20 Beautiful Examples of Light Graffiti

20 Beautiful Examples of Light Graffiti

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

Light Painting by rafoto

Orbing by Marc B.B

Orbing by Marc B.B

Play with Light by ddqhu

Play with Light by ddqhu

Light Graffiti by Lightmark

Light Graffiti by Lightmark

Poseidon by Eric Staller

Poseidon by Eric Staller

Singer by versi16

Singer by versi16

Light Painting by Toby Keller

Light Painting by Toby Keller

Botanical by Michael Bosanko

Botanical by Michael Bosanko

Max Ophuels Preis by Lichtfaktor

Max Ophuels Preis by Lichtfaktor

Under My Umbrella by Jacob Carter

Under My Umbrella by Jacob Carter

Sax A Phone by Eran Hakim

Sax A Phone by Eran Hakim

Window Dressing by Eric Staller

Window Dressing by Eric Staller

Blinder by M R I

Blinder by M R I

Snakes on a Pain by El Endemoniau

Snakes on a Pain by El Endemoniau

Rockstar by Simon Dehn

Rockstar by Simon Dehn

Air Fireball by Ben

Air Fireball by Ben

Neon BMX by Sumthin’ Luv

Neon BMX by Sumthin Luv

Pac-Man Light Graffiti by robokon_gt

Pac-Man Light Graffiti by robokon_gt

Waste Removal by The Path of Light

Waste Removal by The Path of Light

Armchair Alien by Michael Bosanko

Armchair Alien by Michael Bosanko

For more inspiration, check out: Light Graffiti Cars

  1. 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?

  2. 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.

  3. julesandrebrown

    Wow !!!!! I WANT TO DO THIS?!?!?!
    How do I do it?

  4. 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 ?

  5. C's

    WAAAAH.. I love this examples.
    Nice collection. Thanks

  6. DoubleA.

    You should check this thread as well if your interested in this type of photography.

    http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpainted/

  7. Norbert

    Maybe my work fit to this topic too

    http://www.norphos.com/paint/

    All done using light. Not much postproduction done.

  8. dave

    These can all be photoshop, henceforth, what is the point?

  9. 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.

  10. Anukul

    Very very Beautiful & Creative.

    Cheers!

  11. 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!

  12. Josh Wilder

    Wow, truly amazing.

    jess

  13. 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.

  14. oyunlar

    supper thankss :)

  15. Andy

    Wow Dave… wow.

  16. Elaine

    Wow this is amazing . . . love it!

  17. Richi

    Cool pictures, wish they had more quality.

  18. chibbert

    Light painter since 2006, check out my Light is Life series. Light characters in Paris !
    http://www.christopher-hibbert.com/index-us.html

  19. Peach

    This isn’t a trick of photography, but it is light graffiti – check it out:
    http://random-international.com/temporary-graffiti/

  20. Leion

    Very cool! I like all of them! Someday I will make a good light picture as well…

  21. Gwen Bacilla

    I love the light graffiti pics! Keep it up!

  22. 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

  23. Art Who?

    Dave –

    Art is not just a name before Garfunkel.

  24. Bunny got Blog

    These are great,love your creativity.

  25. 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

  26. Monirul Pathan

    These are quite inspirational!

    Heres another!
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladeda/2520673010/sizes/o/

    Enjoy!

  27. 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!!!

  28. Peter

    How is this “Graffiti” if it’s not even permanent or on any property?

  29. 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!

  30. kiran

    Very interesting.Thanks…

  31. Diegoz

    Awesome!

  32. Jammy

    Hey, nice post…

    Just awesome :-)

    Keep going

  33. 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…

  34. 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/

  35. 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.

  36. pantless crab

  37. Gromitch

    Really amazing creative images!!!

  38. 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……

  39. 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!

  40. sums

    wow this is amazing… really this is cool i love the umbella one and the snake one a lot

  41. Phillip Gibb

    incredible.
    were all these a single exposure?

    Phill

  42. 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

  43. 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?

  44. Laser Animation

    These are really incredible.

    As a laser show producer I am always fascinated by light and what can be done with it. I may look into doing something like this myself.

    Light art rocks.

    Tim

  45. ghprod

    Really good!!

    armchair really smooth paint!

    high technic photos!

  46. timmy

    very nice ya….

  47. ben

    great post ,very beautiful

  48. Sharon

    AWESOME IMAGES!!!!
    If you have any tips for an amateur photographer on how I can get those kinds of images.. PLEASE tell me your secret.
    Just AWESOME!

  49. iLeiti

    NICE ART. !

  50. jess

    those were SWEET! check mine out!!!

  51. yhinz

    wow!! light painting sure is fascinating!!

  52. omats

    GREAT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  53. moazzam

    great pictures, i have never seen like dis before
    keep it up

    :)

  54. ether

    the link is a long exposure that two friends and I made one night.

  55. Scott Bittinger

  56. Michael

    Ah i love love love this technique. I’ve made entire scenes (unfortunately i was working alone so i did multiple exposures and ps’ed them all together in the post. i know, i’m ashamed :( haha). The possibilities are literally endless when it comes to thing like this.
    and Dave, yes, you could do this in photoshop. you can make ANYTHING in photoshop. but that’s not the point. take some time to try this, it feels really good when you get it all finished up and you see the end result. Try and not rely so heavily on photoshop, there have been artists who achieved great things without computers in general, letalone photoshop.

  57. lulu

    try not to be so bitter about it dave. art is expression, freedom. i could not do any of this in photoshop to save my life. and in a lot of way, i hope i never can. i do it the old fashioned way- move lights around while the camera is still processing. its so much better to just do it yourself.. people dont get that these days. why paint a portrait of something or someone, if you can pay for someone to do it for you at michaels with a machine that will print your photo and texture it? why ever draw another pencil sketch if you can draw and bend your way around photo shop? two reasons.
    1. technology is not something you can feel or touch.. if i make something in photoshop i can copy it thousands of times, send it to hundreds of people and have half of them saying they made it to someone else before i even get up from the chair at my desk.
    2. the product, if you make it yourself, will always have your imprint on it. when youre done, you can feel a sense of pride in it, whatever it may be. people pay thousands of dollars for paintings because they are originals, crafted by artists who took their time, effort and soul to paint it. walk the streets, put them in galleries, ship them off….
    and the feeling you get when you do it
    *breathes in*
    every artist, of any type, knows what i am speaking of.
    and photoshop can be useful in someways. but overall man, you gotta respect the older way of things. people are losing grip with everything concrete in this life. its slipping away.. and before we know it all we are going to have is a computer chip that lets us be a computer chip.

  58. kang

    i agree lulu…
    ppl now and days rely soo much on computers they forget the originiality the simplicity and love of creating something from the heart..with your own hands and thoughts!!!

  59. ariel

    I want to do this, and i have absolutely no idea where to begin.. So please help me! This looks absolutely amazing, an inspiring!!

  60. J-Man

    Lulu,

    You are so right. I had never thought about it in that way, but now…

    I totally agree.

    Thank you :)

  61. rachel

    For all those wondering how to make these photos, it isn’t really that hard.
    All you do is on your camera (it doesn’t have to be a DSLR, though it does help) find where you can adjust the shutter speed. Sometimes, on a digital camera it can only be around 8 seconds, but that it is enough.
    Put the camera somewhere steady (a tripod, chair, the ground) and make sure it doesnt move, or else the photo will be blurry :(
    Press the button, then you or a friend stands in front of the camera waving the torch around like a madman as it takes.
    It is so much fun!

  62. Flo

    Very cool! Love it…the armchair alien is the best one in my eyes. These examples have inspired me to do something similar on my websites.

  63. shalini

    good collection to expand…………….

  64. rohini

    its………..simply…….awesme

  65. Vladi

    orbing is awesome! what kind of light design was used to make that one?

  66. Beck

    breath taking stuff

    i just wanna go experiment with my friends

    i found a passion for photography again

  67. arvind

    The best.your mind flying like bird & swimming like fish .EXPECTING more.

  68. Chantel

    i’ve been saying im going to practice my light writing for the longest now i really have to those pics are awsome

  69. JTKirk

    @ dave … way to use a big word incorrectly. henceforth means ‘from now on’. you should have stuck with ‘hence’ or perhaps ‘thus’, but instead you made yourself look like a tool. back to school, junior.

  70. rozi

    they were intresting.

  71. Thomas

    Here is my contribution of light experiments :)

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/audiotribe/sets/72157609076532275/

  72. rain

    The fourth image AS like therr is a Ghost in it

  73. angel woody

    how do you do that?!?!!?!? its awesome

  74. Snoopy

    amazing luminografie :-) GJ

  75. Linn

    omg, they are like amazing!! <3

  76. Momo

    WOAH! These are awesome! I love this. I want to do this…But some of them were fake XD

  77. heh

    @ angel woody just slow down ur shutter speed on a camera. and draw what u want and it will take the pic

  78. fakhri

    the 3rd is creepy

  79. Drogated

    where can i share my fotos?

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