING STAR TRAILS A long exposure on a starry night can produce beautiful light trails created by the stars and the rotation of the earth. The best way to frame the image is to include an element of interest such as an old tree in the foreground. Place your camera on a tripod and focus the lens to infinity. You’ll want to use a cable release to eliminate camera shake of any kind, as it will RUIN your photo. Set the camera to B “Bulb” shooting mode and set your aperture between f/2.8 - f/4 for optimal results. Depress the remote to open the shutter. You should keep your ISO at 100 to keep the digital noise at a minimum.

To complete the photo after your desired elapsed time, depress the remote again, and release the shutter. These exposures can be 15 minutes to several hours long.

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Image by: Koen van Gorp

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blurry waters To capture that look of the water and the sky, you should utilize the amazing light of “the golden hour”, the last hour before the sun sets. Follow the basics of night photography - place the camera on a tripod, use a

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wide-angle lens with the smallest aperture possible, and focus to infinity.

Turn the camera’s mode dial to Manual or Bulb shooting mode and use a slow shutter speed (5-30 seconds) for a longer exposure. The longer the exposure the more misty the water appears. Use your camera’s self-timer or a cable release to take the photo with absolutely no blurring. Don’t use flash because it could ruin the effect in the image.

Image by: Lisa Guhl

light TRAILS Traffic head light and tail light trails give a stunning effect and are a great way to get acquainted with long exposure times. Select a busy road that has lots of traffic at night.

Use a sturdy tripod and position the camera so that it has an overview of the area. Use a small aperture of f/16 or smaller for a greater depth of field, making most of the image in focus. The longer the exposure, the more lines will appear and the longer they will look.

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Steel Wool photography by using long exposure.

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Determining exposure The exposure of your night time image will vary depending on certain factors. If there is a lot of ambient light then the shutter speed will be shorter. If you are shooting somewhere very dark, then the shutter speed will need to be longer. To capture the effects of light trails you need a shutter speed of at least 1/15th of a second, which means you must use a tripod. The image of the Tv-Tower required a 6 second shutter speed, which is slow enough to capture the traffic trails. The f/8 aperture allowed the building to be sharp. The more you practice the more you will become tuned to the exposure you need for the effect you want.

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Image by: Lisa Guhl