Painting with Light

Painting with Light


**Update: Check out the LICHFAKTOR interview we did for more photos and a new video.

A number of graffiti artists have been tagging everything thought to be impossible without being caught. Well -- it's actually not illegal for them. They're not using paint. As it turns out, time-lapse photography isn't just for blooming flowers, skyscapes, or brake lights anymore. Termed Light Graffiti, tag artists are taking their colour to an all new level.

arrow light graffiti

Let There Be Light

Using an exposure of about ten-to-thirty seconds and a tripod for best results, Light Graffiti artists start at the first click. Glowsticks, flashlights, reflectors, and even torches have been used as mediums to create all sorts of designs and tags, as the artist becomes a ghost of a blur, if visible at all.

No Harm, No Foul

Any person, place, or thing can become a central piece of the art. Because all it really takes is less than a minute, light tagging phone booth can be just as easy as something in the privacy of home, though staying home is certainly less fun. Some 'hardcore' taggers are set on Light Graffiti not actually being graffiti because it doesn't have a physical presence, but after seeing photos of it, it's not too different from tagging a building and having it covered or removed the next day.

light guy

arrow tower

walking the dog

See some more for yourself over at this wicked decent Flickr photo set.

See if you can make some yourself. The general rule of Light Graffiti seems to be experimentation and play, so, if your first 'tag' isn't brilliance, keep at it.


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35 Comments
Showing 1 - 30 of 35 Comments

indiethought

Posted 9 Jul, 2007
Awesome! I love it. I never would've thought of doing something so brilliant with just light and a camera.

artsykerley

Posted 9 Jul, 2007

ruecian

Posted 9 Jul, 2007
Wow, nice one, artsykerley. Thanks for sharing.

retsof

Posted 9 Jul, 2007
Some college students were arrested for using a slide projector to project slides on the side of a white house next door. Well...they were slides of nudes....pornographic light painting....

R@100

Posted 9 Jul, 2007
wonderful

supermikeske

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
We were already doing that years ago! And in a dark room, you can have even more fun by shining your flash light on certain objects or body parts to make impossible compositions (for example making a person with 6 arms by having him stand still with stretched arms, illuminating his whole body, then let him move his arms to a different position, then shining the flashlight only on his arms, etc.). Or you can put someone's head on someone else's body, etc.

How do I upload pictures here?

FreakCERS

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
My kid brother (then 14) did one of these 2 years ago - I think this is the first time since I've seen it.. Very cool look...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71165847@N00/269672703

ampop

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
check out the tagtool for more paintings with light: http://www.tagtool.org/?cat=19

jamesspratt

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
Can you give us an idea of all the setitng you used on your SLRs?

Great stuff, got to give this a go.

dylan

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
this is amazing - a lot more creative than what I was able to achieve on my Canon compact. Inspiring me to take out my new Sony dSLR and see what I can do :)

optimuscrime

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
an 'all new level'?

http://dsc.gc.cuny.edu/part/part8/articles/gr/picasso2.jpg

picasso's space drawings are circa 1949. tout est vieux.

josefresco

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
Incredible uses of color and light, a treat for the eyes.

New to the subject I did some Google searching and found a Wired article:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/graffiti.html

As well as a DIY at MakeZine

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/07/light_graffiti.html

ruecian

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
Great image, certainly, but I think it's becoming something else, is all. The idea might be old, like dark room experiments, but it's certainly evolving with the coming generations.

ms

Posted 10 Jul, 2007
Great article - thanx!

lizcrimson

Posted 11 Jul, 2007
cool as always.

SugaBooga

Posted 13 Jul, 2007
I do that too from time to time, but mine are not that detailed (.___.) these are just great :D

cleriee

Posted 15 Jul, 2007
... amazing...

jwebber

Posted 4 Aug, 2007
Incredible! I can't imagine how much time that must have taken.

urbanlatinfemale

Posted 14 Aug, 2007
A flickr group called Camera Toss Pretty self-explanatory.

pbrosset

Posted 7 Jan, 2008
Great article, thanks for the link to lichtfaktor's photos, they're simply mind blowing.
I tried a bit myself too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnackgnackgnack/sets/72157603662652650/

jonms83

Posted 7 Feb, 2008

jo beezy

Posted 24 Mar, 2008
Thats killer i love everything about it, but is that just one movement non stop? or different movements layered together?

versi1983

Posted 30 Mar, 2008
check my myspace to see more light graff, light painting
myspace.com/versi1983

MOLE_570

Posted 4 Apr, 2008
light art

hope you like one i did a while back when i was in college was fun too create

damien

graffiti

Posted 24 Apr, 2008
nice but not much graffiti

SOLA_UK

Posted 24 May, 2008
Hey,
Checkout these LIGHTBOMBING pics from SOLA....

http://www.lightbombing.com


Photobucket





Photobucket


Photobucket


Photobucket


http://www.lightbombing.com

OtteauxGillen

Posted 7 Jan, 2009
super cool

clairebl20

Posted 5 Jul, 2009
Wow! these are amazing!

arabbit

Posted 20 Aug, 2009
JZ

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