Light painting
He made a self-portrait with a time exposure and while the shutter was open, with a penlight he inscribed his name in cursive script in the space between him and the camera, overwriting the letters with more cryptic marks.
[5] Her 1941 photomontage Pure Energy and Neurotic Man incorporates light drawing and realises her stated aim; "that if I should ever seriously photograph, it would be...the flux of things.
"[6] In making innovative photographs of dancers, including Martha Graham and Erick Hawkins she would have them move while holding lights.
He produced a series Schwingungsfigur (oscillating figures) of complex linear meshes, often with moiré effects, using a point-source light on a pendulum.
[10] In 1977 Dean Chamberlain extended the technique using handheld lights to selectively illuminate and/or color parts of the subject or scene with his image Polyethylene Bags On Chaise Longue at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Dean Chamberlain was the first artist to dedicate his entire body of work to the light painting art form.
[20][21] From the late 1980s Tokihiro Satō's photographs combine light, time and space in recording his movements in a series beginning with his “photo respirations” where his use of an 8 x 10-inch view camera fitted with a strong neutral-density filter to achieve lengthy exposures lasting one to three hours provide the opportunity for him to move through the landscape.
[clarification needed] Locations in the natural landscape or amongst buildings, such as industrial ruins, are carefully researched for distinctive backgrounds for each composition and LED-lamps are often used for contrasting cold and warm light to emphasize the existing structures.
Collaboration is usually required in the performance of the work, with one person creating light figures and structures while the other operates the camera.
The work combines many self-taught methods of creating imagery using lasers, custom made LED POV brushes and wands, power drills, handheld RGB flashlights, fiber optics, and even lasers to create a meaningful connection of time and space that embodies how people feel.
Putting energy into moving the camera by stroking lights,[clarification needed] making patterns and laying down backgrounds can create abstract artistic images.
A distinction can be made between light painting and light drawings or subgroups of this type of work; In the 1960s and 1970s a row of computer-controlled light sources attached to a stick was waved back-and-forth or spun (by hand or on a motor) to sequentially "imprint" upon the naked eye (or cameras) images, text, graphics, and graphs (plots of mathematical or recorded or live functions), originally using incandescent lamps at high voltage for quick response, and this system was called S.W.I.M.
[40] This technology is used commercially so that designers and engineers can visualize and understand a complete electric vehicle powertrain, and not just the motor to which the S.W.I.M.
[47] A two-dimensional POV display is often accomplished by means of rapidly moving a single row of LEDs along a linear or circular path.
[citation needed] The effect is that the image is perceived as a whole by the viewer as long as the entire path is completed during the visual persistence time of the human eye.
[51] Other sources of light including candles, matches, fireworks, lighter flints, steel wool, glowsticks, and poi are also popular.
These devices are often Arduino-controlled LED arrays that can render images that could not be made by drawing in the air with a single light source alone.
These high-speed POV LED wands, whips, and other flow tools are very effectively adapted as light painting brushes due to their focus on usability and maneuverability.
Their utility is often further enhanced by the integration of accelerometers, remote control systems, as well as durability leading to much more comfort in creating complex imagery.
