Some friends recently shared with me on Facebook a novel application of light painting: Creating a four meter tall bar that displays an 80 point bar graph of WiFi signal strength, and then walking through various urban settings to visualize the “strata” of communication signals.
The video above reveals both the process and the result (accompanied by a cool minimalist electronic soundtrack, by the way). For more information on light painting, here's:
- An extensive article by the creators of the above video, as well as a Flickr photo album of their results.
- A web site dedicated to “the promotion of light painting photography and the artists involved in the movement, as well as a resource for light painters and those who are interested in our art form.” Oh – and here's another group who share both their art and their techniques.
- An article by our own Tom Bol on blending white balances to create a striking contrast between a natural star-filled sky and light painting that Tom performed on a petroglyph panel in the foreground.
- An eye candy piece I shared in the early days of this site, reversing the process by moving the camera to create lines from otherwise stationary light sources (hot air balloons during a nighttime “glow” session). That piece was in turn inspired by those who create reverse light paintings of Roomba robot vacuum cleaners doing their jobs.
All this has made me even more excited to be taking part of the next session of the New Mexico Outdoor Photography Meetup group, devoted to light painting. If you have any additional resources – or just examples of your own light painting work – please feel free to share in the Comments section below.