(Flashlight artist Michel E.)
This last summer my friends and I went camping at the base of Mt. Evans.
(Flashlight artist Raquel H.)
That night we went on a walk around echo lake. We grabbed our tennies a couple flashlights and I of course grabbed my camera because what would a night hike be with out a camera? We were on our way. As we sat by the lake I started to take pictures in the low light a lot of them were not really turning out very clear with out the aid of a tri pod. So I started messing around with the shutter speed and fstop. While doing this a idea popped into my head!
Why not slow my shutter speed way down and open my apature as to let the right amount of light in and capture the movement of the flash light we had brought with us. Even better why not have my friends trace their initials into the air! We Proceeded to do this for the remainder of the night creating a new to us style of art. It was exciting to wait in anticipation for what the camera screen would capture once the shutter closed.
So, I know this will not work for everyone, but those of you who do have a dslr of some kind grab it a flashlight and go camping or just turn the lights out. Or maybe wait a second while I explain this process. If you do not have a dslr find a friend who does have them read this and then you can be the artist behind the flashlight! Also many of you probably already have a good understanding of how this works so have fun creating your own flashlight art!
Its farely simple! First, you want to set your camera to the manuel setting.
Second, look for the little ISO icon once you scroll to that and click on it set it to 100 this gives your pictures a tighter look less grainy and normally when you are in low lighting situations you want the opposite you want a higher ISO because it alows more light in. But in this case you want the iso to be low so you do have the better quality.
Third, find the setting for your shutter speed this is different on each camera but change this to at least 8 seconds and possibly longer this is where you will have to start playing around with what works for you. By doing this you allow more light into your camera.
Fourth, set your aperture ( this setting usually has a little f by it and numbers and is also known as a fstop) low inbetween aprox. 3.5- to 5.6 this also creates a larger opening in your lense to let more light in. Have fun and play around with this too in coordination with the shutter speed.
Fifth, Find a tripod or other solid surface. We used the picnic table at our camp sight and a rock by the lake. make sure the flashlight will be in the lense once you hit the button. then shoot and tell your flashlight artist to start moving the flashlight around it is helpful to count down for them so they can pace them selves.
Sixth, load your photos and unless your friends are good at writing backwards go into your computers photo editer and flip them and cropthem and play with contrast to your hearts content. That's it!
Happy flashlight shooting !!!!!!
( Flashlight artist, Susan B.)
