“ S H A D O W P A I N T I N G ”
N i g h t s c a p e s
A technique
that is a variant of light painting that I have been developing is something I
call “Shadowpainting”. This unique backlighting technique enables the creation
of deep contrasting shadows and depth in a scene by utilizing RGB lights, light
poles, and a wireless control system where the photographer can preview and instantly
control the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture remotely. Shadowpainting also consist of the photographer “Colorscapeing” the Nightscape scene by utilizing a
complementing color scheme to the subject being filmed.
Basic
equipment: A mobile RGB LED with long light pole, a camera that can be
controlled through a smartphone/wifi. Most recent DSLR’s will have wifi as well
as a downloadable app that will enable remote control of the camera. One can
use wifi or Bluetooth, however you will get better range with wifi and that is
what I always use.
The actual equipment I used with these shots is a Cannon 200D/SL2, GVM RGB 7s light, monfrotto tripod and a Samsung 10s smartphone that is used to operate the camera remotly while filming and repositioning the lights.
Step 1
FINDING A SCENE
First locate
the scene you want to film. Desirable targets for me usually are historic in
nature. It is also good to select a subject that has some object behind and to
the side of the selected subject. This could be trees, or just about anything
really. It is the objects that surround the foreground subject that you will create
most of your deep and best contrasting shadows. An example of a subject that
would NOT make for good shadowpainting would be a small barn sitting in the
middle of a field with nothing around it. This would make for a nice light
painted scene however not so much for shadowpainting.
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A good example of Shadowpainting from behind the subject
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Important tip: One thing
you want to look for in determining a scene is to try and find a subject that
you can place your light inside of your subject. For example, a car, a boat, a small abandoned house, etc. Finding a subject like this will allow you to film from
the inside shooting your light outside, usually through a doorway or window. This
also will let you expand you colorscape because you can choose what color to
paint the interior with, here again is where the complementary color match
comes into play. What I did was have a color wheel guide on my cell phone and reference
it often when deciding the color palate to use.
Subjects like
this REALLY come to life when shooting from the interior. These are the type of
subjects I look for the most. They are not always possible to find, but worth
the search and time to find them.
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| These are two good examples of painting from the interior shooting out to the exterior bringing life to the scene. |
A) Once you have found the scene you
want to Shadowpaint, find the best composition and figure the placement of the
camera, this is done during the day. It is important to do this step during the
day because you need to scout out the area you will be positioning with the RGB light and determining areas that you can backlight the main subject, or subjects in
the scene. When you find the locations to film to the side and behind the
foreground subject, mark them during the day, just be sure you can remember
where they are so at night you can easily find them.
B) The other reason to do this planning
during the day is because you will need to determine your color palate or “Colorscape”
for which you will paint with. Here you can decide what color you want the main
subject to be, then determine complementary colors for the scene. Remember what
colors you decide during the day, that takes the guessing out during the night.
IMPORTANT
If not on public property, ALWAYS get permission to film at the location you want to shoot. NEVER take for grantit that it is ok to film, get permission first.
Note: Basically, with proper planning, there is little to no guess work
regarding the composition and lighting at night. Once on location, the only
real adjustment you may want to make will be minor adjustment with camera
placement. Once you are on location and ready to film and everything is set,
SUPER lock down the camera on the tripod so it cannot move at all.
Step 2
As soon as
it is astronomical twilight or night, turn on the camera and smartphone. Wirelessly
connect the two and open the camera app so you can control the camera from the
phone. Now set your proper exposure and aperture and iso based on the available
natural light in the scene. Once the settings are where you think they should
be, fire off several test exposures without any lighting. Check to make sure
the tripod/camera is level, examine your test exposures carefully. Once
satisfied, now it is time to start Shadowpainting.
Now
remember, you already have the colorscape design figured out, so you really can
move pretty fast capturing the exposures.
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A good example of finding a subject that you can shoot from the interior, creating a lot of life to the scene.
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How to
Shadowpaint?
Here are
some important tips. For one, take your RGB light attached to the light pole
and start by filming behind and to the side of the foreground subject. ½ of the
exposures should be facing away from the foreground subject. The remaining
exposures film to the back side, and side of the foreground subject. Use your
smartphone to trigger the camera and view the scene remotely.
If you want
a brighter light in certain exposures, simply decrease shutter speed.
Here is a
range of shutter speeds I use, and ISO is usually always set to 100. Usually
f2.8 Aperture.
4 sec 6 sec
8 sec 10 sec 15 sec 20 sec &
30 sec
(TIP: If
you need to start shooting before it is night, but close, you can raise the aperture
which will allow you to decrease your shutter speed so you can start light
painting. I have had to do this sometimes when I have a time limit of where I
have been given permission to film, like parks for example.)
While
selecting shots you will want to position the RGB light in different angels,
like turning the light pole down so the RGB light is just setting off the
ground. This will create fantastic shadows. If there are trees behind the foreground
subject, definitely extend the pole and take exposures facing away from (Or
behind) the subject. Also take the pole and extend the light into the various
tree limbs and take exposures towards the foreground subject, the side, as well
as behind. If there are trees and shrubbery behind a subject I am shooting,
usually I will take between 8 to 15 exposures just in that area.
Next move to
the sides of the foreground subject and light the subject with the selected pre
chosen color, take exposures towards the subject as well as away. Keep in mind
to vary the height of the light from right on the ground, to as high as the
light pole will extend. By extending the light pole to it’s fullest and holding
the pole above my head at arms length, I get a reach with the RGB light of over
15 feet. Many times I will take the light and extend it far deep into the
trees that are behind the foreground subject. Doing so, will take several
exposures while repositioning the light. This creates fantastic deep shadows
behind your foreground subject. Think of the light pole as a tool that will
enable you to put the light in places that normally would be difficult to do.
NEVER
shadowpaint directly head on in front of the camera facing the subject. ALWAYS
film from the sides and behind. At most facing the front of the subject, you
will want to paint at the quarters on both sides of the subject.
Preview the
exposures in the camera but be sure not to move the camera in anyway.
How many
exposures to take? That totally depends on the subject and scene. Depending on
the size of the subject I will film anywhere from 10 to 120 exposures. Usually
the higher number of exposures is due to the size of the scene. The bigger the
scene, than usually the more exposures are necessary. On average, I will shoot
between 40 to 80 exposures. Creating the shadows takes more exposures because
your basically shooting at least two or three addition exposures ( facing away
and behind the subject) than one would ordinarily do with standard light
painting techniques.
Once you
have completed all your main exposures, shoot some safety shots using a
flashlight to paint some of the areas that you may fear you have missed. Once
in a while, I will use one of the exposures in the final edit. They are good to
have.
NOTE: Remember because you are using a RGB light, you can use the colors and positioning to bounce light off the ground or subjects, to help direct the viewers eye of where you want them to focus on. This is a handy thing to remember when composing the shot. In the field I have a few times almost given up on the composition because I just could not frame it the way I wanted, then only to realize I can use lighting to direct the viewers eye in the scene, this has saved me on more than one shoot.
In Post
Once back to
post processing, import all images into a script in Photoshop, then highlight
all layers, blend in lighten mode. Then go through one layer at a time, adding
a layer and adjusting opacity, and any color adjustments. Camera RAW Filer is
my go-to. There are plenty of online tutorials on how to stack layers should
you not be familiar.
Also as you go through the layers use a layer mask to mask out anything unwanted like the lights themselves. Also be carefull to look at each layer and see if the light is effecting parts of the image that you dont want it to do. If it is, then mask it out.
Once you
adjust all the layers in Photoshop, flatten the image. Now you will make final
global adjustments like brightness and contrast. Also this is where you can
look at the image and if there are some colors you want to pop more, (saturate
or de saturate) Use the camera RAW filter and use the color mixer.
At this
point, wrapping up, look at the image and see if there is any effects you may
want to add such as light rays, fog, lens flair, etc. If you are not familiar
on how to do these things, just google online free tutorials using photoshop on youtube.
Shadowpainting is a great tecknique for a lot of subjects and is something I also do on a lot of foregrounds in my Milky Way filming. For filming lanscape Milky Way images (widefield) I use a Ioptron Sky Tracker Polar Aligned, usually with an 11-16mm Tokina Lens wrapped with a lens muff.
All the
best, good luck and clear skies.
Godspeed,
Jim Baugh
Jim Baugh
Outdoors TV
jbotv@outlook.com
Examples
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| An example of a Shadowpainted foreground with an astro shot composited. 25 foreground exposures shot at 11mm, 3 background exposures shot at 320mm. Notice the white light coming out of the hatch. An example of extending the light pole to its fullest, inserting the RGB light through the hull of the boat and positioning it inside under the hatch with the light pointing outwards. This was a real shot, the moon did rise right over the wrecked boat, and it was that color. The full moon over Oyster VA/Atlantic Ocean Halloween night 2020 |
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| A good example of bouncing a blue light on the ground to direct the viewers focus to the tractor at the top left of the image. |
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| Tangier Island Chesapeake Bay November 2020 Docks and Milky Way, foreground was 35 exposures, Milky Way Single 5 minute exposure tracked. |
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| An example of having to start filming at a higher F stop to reduce light, so the exposure time could be increased. This shot started at around 1-2 second exposure. Then the F stop was decreased and exposure lengthened as the scene became darker. I did this because there were street lights getting ready to turn on that would kill the scene, so had to work fast and cheat the light at the beginning of the shoot. Good thing to know! |
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Jim Baugh pre scouting and ready to film at the National Wildlife Refuge Eastern Shore of Virginia
November 4, 2020
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jbotv@outlook.com
Check out
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This pic is a good example of using the light pole to position the RGB light in places that usually would be very difficult to do.
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| Jim Baugh repositioning the RGB light shadowpainting a nightscape in Magothy Bay. |
