Light Writing

I just recently learned a photography technique that basically lets you "write" with light. It's pretty cool. It reminds me of those Sprint commercials that have been airing lately. I will upload a few pictures to illustrate what I am talking about. Click the "Read More!" below to see a few more pictures and how I did it.



To take light writing photographs like this you'll need a camera that allows you to edit some of its manual settings and a flashlight. I used a Nikon D70 and some LEDs. Set your camera to a long exposure time (15-30 seconds). You will need to setup your camera in a dark room.  It is very important that you have a tripod or something that keeps your camera from moving, otherwise the background and your light streams will be blurry.  Then once you press the shutter you can wave around your lights in front of the camera and voila you have a light writing picture.  It might also help to manually focus on the area you are going to be standing in with the lights.  If you leave autofocus on the background will be the focal point.