Light graffiti, also known as light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera.
This post features examples of beautiful and creative light graffiti.
Light Painting by rafoto [link]
Orbing by Marc B.B [link]
Play with Light by ddqhu [link]
Light Graffiti by Lightmark [link]
Poseidon by Eric Staller [link]
Singer by versi16 [link]
Light Painting by Toby Keller [link]
Botanical by Michael Bosanko [link]
Max Ophuels Preis by Lichtfaktor [link]
Under My Umbrella by Jacob Carter [link]
Sax A Phone by Eran Hakim [link]
Window Dressing by Eric Staller [link]
Blinder by M R I [link]
Snakes on a Pain by El Endemoniau [link]
Rockstar by Simon Dehn [link]
Air Fireball by Ben [link]
Neon BMX by Sumthin’ Luv [link]
Pac-Man Light Graffiti by robokon_gt [link]
Waste Removal by The Path of Light [link]
Armchair Alien by Michael Bosanko [link]
smmshad
Air Fireball looks like a Kamehameha from Dragonball Z, and btw, these things are awesome. Is it possible to create these in real life and actually use them instead of being graffiti?
Jan 8th, 2009
Kid C
Oh sweeet.. Great post.
I just ordered a whole bunch of coloured LED’s to have a play with this stuff.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Jan 8th, 2009
julesandrebrown
Wow !!!!! I WANT TO DO THIS?!?!?!
How do I do it?
Jan 8th, 2009
thomas
julesandrebrown, just use long exposure, you might need to get a DSLR if you don’t have one.
BTW on that Air fireball by ben, how did he manage to freeze them in the air while using long exposure ?
Jan 9th, 2009
C's
WAAAAH.. I love this examples.
Nice collection. Thanks
Jan 9th, 2009
DoubleA.
You should check this thread as well if your interested in this type of photography.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpainted/
Jan 9th, 2009
Norbert
Maybe my work fit to this topic too
http://www.norphos.com/paint/
All done using light. Not much postproduction done.
Jan 9th, 2009
dave
These can all be photoshop, henceforth, what is the point?
Jan 9th, 2009
chad
Thomas you can do a long exposure and do a flash of light at the start and draw with the lights afterwards.
check out a set me and some friends did a few years ago..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bantamdraper/sets/72157594377496552/
although clearly not as refined as the ones above its still a fun thing to mess with.
Jan 9th, 2009
Anukul
Very very Beautiful & Creative.
Cheers!
Jan 9th, 2009
technology freak
sweet! i love it, because it can also be a good excusa for friends to get together and have fun with lights, lovely pictures!
Jan 9th, 2009
Josh Wilder
Wow, truly amazing.
jess
Jan 9th, 2009
Jorge
Very nice collection! As Chad says, use a flash light at the start of the long exposure in order to get the air fireball effect.
Jan 9th, 2009
oyunlar
supper thankss :)
Jan 9th, 2009
Andy
Wow Dave… wow.
Jan 9th, 2009
Elaine
Wow this is amazing . . . love it!
Jan 9th, 2009
Richi
Cool pictures, wish they had more quality.
Jan 9th, 2009
chibbert
Light painter since 2006, check out my Light is Life series. Light characters in Paris !
http://www.christopher-hibbert.com/index-us.html
Jan 9th, 2009
Peach
This isn’t a trick of photography, but it is light graffiti - check it out:
http://random-international.com/temporary-graffiti/
Jan 9th, 2009
Leion
Very cool! I like all of them! Someday I will make a good light picture as well…
Jan 9th, 2009
Gwen Bacilla
I love the light graffiti pics! Keep it up!
Jan 9th, 2009
kristy
you might also like this animation made with candle light - something so beautiful about moving light images without any vfx….
http://twoifbysee.blogspot.com/2008/12/electrobel-lights-candle-for-holidays.html
Jan 9th, 2009
Art Who?
Dave -
Art is not just a name before Garfunkel.
Jan 9th, 2009
Bunny got Blog
These are great,love your creativity.
Jan 9th, 2009
nobody
On the mid air I can think of a way to do this. The way I would do it is a double exposure. Take the shot of the in air then take another long one.
I would play with the order of the shots
Jan 9th, 2009
Monirul Pathan
These are quite inspirational!
Heres another!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladeda/2520673010/sizes/o/
Enjoy!
Jan 10th, 2009
yaused2bgood
There’s a way to do this w/o spending a lot of money and/or resources. Drop a hit of double-dipped blotter, light a cigarette in the restroom, turn out the light and wave yr stogy in front of the mirror as fast as you safely can and you’ll begin to see the tracers….the only problem is that these elusive boogers have never been caught on film….only by the human mind. Have fun!!!
Jan 10th, 2009
Peter
How is this “Graffiti” if it’s not even permanent or on any property?
Jan 11th, 2009
haroon
dude it’s developed in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP using high
veloctiy light plugins using real pictures then
blur at the end so u won’t even recognize any
mistake!
Jan 11th, 2009
kiran
Very interesting.Thanks…
Jan 12th, 2009
Diegoz
Awesome!
Jan 12th, 2009
Jammy
Hey, nice post…
Just awesome :-)
Keep going
Jan 13th, 2009
Paul
The way he did the freezing in mid air is not necessarily double exposure as much as using the flash… if it’s dark enough, he jumps at the start of the photo when the flash goes, thereby exposing the scene at the beginning and allowing them to move around without getting exposed…
Jan 19th, 2009
El Endemoniau
A friend (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcipriani/) show me yesterday this article… and i am really suprised to see one of my pictures. Long exposures are fun and adictive. It’s only need any camera with manual mode (not DSLR only).
If you want some tips, tricks, tools or tutorials take a look here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightjunkies/
Jan 19th, 2009
Photoshop??
Photoshop? Are we so jaded as a society that you think you can even do this in Ps? Please - learn a bit about photography and art in general. Did Picasso do this in Ps when he light painted the image of the bull? I think not.
Jan 22nd, 2009
pantless crab
sprakler and a star filter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pantlesscrab/3119684796/
Jan 23rd, 2009
Gromitch
Really amazing creative images!!!
Jan 23rd, 2009
carlos
Dave,
I assume you also eat a tasteless paste that has all the nutrients your body needs and ride a bicycle everywhere you go…..
Oh, and it’s “hence”. “Henceforth” means from this point on……
Jan 24th, 2009
Ekkimus
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Light-cellar/164379
I tried to take some pics similar to the guitar thing some months ago… I really like that style!
Jan 25th, 2009
sums
wow this is amazing… really this is cool i love the umbella one and the snake one a lot
Jan 31st, 2009
Phillip Gibb
incredible.
were all these a single exposure?
Phill
Feb 6th, 2009
moody
dog this is some crazy lookin graffiti. im tryin to get some. but yea this messes wit your head so bad if you were messed up.
moody
May 27th, 2009
Deep
These are simply fantastic. Nice deal of creative minds. Few of these can be made downloadable with the copyrights intact. People love it. What say?
Jun 25th, 2009