You don’t need to light paint everything to create drama with vehicles. Sometimes, less really is more. Here, we create jaw-dropping rim lighting while keeping most of the truck in mysterious shadow with this night photo.
What is light painting?
The term is often used loosely to describe any addition of light to a night photograph. Really, though, light painting is a technique that uses a handheld light source to illuminate a scene during a long exposure. Your flashlight is your paint brush, and you are quite literally painting the scene with light. Similar to a film director, you control what you illuminate, and what you keep in shadow using your handheld light. Night photographers have used this technique for many decades.
Let’s see how I went about light painting this image.
Inspired by that beautiful moonlight
As I walked past the truck, I was particularly inspired by how beautiful the moon shone on the top. In fact, I first attempted to photograph this truck by not adding any additional light to the top. However, it was not quite bright or dramatic enough. I decided to mimic the moon with my own light painting to increase the contrast and drama.
Three steps to a dramatic shadowy night truck with rim lighting
Step one: Mimicking the moon
The way the moon was lighting up the top lines of the truck were beautiful. I ran up a hill and shined my ProtoMachines LED2 light down on the truck. To mimic the moonlight as best I could, I illuminated the truck at as close of an angle to the moonlight as possible, which is why I positioned myself high up on the hill. I kept moving the light as usual, painting on the light for about ten seconds. I used a warm white light for this and everything else.
Step two: Mimicking the moon from the back
After running back down the hill, I stood in back of the truck. Holding the light as high as I could, I illuminated the back wheel well and the bed of the truck. This was again just to illuminate the outside lines of the truck. This mimicked the moon somewhat as well, also creating some rim lighting to create more drama and “pull” the truck farther from the background.
Step three – illuminating the cab of the truck
The truck would have looked good already. But I wanted one last detail: the interior of the truck. I stuck my arm inside the driver’s side window of the truck. Holding the light down below so it would not shine directly into the lens, I moved it around, allowing it to reflect up and illuminate the ceiling and everywhere else inside the cab.
Where was this photographed?
This was part of a night photography workshop at Nelson Ghost Town, Nevada, and Goffs, CA. We are going to be holding another workshop there in October. It was sold out within four days of announcing this. However, you may get on the waiting list. Of course, you may also join us for our other night photography workshops, including Joshua Tree National Park and Borrego Springs in California in June 2024.