" To me light painting is an expression of ourselves, it about the trace we create and leave behind" I think this is a quote that relates deeply in his work as you can almost see to the souls in the way the he has got the models to look directly into the eye, the expressions are almost see threw, they show no emotion they almost look transparent. he went on to say when he started out light painting he discovered a way to play with magic, it's like taking a picture of something that doesn't exist like creating without seeing. I think this reflects in his work as they do appear very magical they almost have a fantasy feel to them.
He became light painting in Montreal in 1992 and five years later he came to understand he was a light painter and decided to dedicate his work to light painting and leave other kind of photography behind him. I like the fact he did this as he has the attitude that if you love something and are passionate about it you should stick to it. Even though i still think you should always push your self out of you comfort zone however he tried other kinds of photography and felt most comfortable doing this kind. I think his passion in art reflects greatly in his work as his work is very artistic You can tell he has thought about these images greatly.
He has also used the element of light to look at beauty to, by having very glamorous shots and creating this beautiful light trails around them i really like the way he's almost sculpt the light around the face in the 4 image and by covering the eyes and making them sunken or black out this adds a element of eeriness to it. i love how dark the image it yet it has this bold red in it making it striking and stand out. All the images are quite atmospheric I also like that you get to interpret what you may think the light represents and it is an unclear narrative. These images are truly stunning I love the element of glamour with these really staged and posed shots.
The spirit of light
this series is based on the free fall of movements with a light tool in hand in complete darkness and using a long exposure. I really like these images I feel they are so unique as they are light forms. They almost look unreal and some of them with the way the light is formed look like smoke creating textures that are not usually associated with light this is done by the long exposure the colour in these images are amazing they are so bright I feel they may have been manipulated in Photoshop.
I started off by brainstorming some factors I thought made Patrick's work unique and inspiring what things make the work stand out to me I then went on to think what elements I could use to create images of my own. I chose to go with portraits as I really like the ones he did and obviously light as it was the main key feature. I decided I wanted to get the light over the portrait using image manipulation as I thought this would create for striking effects to my images.
To create my final images i will manipulate my images in photoshop by adding to images together and then changing the opacity of the top layer which will be the image of light I think this is a really good method to use as it is fairly simple yet looks effective. I will take my portraits with a flash gun as i would like soften the face as i will convert it into black white as i feel this will make my images more atmospheric.
These images were influence by Patrick Rocohon who dedicates all his photography to painting with light. His images are truly striking and stand out from. His images look very professional and have create detail to them. He says that " light painting is an expression of ourselves" I believe this is true as it really depends on how you move the light and what you want to create with it. I wanted to create something like Patrick's work as i did find it very inspiring when doing my research and felt it was something i would like to have a go at.
After i had done my research i started to brainstorm elements i go look at with this kind of photography. I really like his portrait images and obviously light would also be one of the main factors in my images. I thought about how i was going to achieve these images even by long exposures or by image manipulation and i chose to go for manipulation. I thought about different kind of lights i could use and i chose to go with painting with light and then bokeh which is out of focus light that makes it look like little bubbles of light. I think bokeh can have a very calming effect and can make some stunning images. Painting with light is created by using long exposure why your camera is on a tripod and moving a torch around.This creates trails of light i had done this before and really enjoyed experimenting with both so i wanted to do it again and include it in my work.
I did some test shots of painting with light just so i could get my settings right i used a exposure time of 20 seconds as this was long enough to catch the light trails and create good solid lines. My aperture was f8 as this gave me detail i needed. I had no really trouble with my test shoot as i had done this before and knew what i needed. My iso was set 100. To take my portraits i used a flash gun as i wanted soft light all over the face. I also shot at f5 1/40 of a second and iso 100 it took me a while to get my settings right as it was fairly dark when i took the images which is another reason why i used the flash. i manually focused my images as i thought this would make them really crisp and clear.
When it came to placing my images together i went into Photoshop and firstly converted by portraits into black and white as i thought they would look more atmospheric. I then opened the images i had chosen of the light and and then i went onto place and dragged the light into the portraits and then i changed the opacity of the image. This created almost like another faded layer to my images. I think these worked well and the method was fairly easy to do. I do think the bokeh image worked a lot better as i like the colour in the images with the black and white and i think this looks very soft and calming. The painting with light image i do however feel it is a bit harsh i do wish i had made the opacity and little lower on the light trail.
Overall i have mixed opinions about my images i do prefer the bokeh image more and do feel like they may of looked better with studio shots even though the flash did make my images a lot softer.
i feel like the light trails is really to hard on the face. I also feel i could of experimented more with colour like Patrick Rochon did. The images do work well together however i feel like i could of achieved better if i had done studio shots. Doing work inspired by Patrick Rochon has really taught me to experiment with light more as you can create some amazing forms with light. Next time i would defiantly look into using studio shots and brighter colours and maybe look at trying to do it in camera by using long exposure and drawing the light around the person. I feel by images could of been better for this assignment if i had thought more about different ways to make them stand out more and explore different techniques.
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