DSLR Light Paintings

30th September 2016

Canon Master photographer Graham Monro shares how easy it is to begin light painting with a DSLR and your smartphone in this simple how-to guide.

 Painting with light is all about your creativity, about playing, about having fun and experimenting.

Getting prepared

1.  Set your tripod and camera up to be in a comfortable position. 
2. Set your camera to manual at a one second time exposure. 
3. Set your aperture to f/8 with a 400 ISO. 

If you're too slow you do more of a time exposure, like two or four seconds or four seconds. If too dark you can just adjust your aperture accordingly.

 So you just keep playing, you just keep doing it until you crack the shot

Start playing

The inspiration for the kind of images that you'll want to capture is words. Start off with symbols such a heart or star. Try shooting in your backyard in darkness to achieve a sense of place. Start off by looking at the images you're recording and adjust your time exposure or aperture to make it slower or darker or lighter. And then just keep doing it until you correct the shot and ready, set, go.

Sharing your images

You'll need your Canon Wi-Fi enabled camera connected via the Canon Connect app to wirelessly transfer all your images to your phone and be up in social media in no time.


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