Unsure of which direction to light paint your subject? Sometimes, your environment can offer a suggestion for creating more natural and pleasing night photography photos!
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 paintbrush, 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.
Look for the light!
Before setting up your camera, walk around. Look at your subject. Also, take note of where any ambient light is coming from, even if it’s faint. Notice how the light might be falling on the subject.
If you wish, these can offer contextual clues for where to stand when you are light painting. Where is the light coming from?
Light painting from the same direction as the brightest light source
Sometimes, we want to emulate where the light is coming from. That light source might be something as faint as the Milky Way. Or it might be the moon, streetlights, or light pollution from over the mountains. Either way, we may want to make it look like the light illuminating our subject is coming from that direction. Psychologically, this can make the subject look more natural, more part of the surroundings.
This is obviously a little easier if the light source, such as the moon, is lower in the horizon. But regardless, we are just trying to create some directionality.
Stand at about the same angle as the light source. You can often determine the angle if the light is casting shadows. You can mimic the angle of the other shadows, then illuminate your light accordingly. Of course, it doesn’t have to be exactly the same. Use this as a guideline!
The scorpion photo example
In the scorpion photo, there are two main light sources: the light pollution from over the mountains, and the moon. Both are coming from camera left.
Taking a cue from them, I light painted the enormous scorpion sculpture from the same approximate angle as the light pollution since that would be visible in the photo. I stood far away, making sure to stand out of the frame of the photo. Then, shielding my handheld LED light, I slowly illuminated the sculpture. Notice how the illumination is all coming from the left. You can see the shadows and the detail from the scorpion as it is facing the brighter lights.
It’s not always necessary to light paint from the direction of the biggest light source. Artistically, you might not want that. You may want to create your own light sources or feel. Or your subject might look really great if you light paint at unnatural angles. Or from multiple angles.
A little bit more about the photo
Because I was teaching a night photography workshop at the time, I decided to keep the camera clicking away to create star trails over the very top of the scorpion. I placed the North Star just over the highest point of the scorpion to accentuate that while also having it perfectly centered in the photo.
Borrego Springs
The sculpture is one of about 129 sculptures in Borrego Springs. All of these were created by master sculptor Ricardo Breceda. They are available for public viewing if you respect the private land that it’s on as well as the town surrounding it. Below are some more (mostly night) photos from Borrego Springs.