Last night I tried the painting with light technique after seeing JMC's tutorial on Simple Photo TV. It was a little harder than I thought. My subjects wouldn't stay still enough during the exposure which resulted in blurry eyes. It took a bunch of takes to get the images below. I almost got what I wanted. I think I needed a stronger flash light.

What do you think?

Here's my assistant "G" sitting in for the test






My exposure settings for all 3 shots were: F/13, 20sec, ISO 100 , D200 + 24mm lens

Thanks,

Sky

I think that if you have to do a lot of takes, then it's not really beneficial to you or the client. I use the paint technique with longer shutters of the reception venue and stuff. I really am getting to where I don't even like the technique, especially with the higher ISO, available. I think keeping it simple like Zack's techniques with one light is just as good, and you can achieve more consistent results. SKY as far as the photographs they rock, but I am curious if you actually put this technique to work.

Nicely done Sky!! I really like how these turned out! The paint with light gives such a cool look, I really dont have the right words to describe the effect. I could see your challenge with keeping the subject still enough since I think most painting with light shots that I have seen usually involve a reclining pose which has got to be easier than the ones you did here. We were going to try this over the weekend, but just never got to it. I am interested to see if my little flashlight will be enough to do this, or if a big flashlight will be too much light. Thanks for sharing these!

Thanks for the comments guys. I didn't put this technique to work on paying clients. The models were friends of mine who jumped at the idea I was doing a test shoot . I'm actually practicing so I can try it out later in another location. It takes practice, but it's a fun technique. I did learn that it helps if you have another person paint the background with a second flash light while you paint your subject. I found myself running out of time when I went to paint the background wall in.