The painting with light technique was first developed by forensic photographers who needed to capture scenes of crime or road accident scenes often in complete darkness with the evidence scattered over a wide area. Moving the evidence was not an option, they wanted to show the scene as a whole and the placements within that scene. To use a flash gun was not very successful because the light falls off very quickly the further it gets from the camera, so further away objects are inadequately lit.
The system they developed was to photograph the scene with the shutter set to open and then to move around the scene with a powerful flashlight highlighting the points they wanted to be clear. Landscape photographers often use a variation on this too by using long shutter speeds and then moving around the foreground with a handheld flash gun firing it off when required to lighten shadows and add texture and interest to the foreground.

But what I going to explain is a simple version that most people will be able to do and achieve some very interesting lighting effects with their existing camera.

Equipment required: Camera that has a long shutter speed setting or B setting, a small keyring torch that focuses to a concentrated beam of light and a subject to photograph.
I am using: Canon G6 compact cam, MAGlite solitaire torch, tripod (a pile of books is just as good).

Technique: Set up your subject in a room that can be blacked out or shoot at night. You want to be able to get to the subject easily, it should be 2 - 3 ft away from any background, it is preferable to have a dark background wall or use a dark fabric.
Set the camera white balance to 'Tungsten' and the ISO to its lowest, then set the camera for its longest shutter speed, mine is 15secs. Set the aperture to the smallest, mine is F8. Set the timer control to a short time delay eg.2secs before it fires the shutter or use a remote control if you have one. Make sure the cameras built in flash is set to off.

Now set your camera upon your tripod or pile of books and frame the subject using a medium zoom amount. If your camera focuses in the dark you're lucky and can leave the cam on AF, but for a lot of people you will need to set the focus now and lock it in focus by pressing the manual focus button.

OK almost ready to shoot, but before you switch out the light focus your torch so that it is the smallest beam as possible.

Switch out the room light and use the torch to find your way to and around the cam.

Press the shutter button or use remote control being careful not to upset anything.

Use the torch to paint light over the subject in the areas where you want it. Try working behind it with backlight etc. but keep out the frame. Use the torch from one side or both and experiment to get the effect you want. Be very careful not to move anything - camera / subject or it will appear blurred.

Almost anything is a suitable subject, in my gallery there is an example of using it on a picture on the wall and flowers. Use it to write things on a blank wall. Use glassware or ornaments for some very interesting compositions. Perhaps a room setting lit in a special way.

Message edited on: 11/27/2005 14:29

And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html